When I plan to make a recipe substituting essential ingredients, I never know if I am going to have a success or a memorable failure! That is particularly true with bread! I have been trying to make a good bread for the past couple of years without a great deal of success. Bread without grains, eggs, yeast, lots of fat or any dubious ingredients. Thanks to my friend Kathy, who sent me a bread recipe to try, I succeeded in making bread that looks, feels and tastes like bread!
I used to live on bread…toast for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch most days. I no longer need bread to feel whole, satiated and content. However, the occasional slice a bread toasted and topped with home-made chili jam, thick slices of tomato and fresh, home-grown alfalfa sprouts sounds divine and the ability to make croutons once in a while sounds out of this world!
I adopted this recipe by Michaela Vais (found on the internet) to make it grain-free. The original recipe calls for buckwheat flour which I understand is not a grain and does not contain gluten but my body does not like.
The best part about this recipe is that it is easy to make and the bread rises nicely while baking, comes out with a firm crust and a moist, springy texture inside. I slice it once it is fully cooled and store it in the freezer for those moments a slice of bread makes the world seem like a better place!
Grain-free Bread
Ingredients
100 grams organic chestnut flour
100 grams cassava flour (finely milled)
100 grams chickpea flour (besan)
40 grams tapioca starch
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in the juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
3 tbs psyllium powder (psyllium powder put in a spice grinder or high speed blender)
1 1/2 cups homemade vegetable soup stock (no salt or fats added) or filtered water
Method
Using a spice and/or coffee grinder, place psyllium husk and grind until you have a powder. When you have 3 tbs, place in a bowl with the soup stock or water. Whisk together or mix thoroughly so that all the powder dissolves in the liquid. It will start to thicken immediately and let it sit for 20-30 minutes while you prepare the dry ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 180 c. In a medium sized bowl, add 100 grams each of cassava, chickpea and chestnut flours. I weigh rather than use cups for this. Add the salt and mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly. Cut a lemon or lime and juice half. Add 1 tsp of baking soda and let the mixture bubble and fizz making sure all the baking soda dissolves completely.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix together until a dough forms. Add a little more liquid or tapioca starch if the dough is either too sticky or too dry. Form the dough into a round or rectangular ball and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Bake in the oven for 55 minutes. Take out of the oven and let it cool completely on a wire wrack. Do not slice it until it has returned to room temperature, at least a couple of hours.
Slice and enjoy! Once sliced, store in the freezer.