Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread Recipe from A Girl Defloured (2024)

FAQs

What is the trick to making good gluten-free bread? ›

One of the challenges is that when gluten-free dough is thickened with additives like starches and gums, it becomes sticky. Some bakers dust sticky dough with flour, but that's problematic with gluten-free formulations.

Made from modified tapioca starch, Expandex adds wheat-like texture to gluten-free bread and also improves the crumb, elasticity, texture, taste, and shelf-life. It can be added directly to your dry ingredients or you can use a mix like in gluten-free honey buckwheat English muffins.

There are a few common reasons why your gluten-free bread may be turning out dense: Insufficient Leavening: Yeast or baking powder creates air pockets in the dough, allowing it to rise and become light. If you don't use enough leavening agents, your bread will not have enough gas bubbles to create that airy texture.

Yes, instant yeast is gluten-free. Instant yeast is similar to active yeast, but can be directly added to dry ingredients in a recipe, rather than having to be dissolved in water first.

Apple Cider Vinegar – Superpower your Gluten-Free Kitchen! Apple cider vinegar is often used in baking, but why? It is a great leavening agent, but it also has powerful flavour enhancing properties. I find it adds the perfect amount of depth of flavour, and helps activate baking soda creating a lovely airy texture.

Since gluten-free bread is so high in fiber content, they are the friendliest foods for our digestive tracts. Therefore, the nutrients in gluten-free bread can get fully used and also encourage the production of friendly bacteria in the intestine.

Over-proofing allows too much air to get into your bread dough and the bread will usually make it fall once it is pulled out of the oven. When making our bread we suggest only letting it rise for 20 minutes. Even if it does not look doubled in size, put it in your preheated oven.

So, when you try to replace xanthan gum with cornstarch in gluten free baking, you're basically removing the binder and adding a starchy flour – making your gluten free bake both drier and crumblier. (And that's definitely not something you want to do.)

What does cream of tartar do in gluten-free bread? ›

2. Promoting Better Rise. Achieving a good rise is essential for light and airy bread. Cream of tartar acts as a natural leavening agent when combined with baking soda.

Xanthan gum is used in gluten-free baking because it creates a fluffy texture. There are alternatives to xanthan gum like guar gum, agar, locust bean gum, konjac root powder, and tara gum. My favorite replacement for xanthan gum is psyllium husk, a natural fiber that comes from the seeds of the plant Plantago ovata.

Cornstarch is a 'starchy' gluten free flour. That means that it gives gluten free bakes their fluffiness and airiness, but it doesn't contribute much to their taste or structure. It can be substituted with an equal weight of arrowroot starch, potato starch or tapioca starch.

All gluten-free blends are different. Some are starch heavy, some have bean flours in them; some have a binder (like xanthan gum), some don't. This means that you might find a blend that's perfect for cookies, but makes your bread a tiny, solid lump.

Gummy on the inside- bake for a longer time. Gluten free bread takes much longer than a regular loaf to bake and therefore a sticky crumb is generally the result of under baking. It is easy to see why this can happen, gluten free bread dough needs more moisture and is often difficult to knead with conventional methods.

Gluten-free bread lets you enjoy bread without the risk of causing harm to your intestines. And when you swap out white flour for a gluten-free alternative, it might make your bread healthier in certain ways. Other flours often have nutrients you wouldn't get with white flour.

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

Buckwheat flour has a rich, earthy flavour that works well in quick breads and yeast bread. It does, however, have a crumbly texture so you might want to combine it with other gluten free flours – brown rice flour works well.

When making gluten-free breads, flatbreads, etc., Psyllium husk acts similarly to the way gluten would act in traditional wheat bread. It provides the binding properties and elasticity that helps the dough become workable. It gives the structure and support for the bread to rise, as well.