[Closed] Food: Gluten free bread sucks.. Buy a bread maker for better results?

Find a decent local baker. My mum's been a diagnosed coeliac sufferer for nearly 10 years and her baker makes fantastic gluten free bread. Can't tell the difference between it and a normal loaf.

If not local to you I should think you'll find one within reasonable travelling distance - find one you like and stockpile in the freezer.

If you're in Devon I can get some names that are taste tested.

No direct experience but my niece who's 5 is coeliac and my dad makes gluten-free bread in his bread maker and I'm pretty sure she doesn't eat it.
I think she prefers so sort of gluten free crackers

don't you get free bread on prescription?

Find a decent local baker. My mum's been a diagnosed coeliac sufferer for nearly 10 years and her baker makes fantastic gluten free bread. Can't tell the difference between it and a normal loaf.

If not local to you I should think you'll find one within reasonable travelling distance - find one you like and stockpile in the freezer.

Very much this.

And at the risk of being a heretic have you thought about not eating bread anymore? We rarely if ever buy it and switched to ryvita type biscuits and max out on the fillings.

Genius multigrain and Marks and Spencers brown loaves are the best shop-bought I've had, in case you've not tried those. And the Warburtons tiger bread is alright.

It's a postcode lottery for prescription sadly.

When I bake, I use a panasonic bread maker and glutafin select multipurpose mix. It makes an odd loaf- it tastes good, it works right, it makes the most amazing fried bread... But it doesn't feel like bread, it's spongy. Still, I don't object. I had a cheaper Kenwood, it was OK but the gf cycle didn't work with any flour I've ever found, so you had to manually change settings halfway thtough- very annoying.

Skids.
Fraid not. They stopped it for everyone apart from exceptional cases.

Ssboggy.
He eats the normal GF bread from the supermarket so should adapt to home made, I hope.
The end game is the rest of the clan to eat the GF bread if it works out well, its just the cost of that (added with the fact that its not really that tasty)

Flaperon.
Not near Devon matey, and unfortunately we do not have anything local to us so a dedicated trip just for bread seems silly. Although I could use the excuse for a weekly 25mile round trip MTB training session. 😆

Northwind.
Its the Warburtons tiger one that we like the best.. Over £3 a pop for about 7 decent slices though. Ouch.
The Panasonic is on my shortlist.

Komoran.
I dont think I can convince myself to stop eating it, love it too much.

I like the M&S one best.

I dont think I can convince myself to stop eating it, love it too much

you think you do..... 🙂

Wife been wheat free for years, believe me the bread has come a long way, you used to have to sprinkle water on it then microwave. As others have said, find a local baker, ours does a spelt loaf which is better than any normal bread.

We have an ancient panasonic bread maker. Makes gf bread fine using the doves farm bread flour.

can't comment on the quality of GF bread from breadmakers, but we've been using our panasonic for years (and the no-brand one we had before it). It's actually more convenient (for us) than buying bread as the ingredients can always be in stock in the kitchen. It takes about 3 minutes total to set up and get going.

Spelt isn’t gluten free though - I hope your baker isn’t selling it as that!

The other advantage of panasonic machines is that most flour/mix makers will make a recommendation for how to bake with that machine. You'll want to mess with it but it's a great start, with other brands it's fairly likely that what you start with, is a fiasco. my own first attempt with teh kenwood was like the magic porage pot

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Genius triple seeded is about the best off the shelf GF loaf.

Yeah spelt is far from gluten free I have heard.

Juvela fresh fibre loaf.

That’s the good lady’s choice (coeliac not picky) she’s been GF for 30 odd years so has tried most of it

Bread maker stuff was inconsistent

I don't think the bread machine is very important, more what you put in?
May be wrong of course.

There is a brewery enzyme addition called Clarex. You could try adding to dough?
In beer it gets glutens under 20 ppm

There is a brewery enzyme addition called Clarex. You could try adding to dough?
In beer it gets glutens under 20 ppm

So your saying add this mystical potion to normal bread mixture and it kills off the gluten to a lower level when baking?

I am finding Aldi is getting more and more Gluten free products. Worth a visit.

Medlow - no gluten is a key ingredient in normal bread so even if the magic potion could remove the gluten the bread would dissintegrate. Things may be rather different for beer making where gluten is a side effect rather than a normal ingredient.

Not sure if the wheat free bakery (near Edinburgh) will deliver as far as that but if it will then it is even better than the brands mentioned. At the price it does make you think more carefully about where and how you use bread and maximising leftovers etc. I’m not sure that is really that different to a few generations ago.

We’ve never found a great bread maker/recipe. I suspect for GF the machine will matter more than normal as the needing and proving process is often rather different to traditional bread (there is no gluten to stretch).

