I make a variety of breads for my gluten-intolerant husband which he loves, but sometimes he really does miss a crusty loaf for toast or a sandwich.

When I spotted this recipe on the back of a packet of gluten free bread flour I thought I would see how it worked out, and I wasn’t disappointed.  I don’t often use refined sugar but did use a small amount (1 tablespoon) in this dough to get the yeast working.  Using less sugar usually means the bread takes longer to rise.  My next batch will use hardly any sugar and I am interested to see if using no sugar at all will affect the bread.  Watch this space!

I was pleasantly surprised at the delicious doughy crustiness of this bread, and it has much more flavour than shop-bought gluten-free breads which always seem to break or crumble in the packet.

This bread freezes beautifully so I have been bulk cooking and freezing it in two-slice packs for when only a crusty slice will do.  I also added poppy seeds to the top of one for extra crunch.

INGREDIENTS:

2 egg whites
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
400ml water (luke warm)
500g gluten-free white bread flour
2 teaspoons quick yeast
Poppy seeds (optional)

METHOD:

Whisk the egg whites, vinegar, sugar, salt, water and half of the oil in a bowl until thoroughly mixed.

Add the flour and yeast and continue mixing to create a smooth, thick batter.

Pour the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil over the dough and fold in with a spoon making a soft dough.

Oil a 2lb bread tin and tip the dough into the tin, smoothing the top. Sprinkle with poppy seeds if desired.

Cover with ‘oiled’ cling film and leave somewhere warm to rise to the top of the tin – an hour or more.

Bake in a pre-heated oven 200°C(fan) or Gas 7 for 55 to 60 minutes.

Turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Lovely Crusty Bread

The flour used was Dove’s Farm White Bread Flour – a blend of rice, tapioca and potato with a thickener of xanthan gum.

Crusty Bread with poppy seed – I forgot to oil my clingfilm so a slightly rustic topping on this loaf!

NB:  All photographs used in this blog have been taken by me, and are of food I have prepared and served myself.