Gluten Free Bread - baking when travelling

yabbietol

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2014
389
824
93
Queanbeyan NSW
Hello

I am starting a new topic on baking Gluten Free Bread.

To start with I have a genetic condition called Celiac disease, as do several of my cousins. Celtic people have the highest rate of celiac disease in the world. So Australia with its large number of celts has a lot, the number of diagnosed celiacs is about 3 per 100 in Australia. Many people have this condition and are not diagnosed, but around +20% of Australians have the genetic markers. There is also non celiac gluten sensitivity which is still not well understood. Many people also just want to avoid gluten in their diet, this is a bit problematic for genuine celiacs. Celiac's must be totally gluten free and even tiny bits of gluten (e.g. bread crumbs on butter) will make us very sick (stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhoea) and in the long term increase our risk of stomach cancer. So I do not eat gluten and have not intentionally since I was diagnosed in 1997.

http://www.coeliac.org.au/coeliac-disease/

So therefore, we bake our own bread at home and when travelling. Some store bought gluten free bread is OK, much supermarket gluten free (GF) bread tastes very ordinary and is very expensive. After many years of experimenting we settled on a Gluten Free bread mix from Victoria and we bake bread every 2 or 3 days and use a bread maker. Finding the right program on the bread maker is not easy and if you get it wrong the GF bread does not taste very good. If you get it right, really nice bread.

The mix we use is from Victoria and we usually buy 30-40 mixes at a time to save on freight. They used to be made by Springhill Farm (which still sell some nice GF biscuits), but now are made by a different company. It is now called Bakers Magic Gluten Free Flour.

http://decalt.com.au/bakers-magic-gluten-free-flour-shop.

The recipe we use is in two stages:
1. Dry ingredients:
Mix one packet directly in the bread maker pan, add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and one packet of "Tandaco" dry yeast (make sure yeast is GF). Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Wet ingredients:
*boil 200ml of water
*add 250ml of cold water
* then add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
This warm water and vinegar mix is then added to the dry mix in the bread maker pan. Add 1tablespoon of olive oil. Blend with a spatula to make sure no dry ingredients are left in the corners.

Turn on the bread maker; if you have a Sunbeam (BM7850) Smartbake Custom, the next step is easy.
*select program 2 "turbo" and select large size and dark crust option and 2hr 17 min later you should have some very nice GF bread. One extra step is after mixing (20 min) take out mixer blade if removable and just make sure that bread loaf is centred in pan and there are no unmixed ingredients in the corners.

If you have another brand of bread maker if it is programmable, you need to knead for 22min, allow to rise for 50min and bake for 65min. If not programable get as close as you can to these times, sometimes this can be done with varying loaf size and crust colour options. We did this successfully with one of my cousins antique bread maker. You may need to experiment to get it right, but it is worth the effort to get really nice warm GF bread. The loaves keep well for 1 week in fridge of caravan. We toast the bread or zap in microwave to soften when we make sandwiches.

The bread maker works on 240V and we have also run it on our inverter when free camping. The main power usage is when in bake part of cycle and this with solar we can replace the power used easily on a sunny day. The bread can be baked, after doing the mixing and rise in the bread maker, in an oven or BBQ, but we have not done this while travelling.

Hope this helps some celiacs and others who are gluten sensitive who travel in a caravan and want some nice fresh bread.

Regards
Terry
 

BigSkiddy

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2013
888
1,198
93
45
Bargo NSW
My wife and son are both celiac, we'll give it a crack.
We got a heap of the Springhill Farm bread mixes, but always get a big hole in the middle of the loaf.

With so many people going gluten free to be trendy it's hard to determine what is actually celiac suitable. When making enquiries at cafes/restaurant I ask is the food preparation suitable for celiacs. If I get the blank look 'what's a celiac :eek-53:' We move on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: yabbietol

yabbietol

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2014
389
824
93
Queanbeyan NSW
I am under the impression that celiac disease is much more common than 3 per 100 people. When I was first diagnosed it was 1 per 100, now higher. Also if you have genetic linked relatives who are celiacs chance of celiac disease rises to about 10%. So as we did let your genetic relatives know and when they get tested and diagnosed they will be really grateful, because a whole lot of ongoing health problems will be sorted.

