Posts Tagged ‘HBin5’

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (HBin5) near rye bread

Monday, January 25th, 2010

I made the HBi5 brioche over the holidays, but, given other distractions, did not write about that bread. It was satisfying. I’ve had respiratory complaints for a month and have found myself resting a great deal when i’m not working, but i finally made the near rye last night.

Since we didn’t have warm tap water at the time, i brought the water up to warmth in the microwave, and then let the dough rise in the microwave still moistly warm from heating the water. That seemed to help the rise, although it was nothing like those original breads.

I made the bread as given in HBi5, with caraway seeds, and the first loaf is pleasant and mild. It was moist like the olive oil bread, and i’d learned that letting the bread cool is sufficient for that moisture to just be tender bread. The crust was fabulous.

Next time i should definitely add more salt. I also think that some of the ingredients from Bob’s Red Mill’s list for their hearty GF bread would be a delicious addition: onion powder is probably what i miss most. The recipe called for equal parts honey and molasses: i could imagine just doing molasses.

I think this dough will make DIVINE crackers. I cannot wait.

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Olive Oil Bread

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

Once upon a time i tried the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I made the half batch and it pushed the lid off the container the dough rose in. [Typo fixed]

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Today, i tried making the half batch of the olive oil gluten free bread.

Olive Oil Bread & CrackersOlive Oil Bread & CrackersOlive Oil Bread & CrackersOlive Oil Bread & CrackersOlive Oil Bread & Crackers

It did not rise nearly as much as the basic recipe of the previous book, although it did develop nice structure. I’m not sure if this is due to the coolness of my kitchen. If anything the dough was far too wet. That too is a bit of a mystery. The crackers, which are divine, took over twenty minutes to begin to turn golden. The bread is cooked but very moist.

I rolled my crackers out between sheets of waxed paper: the dough still needs lots of starch to keep it from sticking (another sign of the too wet dough?) . One set of crackers was made with cornmeal left over from the bread. This turned out wonderfully! Both sets of crackers had olive oil on both sides.

I still have a bit of dough left over and will try to let it come to room temperature in a warmer room and hopefully it will rise a good bit more before baking.

I wonder if replacing the soy flour with the chickpea flour could make such a difference?

Gluten free bread baking: ingredient analysis

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

I got Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (HBin5) and passed on my copy of their original Artisian Bread in Five Minutes a Day to my mother & sister when i visited family over Thanksgiving.

Now that i’m back home, i’m evaluating my cupboard to plan a trip to Whole Foods. First on the list: Xanthan gum. I’m ready to make that investment.

I’ve a yet unopened bag of Bob’s Red Mill GF flour, which includes garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, whole grain sweet white sorghum flour, and fava bean flour.

HBin5 doesn’t use any bean flour except 1/2c of soy flour out of 6 c total in the olive oil bread and in the cheddar sesame bread. I think i’ll skip using the Bob’s Red Mill flour in yeast breads, and use it in quickbreads (see after the cut). I’ll substitute garbanzo bean flour for the soy flour.

I’m planning on trying the near rye, the brioche, and the olive oil (OO) bread (p 238). All the doughs are described as keeping for just seven days: i suppose i could freeze the baked results? (I ask that here.) The olive oil dough can be used for pizza, a baguette, crackers, and bread sticks. Considering my rice cracker consumption, maybe i should just make batches of crackers, to use up the dough. (The teff crackers may be good as well.)

Xanthan gum
brown rice flour
	* 1 c for OO bread, brioche
	* 2 c for teff
teff flour * 1 1/2 c for teff cornstarch * 3 1/2 c for OO bread * 3 3/4 c for brioche tapioca starch/flour * 1 c for OO bread, brioche * 3 c for teff

UPDATE 2009-12-5, after shopping: I did very much like the
GF Hearty Whole Grain Bread
i made from mix. It included buckwheat and sorghum, not just teff. I note that teff appears to be twice as expensive at Bob’s Red Mill compared to the other two. (*headdesk*). The starches are the bulk of the substance in the recipe from HBin5, though. However, for flavor, it looks like i could carefully add the bolded ingredients in the following:

whole grain buckwheat, garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, cornstarch, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, whole grain sorghum flour, tapioca flour, evaporated cane juice, cocoa powder, fava bean flour, molasses powder (molasses, maltodextrin, silicon dioxide), xanthan gum, caraway seeds, active dry yeast, sea salt, whole grain teff, potato flour, onion powder, guar gum and soy lecithin.

Buckwheat: 	$3.56 / 1.5 lb
Teff: 		$6.81 / 1.5 lb
Sohrgum: 	$3.01 / 1.5 lb

And Zoƫ wrote back about the freezing:

When you mix up the gluten free doughs be sure to add the liquid ingredients gradually. Unlike our wheat based recipes the g-f will become lumpy if you add the liquids all at once. You may be better off making a half batch rather than freezing the dough. It is something that we have not tested well enough to feel comfortable to recommend. My concern is that the xanthan gum may not hold up to the freezing, but if you are compelled to try it please report back and let us know what you find.

Sine we’re a small household, i had been making half batches anyhow. I think making crackers may be the solution to too much dough.
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