I make - Egg-free Gluten Free Bread

I must have been gaining confidence in gluten free baking so that I started to tackle bread! My early gluten free bread always relies on eggs for the lift. Yes it looks good and tastes fine but to be able to make bread making simpler has been my goal. Strangely may it sound, making bread without eggs also makes me feel "normal" as most daily (wheat) breads do not use eggs.

I've had great success with Katarina's bread recipes. I also got her book which is a great source of knowledge about gluten free baking. After gaining experience and confidence, I've started to tinker her method to suit my way of working. For instance, her method is to hydrate psyllium husks separately before adding to the dough. Although the intention is to obtain proper/maximum hydration of psyllium husks, I found the mixing stage quite laborious with just hands and a rubber spatula. So I streamlined to an all-in-one method which is to pour all liquid into all dry ingredients. This way, I found mixing much easier and more even throughout. I also found that adding protein powder makes the dough less likely to break. 

After nailing the flour-liquid ratio, I repeated the recipe several times with different flour combinations. I have to say that the Teff combo gives the best tasting bread for me. The aroma and the taste reminds me of sourdough rye bread back in my wheat days. If you can't find or don't like Teff, sorghum gives a lighter tasting bread. Buckwheat or just more rice flour would work too. This gluten free bread recipe below is simply my favorite daily bread. You will find baker's percentage at the end of the recipe.

Egg-Free Gluten Free Bread

300 g gluten-free flour (your favorite blend)*
21 g psyllium husk powder (powder form further improves hydration)
10 g (2 tbsps) whey powder or 15 g soy flour
6 g salt
15 g brown sugar
3/4 tsp yeast
390 g lukewarm water

10 g (2 tsps) apple cider vinegar (good for the yeast) 
4 tbsps seeds (I use milled flaxseeds, poppy seeds and chia seeds) soaked in 1/4 cup water

Oil to grease the dough and the bowl

*My blend is 100 g Brown Teff + 100 g Rice + 100 Potato Starch

In a bowl combine flour, psyllium husk powder, whey powder (or soy flour), salt and sugar. Stir to combine. Combine water and vinegar in a jug.

Make well in the flour bowl and put the yeast at the bottom of the well. Drizzle in the water/vinegar first on the yeast and gradually moving outward in a circular motion on the flour. Stir to mix everything. The dough may seem loose at the moment (only if you use the coarser husk form of psyllium husks). If you use the powder form of psyllium husks, you should have a nice non-sticky dough. In any case, let the dough rest up to 30 minutes (covered) when the flour mixture is fully hydrated. Soak the seeds in 1/4 cup of water in a separate bowl.

Spread the soaked seeds on top of the dough and knead them in. Use a wet hand to gently fold in the add-ins. The dough should be a pleasure to knead and not sticky at all. Lightly grease the surface of the final dough and rest for 2 hours or until the volume has doubled. Deflate the dough and shape into a log to ferment again in a glass tin until the volume is almost doubled. The first round of fermentation is optional. Alternatively, you could just shape and ferment the dough once in a tin. I prefer glass tin as the bread does not come out too dark during baking.

Heat the oven to 200C. Bake the proofed dough for 50 minutes or until you hear a hollow sound when tapping the bread bottom.

Baker's percentage

flour 100%
water 130%
binder (psyllium husks) 7%
salt 2%
sugar 5%

I don't include yeast amount as I see the amount as a way to adjust fermentation time. 3/4 tsp dry yeast is about 2g which is 0.7%. Use more if you want to speed up the fermentation.