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My fiance has celiac disease and so I have been trying to get better at baking gluten-free lately. I have made the following recipe many times and it is soooo delicious; I was wondering if someone more knowledgeable than myself can help me with the proper conversions to make the recipe gluten free? The recipe is found here, but I have also copied it below. My initial thoughts are trading the bread flour and whole wheat flour for a mixture of buckwheat and garfava flour with maybe 2 tsp of xantham gum. Thank you for any help!

Ingredients
Night Before:

* 1/3 cup bread flour
* 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/3 cup lukewarm water
* 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast

Soaker:

* 1/4 cup toasted cracked wheat
* 1/4 cup water

Day of:

* 2 cups bread flour
* 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
* 1 cup lukewarm water
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
* 1 cup roasted potatoes and onions


Method

The night before you want to make this bread add all the "night before" ingredients 
together and mix till smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and leave on the counter for 
12-16 hours. In a separate bowl combine the "soaker" ingredients together and cover 
with plastic wrap and leave on the counter for 12-16 hours. In the morning chop a few 
potatoes and place in a baking dish. Cut about a half a onion and mix with the 
potatoes. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil and some thyme roast in the oven till 
golden brown. Cool before using in the bread. Prep all the ingredients you will need 
ahead. This will help to make things move faster. In a large bowl add the "night 
before" mixture, the soaker, water, salt and instant yeast. Mix together. Add whole 
wheat flour and have the bread flour. Mix till the batter is smooth and well blended. 
Allow to sit uncovered for 15 minutes. Sprinkle some of the flour onto a flat surface 
and pour out the dough. Top with some more flour and begin to knead slowly adding in 
the rest of the flour. Add a little at a time till the dough is smooth and elastic. 
Plus, a little on the sticky side. You will need to knead the dough for about 8 - 10 
minutes. Take the dough and flatten it out a little. Add the roasted potatoes and 
onions to the top of the dough. Now, knead in the potatoes into the dough. Knead till 
the potatoes and onions are well incorporated. Add a little olive oil to a bowl and 
place the dough into the bowl. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest 
till double in bulk. Pour out the dough onto a flat surface. Cut dough in half and 
shape each piece into a ball. Sprinkle some cornmeal onto parchment paper. Place the 
pieces of dough on top and dust with a little whole wheat flour. Cover with plastic 
wrap and allow to rest for 1 hour. Remove the plastic wrap and score the top of the 
bread with a sharp knife. Place into a preheated 440 degree oven with a baking stone 
or on a cookie sheet. Create some steam by placing a cast iron pan on the bottom of 
the oven the same time that you turn on the oven. Once you place the breads into the 
oven pour about a cup of boiling water into the hot pan and close the door. Bake for 
30 -35 minutes or till when tapped on the bottom of the loaf it sounds hollow.

1 Answer 1

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Gluten free bread recipes are hard to get right, and maybe won't function with kneading per hand (there was a question about non-rising gluten free bread yesterday). You are much better off with an existing gluten-free bread recipe. Pick one which you know to be good, and prepare the dough as usual. Follow the recipe which is described here from the "Take the dough and flatten it out a little" sentence on, using your known good gluten-free dough instead of the one described here.

I don't know what would be the best substitute for the soaked wheat, experiment with soaked grains or myabe something else which gives a slight crunch (sunflower seeds, almond pieces - don't soak these).

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  • Thank you for the advice. I sort of expected that this probably wouldn't work, but it might be worth one or two experiments. I do have a pretty good GF bread recipe so I'm going to give it a shot!
    – A B
    Commented Jul 4, 2011 at 16:52
  • It is possible that it will work, but the risk to get something inedible is high. A high hydration dough is only possible with gluten anyway (I converted this in my head, so maybe it isn't that high a hydration, but it looks like a very soft dough). When you know from the start that you can't duplicate the taste of the bread part, there is no sense in too much experiments. It is the potato, onion and soaker part that makes the recipe special, so combining it with a good gluten-free dough is probably your best bet.
    – rumtscho
    Commented Jul 4, 2011 at 17:07
  • I think you are right. The bread is good, but the potato and onion is what really makes it.
    – A B
    Commented Jul 4, 2011 at 17:16

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