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Your help needed! Wheat free bread!!

(56 Posts)
Wallygrom Sat 22-Feb-14 16:25:51

hi everyone! Anyone out there with a wheat intolerance/allergy that makes bread? My hubby now has an intolerance to wheat, eggs and dairy. All shop bought breads that he can eat are dry, fall to pieces and expensive so we thought we would make our own using gluten free flour. The initial loaf was a disaster - flat, no rise (obviously due to lack of gluten) and very doughy/cakey texture - tasted ok-ish but useless for sandwiches. We are now moving onto trying spelt bread which we are advised he can eat - whilst there are plenty of recipes about for this has anyone made any of these that actually work well?? If so would you mind sharing your recipe and method of success please? Thank you!

rosesarered Sun 23-Feb-14 11:53:41

I have been baking with Dove flour for years as various family members do not eat wheat/gluten and I feel better myself if I don't. Dove flour makes great cakes, scones and pancakes.However I buy Free From rolls from Tesco,cut each roll into 3 pieces and toast them.Perfectly ok this way, but not eaten fresh [yuk.]Luckily there are so many things on the market now that weren't available years ago. If you use Dove flour [bread flour?] when breadmaking, there is also gluten free baking powder to add.There will always be a big difference to the taste of the bread though, whatever you use.

rosequartz Sun 23-Feb-14 14:13:56

Have you tried making it in a breadmaker, roses, or is it easy to use like making a cake?
Will try a selection before DD1 arrives. Thank you. I must say if I feel bloated or have a tummy ache I tend to avoid it for a while and I am sure my energy levels go up.

Nothing seems as nice though , gluten feee pasta is not as good either.

kittylester Sun 23-Feb-14 14:27:21

Rose, I make the Helen's white one in the breadmaker but the brown was awful and not much better in the oven.

Phil Vickery has breadmaking flour mix recipe in one of his books but it's quite a pain to acquire all the ingredients and to measure and mix it.

M&S do a nice bloomer but their crumpets are appalling. Their lemon cake is also good but my (ok, Delia's) Victoria sponge is so much nicer than theirs.

You can also get GF porridge oats but the other GF cereals are, in my opinion, a waste of [quite a lot] of money! I always serve GF pasta and no one has passed a comment ....yet!

Some of Sainsbury's TTD sausages are GF and so are some 'Black Farmer' ones. Tesco sell GF black pudding and McCains really expensive frozen chips are GF. Yesterday I discovered DS frozen white rolls - I'll let you know about those!!

I've got to the stage of only eating bread products that are readily available and not faffing about otherwise. grin

rosequartz Sun 23-Feb-14 14:44:09

Have been eating the GF porridge oats (much more expensive of course), so will get DD1 to try them as she loves porridge, and found the Black Farmer sausages and debbie and andrew's harrogate sausages which are good.
I did try a cereal I liked called mesa sunrise, like a sort of hard cornflake.
I seem OK with one crumpet, but of course DD1 can' t eat even one.
Will check the stock cubes and find gf ones, they are available, and usually use cornflour for thickening.
I will compile a list of all these tips and suggestions, thanks!

It's a whole new re-think on food shopping!

Wallygrom Sun 23-Feb-14 16:18:03

Wow thanks for all your comments!!! - hubby can have gluten - its the wheat he cant have so thankfully its slightly less restrictive. We have tried the Doves bread flour to make bread quite a few times but sadly it came out very dense, didnt rise at all - might have to put a raising agent into it even though the packet didnt advise it. We currently as I type have a spelt loaf in the oven which we have made today - no wheat so hopefully it will be an improvement on the shop bought ones! Its certainly looking good!
Going to have to try some pastry too using it as he is missing having a pie! lol bless!!

kittylester Sun 23-Feb-14 16:18:09

Why can't your DD eat gf crumpet rose?

Kallo stock cubes are gf.

kittylester Sun 23-Feb-14 16:18:50

Why can't your DD eat gf crumpet rose?

Kallo stock cubes are gf.

rosequartz Sun 23-Feb-14 16:39:52

Oh, kitty what I meant was that an ordinary crumpet doesn't seem to upset me, but DD1 can't eat one of course. I will look for some gf ones for her - or even try a batch with gf flour! Scotch pancakes might be easier to make.

