Let me start off by saying HAPPY 2013 everyone!!!!!
Yeah yeah yeah I know, we vanished over the holiday season & kind of forgot to give a heads up to anyone who follows along. It wasn’t intentional I assure you, it’s just, we kind of got swept up in it all. I’m sorry, it wont happen again.
What I mean to say is, it’s not uncommon for us to take a couple weeks off here & there, but we wont vanish without a heads up next time. Deal?
Good, lets move on.
Right, being as we’ve entered into a new year, I’ve decided it’s about time to tackle some of the recipe ideas that I keep scribbling down at random intervals.
For example….. blueberry french toast. I have been wanting to make some of that since I spent a month in Boulder, Colorado last November. It’s not that I had any whilst I was out there, but as soon as I left & got back to Athens, it was all I could think about at 03:00am when I was wide awake with jet-lag.
Can’t make blueberry french toast without a decent blueberry bread though, so, I present to you my oat, buckwheat & blueberry loaf.
We may not actually make it as far as the blueberry french toast…. Mel & I have gotten through half of this gluten-free bread already & every time I look at it, it appears as if it’s shrinking. Did I mention that it’s also egg free, dairy free & vegan friendly?
Still, my craving for the delicious egg fried bread is what brought me to this beautiful, beautiful state of baking, & that, is never a bad thing.
Before I pass on the recipe, I just want to say that it’s been snowing on our island! That may not sound like a big deal to you, but it’s like being in the Twilight Zone.
I digress as always…. Happy 2013 xxx
Ingredients:
- 3 tbs flaxseed meal
- 135ml (9tbs) boiling water
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- 1.5 tbs instant yeast
- 2 tbs brown sugar
- 60ml (4 tbs) warm water
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- 250ml (1 cup) rice milk, room temp
- 185g (1 cup) potato starch
- 75g (0.5 cup) tapioca flour
- 65g (0.5 cup) arrow root
- 90g (0.5 cup) buckwheat flour
- 60g (0.5 cup) oat flour
- 0.75 tsp salt
- 1 tsp guar gum
- 1.5 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 70g (0.5 cups) frozen, organic blueberries
Directions:
1. mix together the flaxseed meal & boiling water & let stand for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, you should notice that when you give it a stir, it has the same consistency as raw egg white.
2. mix together the brown sugar, yeast & warm water & allow to activate for 10 minutes.
3. in a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients & use a whisk to combine them thoroughly.
4. once the flaxseed has become thick & the yeast has risen, combine the two mixtures together along with the rice milk. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients & pour in the wet mixture as well as the blueberries. Mix the ingredients together until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated & the dough holds its shape. Form a ball with the dough, place it back in the bowl & set it in a warm place to rise for 3 hours.
5. once the dough has risen, it is time to preheat your oven. Place your cloche inside the oven so it reaches the same temperature during the preheat & bring the temperature to 180C.
6. once the oven is hot, make sure your dough is formed into the shape you want, slice an X into the top of it, lightly dust it with oat flour & place it under the cloche to bake for an 1.25 hours. Remove the cloche & continue to bake for another 30 minutes uncovered. You’ll know the bread is done because it will make a hollow sound when tapped.
7. transfer your bread to a wire cooling rack to cool.
Tips:
**** I’ve used frozen blueberries because they hold their shape whilst kneading the dough, fresh will just get crushed.
**** if it’s freezing where you are, set your oven temperature to 50C & place your dough in there to rise.
**** if you don’t have a cloche, you can bake your bread inside a cast iron stew pot.
……..for a full history of our recipes, check out our archives. For the more sensitive tummies, check out our gluten-free archives….. and if you’re just interested in something pretty, check out our designed page.
This is my first time visiting your site– I found you on Food Gawker’s Gluten Free search. The blueberry bread looks fabulous–my GF/CF son is huge fan of buckwheat. Do you think it would work in a bread machine (on the gluten free cycle) or would there really be no way to keep the blueberries aesthetically intact?
Happy New Year to you, too!
Hi Stephanie! That’s actually a really good question. I’ve never used a bread maker before so it’s hard for me to answer. I generally use frozen blueberries when making bread or pastry because they hold their shape as long as they’re frozen. So I suppose it would really depend on how quickly your bread maker takes to bring the dough together. If it’s a short cycle then I’d say give it a try. Actually, I say give it a try either way & let me know how it turns out as I’d be curious to have the answer to this question myself.
Do you have any bread recipes that are gluton free and wheat free? Thanks
Hi Fran. You can omit the blueberries in this recipe & it will be just a regular loaf of bread. I also have a recipe for gluten-free bread rolls that you can try. That’s it for the moment since I’ve been putting off trying to make a decent bread until I had the rest of gluten-free baking mastered.