Fee Fie Foe Fum, I'll Grind Your Sorghum to Make My Bread!

The Recipe: Ancient Grains Bread

• Bread Machine Method
• from "Complete Gluten-Free Cookbook"
• Supposedly makes 15 slices

The Ingredients:
1 c. sorghum flour
3/4 c. amaranth flour
3/4 c. cornmeal
1/4 c. quinoa flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1 tbsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp bread machine or instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c. water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cider vinegar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

The Directions:
1. In a large bowl or plastic bag, combine sorghum flour, amaranth flour, cornmeal, quinoa flour, tapioca starch, brown sugar, xanthan gum, yeast and salt. Mix well and set aside.

2. Pour water, oil, and vinegar into the bread machine baking pan. Add eggs and egg whites.

3. For this step the book had some directions that didn't fit with our simple bread machine. So we just added the mixed ingredients, guessed at a setting, and then let the machine do the work for us for about 3 hours.

The Grand Grains

My Take on the Bake
We got the diverse flours at a health foods store. They seem to be a staple of gluten-free baking if you're making recipes from gluten-free recipe books, but like I said in my last post, stores are now selling all-purpose gluten-free baking flour that you could use in your own recipes. We didn't have cider vinegar, so we substituted with Pinot Grigio vinegar, a great-smelling alternative.This turned out to be a very dense loaf of bread that probably only yields about 8-10 slices.

The aromatic smell filled the house and made my nostrils jump with joy as this bread baked. My first reaction when I tasted it, however, was disappointment. It was too dense and nutty flavored to enjoy plain with a bit of butter. Then my mom had the brilliant idea to toast it, and with a smearing of gooseberry preserves (from IKEA of course), this gluten-free toast tasted mahhhhvelous! Toasting it seemed to either dampen the nutty flavor or bring out the grainy flavor so it tasted more like normal bread. I'd definitely make it again and eat it with jam or make a toasted PB&J sandwich. Who needs wheat? Not I, Wheatless Welch!