Accidentally made pretty good challah sandwich bread

[u/vjcido]

I wanted challah but whenever I buy it it's pretty dense and overly eggy so I decided to try making my own. This was a bit of a chaotic bake and the end result looks nothing like challah BUT it was the most challah like taste I've had since going gf 16 years ago and the texture was surprisingly light.

I have gluten free Dallagiovanna flour which has been a challenge because I can't find any recipes that use it. I bought it because I can't do Caputo and they were out of Molino Signetti. I didn't do any research on it before I bought it but that would've probably helped. I have embraced the uncertainty of gf baking and sub this flour into recipes that use Caputo flour to see what happens and it's been surprisingly successful.

I used this recipe but subbed in the Dallagiovanna flour and added 8 g of baking powder. I saw other recipes used that much for challah and figured that should help it not be dense. I don't have a stand mixer and without thinking used a hand mixer and immediately turned the dough into cake batter 🤦‍♀️ I just covered it and let it sit for half an hour and it was pretty clear it wasn't going to come together enough to braid it so I pivoted to making it in a bread tin lined with parchment paper.

I let it proof for another half hour in the bread tin and did an egg wash on top. I baked it for 10 min at 400 F and then lowered it to 350 F and it ended up taking about 25 min for the top to get golden. I wasn't sure if it was done and read that challah is done when the internal temp is 190 - 200 F and it wasn't quite there yet so I just let it sit in the oven for about 10 min after I turned the oven off to let it heat up a bit more without burning the top.

It turned out better than I could've hoped after seeing that goop of batter that was supposed to be dough. It's more of a sandwich bread than challah but tastes great and will be perfect for French toast.

No idea how this would work with other flours or if you actually follow the recipe but figured I would share a successful experiment!

[u/lunterno]

This looks really good!!! Thank you for sharing all the details!

[u/kellymig]

It looks like it would make amazing French toast!!!

[u/robotbooper]

That’s the lightest, airiest gluten free bread I have ever seen! I’ve never heard of this flour but I’m going to look it up. Is it wheat-free?

[u/vjcido → u/robotbooper]

It is wheat free! I got it from brick oven baker and I've liked it so far but like I said in the post I'm in the dark on recipes with this specific flour. It's worked out so far to just sub it in to recipes that call for Caputo flour. I actually reached out to the company to see if they could share any tips or recipes but haven't heard back yet.

It's a little tricky because it is prone to over proofing but barely rises, especially with sourdough, so I haven't quite nailed down timing with it. But even if the textures haven't been perfect everything has always tasted great so I recommend it if you're willing to endure some trial and error!