I called it a disaster...others said it was a minor set back, but my first attempt at making my own gluten free bread did not go to plan.
Essentially, I didn't do the one thing my Home Economics teacher taught me...read the recipe. I had the correct ingredients, even in the right amounts. However I had not even thought about how long the bread would take to make. Having never even made gluten-
ous bread before I was diagnosed, I completely failed to notice that bread needs up to 5 hours to
prove in a warm place. And here was my downfall. Time and a warm place.
In my memory, I recall my mother baking her own bread and
proving it in the airing cupboard. I don't an airing cupboard and started bread making preparations at 5pm on a
Sunday.
Now, don't laugh, but this is how it went:
- I left my scales at the office from when we created the sourdough starter.
- I bought some new scales (for their bigger capacity, honest) but they were rubbish, barely registering ingredients as I lobbed them in.
- I made my production dough and left it on the radiator to do its thing. But the heating was barely on.
- Reading further into the recipe, I read how the bread needed to prove for up to 5 hours in a warm place. This was at 6.30pm and I had just made the production dough which needed up to 3 hours.
- So, I decided to honour all bakers and rise with them at 5.30am to bake the bread I had started. (Actually I hate waste and was determined to have bread for breakfast).
- I mixed the dough at 11.30pm and took it to bed with me (not literally - but its the warmest room at night) to prove.
- I woke up at 5.30am to find that my dough had not risen an inch.
- I went back to bed.
- I dreamt of toast.
But, this was always going to be a learning process, and in typical Kim cooks fashion was winging it at the last minute. Next weekend, I will start in the morning - now that I know how long the total process takes and use my trusty scales now safely back home.
What I will say is that it was
incredibly easy to make and fitted nicely into the loaf tin. Now I just need to find a warm place... Watch out for my more successful recipe next week. Do you have any foolproof (or
Kimproof) bread recipes?
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