Not stocking up with too much as she may like a trawl around the shops to see what's available here, just doing some homework first.

Galen Sun 23-Feb-14 17:04:53

Ocado have a gf free pack of crumpets

rosequartz Sun 23-Feb-14 17:23:51

Thankyou galen

kittylester Sun 23-Feb-14 17:53:23

Wallygrom xantham gum is good to add to GF flour - it gives it stretch! smile

rosequartz Sun 23-Feb-14 17:58:20

Must try it, the name 'gum' always put me off.
Not sure if coeliacs can eat it?

durhamjen Sun 23-Feb-14 18:06:40

I used to make buckwheat pancakes for people who could not eat bread.
Easy to make, just buckwheat flour and soya or almond milk. Make the batter a few hours before you need it, and it looks glutinous, but isn't.
Stir in a spoonful of oil before you cook them.

durhamjen Sun 23-Feb-14 18:10:39

Wally, spelt is a type of wheat, so you cannot really say no wheat. It's an old style wheat, before modern farmers started messing around with wheat and affecting the gluten.
My grandson loves Mesa Sunrise. He eats it dry, like a snack rather than a breakfast cereal.

Wallygrom Tue 25-Feb-14 14:02:31

I know, this wheat free thing is quite hard unless you stick strictly to making everything yourself - its in so many products - was surprised to find it in a packet of crisps!! (though that depends on make to be fair).

We have now been told that he cant have spelt as it is from the wheat family so our efforts on making a loaf were a waste of time (though I am enjoying eating it! lol) but we are going to have to try making other breads and use Orgram - the egg substitute that Holland & Barrett sell - used it unsuccessfully with some wheat (and consequently gluten) free flour - will get some xanthum gum though kittylester, as that might be the reason why!

<sighs> its such hard work and he really loves bread, eggs and dairy - all the things he cant eat....BUT on the plus side, his psoriasis has cleared up almost totally, his dodgy stomach has improved and he has lost 1.5 stones in weight so not all bad! (maybe I need to follow this diet too just to lose the weight! wink )

Wallygrom Tue 25-Feb-14 14:03:19

Just found that out about the spelt! sad

kittylester Tue 25-Feb-14 17:24:00

Wallygrom, I mentioned this site ^^ but you may not have spotted it. It's well worth a look as I found it really helpful to begin with.

www.theintolerantgourmet.com/

Wallygrom Wed 26-Feb-14 16:39:11

I saw your mention of it - fab site and will be undoubtedly using it quite a lot whilst everything is still so new to us!! Thank you smile

rosequartz Tue 04-Mar-14 16:17:29

I just bought some Wessex Mill bread flour from our local farm shop, and the recipe includes yeast. I thought yeast was used to work on the gluten in wheat flour to make it rise, so I am a bit confused. Has anyone had experience of this bread flour? I was going to use a breadmaker.

rosesarered Tue 04-Mar-14 17:48:43

Sorry, many years since I made bread, and that was normal wheat bread flour. maybe somebody else will know? Ask Mr. Google!

rosequartz Tue 04-Mar-14 17:56:45

Found their website and emailed them the question. If I find out I will post.

broomsticks Tue 04-Mar-14 18:13:39

I don't make my own but the DS ciabatta rolls are quite nice and Tesco does good hot cross buns and ginger biscuits. Also DS pizza's are pretty indistinguishable from the real thing.

I've just tried making carrot cake. Dunno what it's like yet. I'll let you know.

TriciaF Tue 04-Mar-14 18:56:52

I've been using Dove's bread flour for years and I'm sure it's wheat flour. So I don't know why you're using it.
We've just made some bread with it today, well, Eddie has, he's taken over my job. OK but very heavy. I told him to add some white flour but he wouldn't.
Try asking advice on The Fresh Loaf forum. There are some experts on there.

kittylester Tue 04-Mar-14 20:26:57

Dove do gf flours too!

durhamjen Tue 04-Mar-14 21:29:39

Doves Farm make lots of different flours. I use their buckwheat flour for lots of recipes.
When I had a cafe, I used their plain wholemeal flour for pastry as I found that any on the staff could use it to make light pastry. That's not wheatfree of course. If I need to make pastry for glutenfree, I use half buckwheat and half rice flour. It's all to do with how you aerate the pastry by lifting it when you rub in the fat.