I think the hole in your Springhill loaf is probably due to collapse after rising. Most non GF breads rise once and then are knocked down and rise for a second time. Most pre-prgammed bread makers do two rises and a knock down, even their GF programs. If you do this with the Spring Hill (Bakers Magic) mixes that will collapse in the middle. The main thing is to ensure the bread rises once and is not knocked down, so only three steps knead, rise and bake. If you remove the paddle just pull it out after mixing and kneading, do not take it out if the bread has already risen, wait till it bakes then dig it out of the cooked loaf. When we pull out the paddle after 22 min we often add a little extra olive oil on the outside of the mix to make the loaf browner.

We eat out occasionally, but are really careful, we find most Indian (no Naan bread) and Thai (no soy dishes) restaurants are good and Chinese are not (they often use wheaten cornflour as a thickener). We have found a very good Thai (Rose Garden West Dubbo) across the road form the mid city caravan park in Dubbo NSW and the Punjabi Hut in Queanbeyan NSW is good.

Comments that sends me running from some eateries are "how Gluten Free are you?" or "we only use a small amount of flour as a coating or thickener, is that ok". The best comment, was one I read in a magazine "Do you cater for celiacs? Oh, yes we have wheelchair access".
 
Last edited:

Bushman

Forum Moderator
Staff member
Nov 9, 2010
3,060
2,345
113
Wollondilly Shire NSW
Hello

I am starting a new topic on baking Gluten Free Bread.

To start with I have a genetic condition called Celiac disease, as do several of my cousins. Celtic people have the highest rate of celiac disease in the world. So Australia with its large number of celts has a lot, the number of diagnosed celiacs is about 3 per 100 in Australia. Many people have this condition and are not diagnosed, but around +20% of Australians have the genetic markers. There is also non celiac gluten sensitivity which is still not well understood. Many people also just want to avoid gluten in their diet, this is a bit problematic for genuine celiacs. Celiac's must be totally gluten free and even tiny bits of gluten (e.g. bread crumbs on butter) will make us very sick (stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhoea) and in the long term increase our risk of stomach cancer. So I do not eat gluten and have not intentionally since I was diagnosed in 1997.

http://www.coeliac.org.au/coeliac-disease/

So therefore, we bake our own bread at home and when travelling. Some store bought gluten free bread is OK, much supermarket gluten free (GF) bread tastes very ordinary and is very expensive. After many years of experimenting we settled on a Gluten Free bread mix from Victoria and we bake bread every 2 or 3 days and use a bread maker. Finding the right program on the bread maker is not easy and if you get it wrong the GF bread does not taste very good. If you get it right, really nice bread.

The mix we use is from Victoria and we usually buy 30-40 mixes at a time to save on freight. They used to be made by Springhill Farm (which still sell some nice GF biscuits), but now are made by a different company. It is now called Bakers Magic Gluten Free Flour.

http://decalt.com.au/bakers-magic-gluten-free-flour-shop.

The recipe we use is in two stages:
1. Dry ingredients:
Mix one packet directly in the bread maker pan, add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and one packet of "Tandaco" dry yeast (make sure yeast is GF). Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Wet ingredients:
*boil 200ml of water
*add 250ml of cold water
* then add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
This warm water and vinegar mix is then added to the dry mix in the bread maker pan. Add 1tablespoon of olive oil. Blend with a spatula to make sure no dry ingredients are left in the corners.

Turn on the bread maker; if you have a Sunbeam (BM7850) Smartbake Custom, the next step is easy.
*select program 2 "turbo" and select large size and dark crust option and 2hr 17 min later you should have some very nice GF bread. One extra step is after mixing (20 min) take out mixer blade if removable and just make sure that bread loaf is centred in pan and there are no unmixed ingredients in the corners.

If you have another brand of bread maker if it is programmable, you need to knead for 22min, allow to rise for 50min and bake for 65min. If not programable get as close as you can to these times, sometimes this can be done with varying loaf size and crust colour options. We did this successfully with one of my cousins antique bread maker. You may need to experiment to get it right, but it is worth the effort to get really nice warm GF bread. The loaves keep well for 1 week in fridge of caravan. We toast the bread or zap in microwave to soften when we make sandwiches.