Hey Poly, which bakery is that?

yourguitarhero - Member

I don't think the bread machine is very important, more what you put in?

It does matter- basically you need a program that works well with your recipe (or free programming) which not all will have. Also there's just general durability, my Kenwood was obviously built for very occasional use and just didn't last

+1 M&s bread (sourdough +++)

Spelt is lower in gluten but is an ancient form of wheat so not gluten free!

Here's a very good recipe for you. Best GF loaf I've tried. It's quite a dense seedy tin loaf but really packs in flavour. Not really one for sandwiches but great for toast/soup/pate.

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/josey-bakers-gluten-free-recipe-adventure-bread/

I'd leave out the almonds and chia seeds personally but it's pretty versatile. The key ingredient is the psyllium husks which bind everything and create the texture. Often oats are not 100% gluten free depending on how they are processed, but they do exist.

It's super easy to make, sourcing the ingredients is the hardest bit. Find yourself a hippy wholefoods shop or buy online.

Not sure if the wheat free bakery (near Edinburgh) will deliver as far as that but if it will then it is even better than the brands mentioned

Do you mean this place?

https://www.wheat-freebakerydirect.co.uk/

I've used them for home delivery to Southern England and delivery is £6.25. Most of the products I bought were good and could be frozen.

Just to add that Sainsbury's own g-f bread is pretty good, you'll find it by the fresh bakery counter. They have small seeded loaves as well as plain white loaves plus a selection of rolls.

Top tip: if you don't see it by the bakery counter then ask. They've 'cooked' rolls for me, takes around 10 minutes including cooling-down time.

CG - yes that’s the place, we are local but I knew they delivered just wasn’t sure if it was their own driver or a courier

Northwind - if you are in Edi you will find their stuff for sale in a few places; bakery is in Broxburn.

I’m 6 months into being diagnosed as Coeliac, as above the M&S bread is pretty good - they were doing BOGOFF a few weeks back as well!

Wife bought me a bread maker for Christmas (Panasonic SD-2500). Made the first loaf yesterday - seems ok, used Doves Farm white bread flour and followed the directions in the instruction booklet!

I've never been much impressed by the results from my breadmaker (a Panasonic SD253): the bread was usually OK, but not good enough to prompt me to use it regularly. I think the automation by the machine of the breadmaking processes is not going to give anywhere near as good a result as those that can be achieved by making the bread by hand with good technique (technique not just being the physical activity of kneading, but all the other factors which influence the results, e.g. timings for the prove/rise, correct oven temperature etc., i.e. skill based on knowledge and experience/practice).

Looking at the comments on [url= https://www.shipton-mill.com/baking/recipes/gluten-free-bread-using-our-g-f-white-bread-flour.htm ]Shipton Mill's website recepie for GF flour[/url], getting the technique right appears to be even more critical for GF flour, and it looks unlikely that a breadmaker would deliver satisfactory results.

Before spending money on a bread machine, I would spend £30 on a 16kg sack of Shipton Mill's GF flour and have a go at making loaves by hand. It might take multiple attempts and failures to get it right, but the results will almost certainly be better than with a bread machine, and you will be better able then to decide whether the results justify carrying on baking by hand, or whether to buy one of the GF breads mentioned above.

CG - yes that’s the place, we are local but I knew they delivered just wasn’t sure if it was their own driver or a courier

Certainly handy being local!

Slowster is spot on there, with the addition of spending some money on a proper mixing machine with a dough hook. something like the [url= http://www.kenwoodworld.com/en-int/products/kitchen-machines/chef-major/km331-classic-chef ]Kenwood Chef Classic[/url] this will cut out some of the effort but mean you can easily batch bake.

As well as [url= https://www.shipton-mill.com/gluten-free ]Shiptons flour[/url]
I often use [url= https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/products/freee/homebaking ]Doves Farm[/url]

Warburtons Tiger loaf and the round loaf they make..... I stopped using my bread maker once I found my super market sold them.

Not trying to be a smartass, but would ryvita suffice in the meantime?

Wilko do a bread machine for £30. Use ours all time with good results.

Some good advice guys. Thanks as ever. ❗
Surprisingly not an overwhelming majority for getting a bread maker, seems 50/50. Maybe I was being too optermistic thinking a bread maker would solve all our issues in one swoop.

We will continue I think with the Warburtons Tiger, its the best we have found yet without travelling too far as it is sold in our usual supermarket.
Maybe if i am feeling flush I will splash out on a bread maker to see the results..

OK, here's the thing about handmade vs bread machines, it's not what's better, it's just about time vs quality. I can make a better handmade loaf, for sure, but there's just no way I'm doing that every day or two. The bread machine makes a less good loaf but it takes me about 2 minutes. ymmv.