March 30, 2024 - 2:29pm
need to knead?
I have a relative coming to stay who is gluten-intolerant. Sigh. So, OK, I'll make some bread with some gluten-free flour substitute. Never used the stuff before. Got some chickpea flour. Looks and tastes like regular flour. But it occurs to me that with regular flour, we knead specifically to strengthen the gluten. Do I need to knead this stuff, as it has no gluten to strengthen?
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Just needs to be thoroughly mixed but kneading to develop gluten, obviously, is not needed!
I find chickpea flour, in the right amount, can give a bready flavour to gluten free breads. But only as a small ratio. It's quite a strong flavoured flour.
I suggest for a gluten free flour mix you'll need a gluten free grain flour plus starch, potato or corn, plus a little chickpea flour. A very good binder is psyllium husk powder. This looks like a good recipe...
https://theloopywhisk.com/2020/04/02/ultimate-gluten-free-bread/
Thanks. Not too impressed with the chickpea flower. When you stir it, thoroughly mix it, and try to knead, it really doesn't hang together in one ball. Tried to roll it out for a thick-crust pizza, and the disk just fell apart. Took the pieces, threw them in the pan, and just pressed on them to make a contiguous crust without holes. While the dough was rising in the bowl, it ended up as a pretty flat pizza crust. I can't really see making a real loaf out of the stuff. Geez Louise, you need a separate BINDER? Why don't they make stuff that you can just use for bread? There are loads of gluten-free flours out there, and evidently some are better than others for bread.
It's the gluten that holds the bread together. If there's no gluten then one must add a binder. I'm sure there are some gluten free flour mixes that have a binder included. But a chickpea flour with nothing else added won't make a good bread.
Can you get hold of some buckwheat flour?
I believe most of the major flour brands now have GF blends that contain the binder. Most of them use xanthan gum as binder. I've never used any of them so I can't speak to performance. King Arthur has a recipe for GF Pizza Crust.
Well, I don't DO non-gluten stuff. I just naively buy a non-gluten flour, and assume it'll pretend to behave like wheat flour. That's evidently a mistake. I want to buy a white powder that's gluten free, that will make what I make with wheat flour. I'm going to use the rest of the stuff to make chickpea biscuits. There are recipes, and they can't be all that bad. Um, so I hope.
While there are buckwheat flour bread recipes that I prefer this one is nice and simple with good results.
http://www.thebreadkitchen.com/recipes/gluten-free-buckwheat-loaf-recipe/
Can probably be done with other gluten free flours but I wouldn't use 100% chickpea flour. Ingredients are simple and easily available. The eggs act as a binder.
Use the chickpea flour to make socca. Delish!
Farinata! If it is the same thing then ditto. Delish and easy.
EDIT: Just googled it and it's the same thing!
Well, that's a fair point that egg can always be used as a binder. My recipe for chickpea biscuits doesn't include egg, but I'll probably throw one in.
Ought to look it up. Just Google "chickpea flour" and "bind", and you'll learn that everyone says that chickpea flour is a good binder. Sure doesn't seem that way to me.
As a binder in a bread I don't think it's up for the job. It simply won't make a leavened bread the same way as other binders which work far better. Might be better for other things. Haven't worked extensively with chickpea though. Psyllium husks and even eggs work far better.