The bread maker works on 240V and we have also run it on our inverter when free camping. The main power usage is when in bake part of cycle and this with solar we can replace the power used easily on a sunny day. The bread can be baked, after doing the mixing and rise in the bread maker, in an oven or BBQ, but we have not done this while travelling.

Hope this helps some celiacs and others who are gluten sensitive who travel in a caravan and want some nice fresh bread.

Regards
Terry
Very informative thread/post, thanks for sharing the info, I'm sure many people may find it helpful.
 
  • Like
Reactions: yabbietol

BigSkiddy

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2013
888
1,198
93
45
Bargo NSW
Success! Thanks @yabbietol .
IMG_0261.JPG
 

Jack Greenwood

New Member
Oct 2, 2017
3
1
3
69
Newcastle
I have a mate that's gluten intolerant, thanks for the recipe I pass it on to him. It always amuses me the gluten free supermarket bread is half the bulk, half the size and double the price .... and now I discover its also tastes like crap.
You should try Abbotts gluten free. It is good and the best I have found.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Crusty181

yabbietol

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2014
389
824
93
Queanbeyan NSW
Would like to add an improvement to the Gluten Free Bread recipe in the first posting in this topic, simply add 1 egg at start. We have been doing this for a few months at home and when travelling.

It improves the texture of the bread and the ability of the Gluten Free bread to stay fresh. Note when we are travelling we keep the GF bread in fridge, at home store it in bread bin in Kitchen.

It is very simple just add 1 egg to the dry ingredients in the bread maker at the start of mixing, have done this with both our bread makers, the very old Sunbeam in our van and much newer Panasonic bread maker we use at home. This was a suggestion from the lady who makes and sells the Gluten Free bread mix and it works well.

https://decalt.com.au
 

yabbietol

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2014
389
824
93
Queanbeyan NSW
Hi @yabbietol have you ever made this bread without using a bread machine? If so, how did it turn out?
We did use an oven when we first started making it and it turned out ok. The web site for the bread mix has a lot of recipes and most use an oven. However, as we bake at least 2-3 loaves per week using the oven was more time consuming and we got more consistent results with the bread machines.

We now prefer the Panasonic bread machine (model SD-2501) over the Sunbeams. Our original Sunbeam is still going strong and kept in our van and only used when travelling has lasted 15+ years, but we went through two newer Sunbeams (they just failed working) in a couple of years and we now have had the Panasonic for about 5 years, still going and it appears better quality manufacture than the Sunbeam.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Billrw136

Drover

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
12,723
19,450
113
QLD
Glad you bumped this thread @yabbietol , I printed your recipe and thats as far as I got, Mrs D buys the Gluten free bread, not big bread eaters thank god the price is horendous and I agree with @Crusty181 taste is ordinary, luckily I can have the normal stuff from the bakery and thats dear enough ............ Last time I made bread I used a camp oven might go with a bread maker this time as I'm over cooking when its complicated.....

Looks like i'm going shopping...
 
  • Like
Reactions: yabbietol and DRW

yabbietol

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2014
389
824
93
Queanbeyan NSW
With the Panasonic we use the menu program 12 and set the crust to dark for our GF bread mix with the egg added..
After about 20 minutes when the mixing and kneading cycle stops we open the bread maker and remove the mixing paddle (could not remove the paddle in our Sunbeam). A pair of pliers make this easy, we use a silicon spatula to clear around the paddle and clean it up as we remove it, then with same spatula cut the dough in two down the middle and make a couple of cross cuts with spatula. This levels out dough and makes loaf rise into a nice shape, we also add a little extra olive oil at this stage on the outside of the dough, which helps to brown the crust.

To do cakes we just mix a Gluten Free cake mix for 10 minutes on menu item 2 then stop program and remove paddle, then bake for 52-56 minutes (depending on cake mix) on menu 15. Leave in pan for 10 minutes after it finishes (make it easer to get it out) then tap out on rack. Panasonic makes nice cakes.
Woolworths "free from Gluten Vanilla Cake Mix" takes about 56 minutes baking and is a good plain cake.

Good cooking.
Terry
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Billrw136