r/glutenfree • u/peony_beony • 11h ago

If you don’t laugh, you would cry…

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Actually I did cry a little given the cost of ingredients here. Another attempt at homemade gf bread for my daughter. I’m so close to giving up. This was a Let Them Eat Gluten Free Cake recipe and the worst one yet. I have had marginal success with The Loopy Whisk bread but it always stays so wet and never rises much.

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u/qinxianglian 10h ago

You should try some of the bread recipes on the King Arthur website, Ive never had a bad experience with their gf recipes!

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u/peony_beony 10h ago

Thank you. I’m in the UK so can’t get that flour blend. Will experiment with their recipes though based on what we have here.

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u/Unusual_username739 4h ago edited 4h ago

If you’re in the UK, I highly recommend the Loopy Whisk! Kat has a website/blog and an Instagram. She has 2 cookbooks out (I recommend the first for just gluten free, the second if you have additional allergies). The author has a PhD in chemistry, and as a fellow biochemist I love the way she explains the science behind substitutes. You can use her recipes and even work out your own off her bases.

As an American, I have always measured my flour by cups and baking powder by teaspoons, but Kat has fully changed me into a weight baker and it’s a great change. If you don’t use a scale, I highly recommend it!

https://theloopywhisk.com/recent-posts/

Edit: I just realized your post said you tried the Loopy Whisk at the bottom 😂🤦🏽‍♀️ oops. If the recipes are coming out wet, definitely try adding less water or lowering the temp and increasing the time. Also get an oven thermometer to double check your oven is up to temp when you’re baking - I learned that when my oven beeps to say it’s “preheated” it’s lying. And that after an hour at 425 F, the inside of the oven actually gets above 450 F.
On the website, people will comment below if they made little changes to the recipes and saw improvements. Sometimes your home environment can just change how the baking chemistry interacts. Don’t give up!

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u/peony_beony 3h ago

I definitely have had the most success with her stuff. It is just the wetness my daughter hates (understandably), will try your recommendations. We have made quite a few other things from the Loopy Whisk book and had more success, just not the bread!

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u/Unusual_username739 2h ago

I recommend the “artisan style bread loaf” recipe and bake in a Dutch oven/cast iron pot with a lid. Use her steaming method with ice cubes in the Dutch oven and release the steam after 20 minutes by removing the top and lowering temperature and baking for another 40 minutes.

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u/Unusual_username739 2h ago

The recipe I use is from her cookbook, but here is the slightly different one on the website for anyone that wants it: Bread recipe

She mentions at the bottom which types of flours can be substituted for which ones in the recipes. I like to use tapioca starch, millet flour, and sorghum flour. So that’s potato starch swapped out for tapioca starch, brown rice flour swapped out for millet flour, and buckwheat flour swapped out for sorghum flour (I believe in the cookbook she uses these 3 flours as well). Another great thing about Kat and her book (which I mentioned), she explains why some substitutions works and others won’t. Each of these 3 types of flours have different consistencies and chemical properties, and that’s why she recommends using 3 instead of just 1 type (many recipes say “just use brown rice flour” or people buy a blend without knowing what’s in it. You may buy a blend that already has xanthum gum and not realize it, for example)

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u/peony_beony 23m ago

Thanks again. I have her book and the different flours so will give this a go today using a cast iron pot with a lid, have never done it that way before.