I have been baking up a storm these past couple of weeks, between using the sourdough (Brad IV, you are the real MVP) and dipping my toes into yeasted breads. I made a gluten free sourdough artisanal loaf of bread, a non-GF sandwich bread, and non-GF hamburger buns. All very pretty and making our apartment smell like our own little bakery.

The GF sourdough loaf was specifically a GF recipe, not a recipe that was originally non-GF that I replaced the flour with, which is why I think it actually turned out the way it did. GF flour is not the same as regular flour and not all GF flour mixes are created equal, which means baking is full of surprises (and duds!)

I would say this was a great first time with this recipe, and I will definitely use it again, although I will probably make a few tweaks. My bottom crust was super hard, making it very tough to slice and chew. Below you can see the cross-section of my first slice, and it has a very tight crumb. It’s definitely something that the more I practice, the better I will get.

So a brief explanation as to why I am making non-GF things when I can’t eat them? I guess there are a few reasons. The main one is that my husband is not gluten-free, and there’s no need for him to suffer along with me. Not that he minds; he is super supportive, and he eats gluten-free with me all of the time, but he hates to eat all my gluten-free things when he knows how expensive (and how little) they are. So we buy him gluten-free foods specifically for him to have, like sandwich bread. And as the person who does the grocery shopping, I try really hard to get the “healthy” options. But man is that hard—and also expensive—and sometimes not actually true! A lot of what looks like it should be healthy is still not really that much healthier for you.
I have tried before to make him sandwich bread. We have a bread machine that I have used with some success, although the last loaf had a big hole in the middle (perfect for a toad in the hole). So this past grocery haul, I’m back to looking at the different types of bread, and I hate all of the ingredients in there (I already hate all of the ingredients in my own bread, but that’s another story). I skipped the bread purchase and told him that I was going to try again over the weekend, and if I failed, I would go back out and buy him a loaf.

And now here we are: take a look at this gorgeous sandwich loaf!! Did I totally tear up while I was making this because it felt great and validating as a baker to actually have a bread recipe go the way it was supposed to? Maybe a little. This was absolute perfection in my eyes. Trusting my baker’s instinct and watching it rise, the whole bake was an absolute treat.

Wonky cut aside, look at that crumb! Exactly what you want for a sandwich loaf. And every slice looks like that!!! No giant holes in the middle of the loaf; no flour pockets. I was also super naughty and tasty, a bit of the end of the bread (quality control, you know?) and it was the best thing I have ever had. I mean, not really, but it was delicious. We didn’t even put butter on it.

Kid you not, I felt so confident with the sandwich bread that I decided I would try hamburger buns! And so I did. Yes, they are a little bit bigger than anticipated, but they are also delicious (quality control, but I definitely paid the price this time around—but potentially more to this story later). Truly yeasted breads have something going for them. One being convenience: sourdough really does take a lot of time and planning (we are talking at least 2 day bakes, unless you give them a helping hand with, you guessed it, yeast); and two, you aren’t having to care for it and feed it like the living creature it is (I love Brad IV and watching him grow, but sticking him in the fridge all time seems cruel).

Okay, not pictured is the attempt I made to take that wonderful sandwich loaf recipe and try to make it gluten-free, because that attempt was so awful that I threw it straight in the trash after I tasted it. There are a couple of things I think could’ve gone wrong: the type of flour mix I used being the main thing. (Right now I’m on the King Arthur train, but I have also used Bob’s Red Mill too.) So King Arthur has two different types of gluten-free flour blends for baking: Measure for Measure, which is 1:1 flour replacement, and All-Purpose Flour. They also have gluten-free bread flour, but that’s different for my discussion at this moment. The main difference I can tell between their M4M and AP flour blends is the ingredient, Xanthum gum, an additive that a lot of gluten-free flours will use to “mimic” the gluten that is missing (this is my very basic understanding; there are other ingredients bakers will use to mimic the “elasticity” that gluten will give bread, but I digress). Anyway, King Arthur specifically describes which flour blend is best used for what types of baking. Silly me has only been using M4M in all my making, not realizing that there was a difference, so the past couple of days I have been doing some deep dives and digging in to the research and have decided to have both blends on hand. I think I will try to attempt the sandwich bread recipe again with King Arthur’s AP flour blend and see how that goes. If that does not work, I have a backup recipe from a dedicated gluten-free baker who has a lot of good reviews, but that would mean I would need to invest in more types of flour and other ingredients. So for now, we are setting aside the GF sandwich bread. My next adventure is to try the sandwich bread with Einkorn flour, as that is an ancient grain that doesn’t quite bother me—and, if you recall, is what I feed Brad IV with—so we will see how that goes (in more ways than one!)

One of these days, I’m gonna eat some homemade bread and feel good about it, you BUTTER believe it!