Bread with rough surface? I'm experimenting, please help!
I'm doing some pretty unorthodox baking. Complete experimentation. I decided to put this in "Challenges" rather than the "Baking for Special Needs" section because I thought "Challenges" would be more fitting. I have a bit of a long explanation ahead, so bear with me.
My husband has Celiac Disease and I have gluten sensitivity. I have been doing gluten free baking for the last 4-5 years. I have mastered the simpler stuff (that requires less structure), such as cookies, cakes, biscuits, etc. But what I find particularly challenging is the bread and buns. I'm trying to be nice, but all the recipes out there suck. They really do. And no, I don't want to make buns in a muffin tin. These recipes are at best edible, and taste alright. But they just don't have the same texture as wheat bread, and they stale very quickly. On the other hand, some (not all) of the commercial gluten free breads (at least, ones such as Glutino and other similar brands) are fantastic. Looking at the ingredients, I see they use such things as modified cellulose, alpha-amylase enzyme, etc. I thought, "There has to be a way to do this at home." I can't find anything on the interwebs of anyone even attempting this. So if I get a good home-based recipe, I'll publish my results. :)
There is a very interesting paper that was published in 2007 of a New Zealand bakery attempting to recreate a traditional bread dough that was gluten free. All the (half decent) recipes online of gluten free breads create a batter (like a thick cake batter), rather than a dough. If you don't add enough liquid, the bread won't rise while proofing, and you won't get the oven spring. If you have slightly too much water, the bread will rise, and will have the oven spring, but it will collapse (bubbles burst through the too-liquidy surface). Also, you have to use a "tall" pan (such as a pain de mie, or Pullman pan) or the batter will spill over the sides while proofing. So this NZ bakery created a gluten free dough that could be used on their current equipment (that was previously used for wheat dough).
You can see on page 43 of the pdf a picture of the gluten bread next to the control wheat bread. It looks fantastic! On page 72, you'll see the list of ingredients (and their weight) used for this bread. On page 15, you'll see the ingredients, product code, and supplier.
So here is my recipe, trying to mimic theirs. I had to make changes since I couldn't find yogurt powder, (proper?) alpha-amylase, and lipase. My scale also doesn't have the decimal points for grams.
7g soy flour
50g potato starch
288g corn starch
17g buttermilk powder
7g whey protein
9g modified cellulose
24g psyllium husk
0.5g transglutaminase (I figured out this works out to be about 1/8 of a tsp, or 3 tiny "stevia spoon" scoops)
9g salt
18g bakers' yeast
10g vinegar
14g canola oil
15g sugar
355g water
The transglutaminase is made by Moo Gloo, and the modified cellulose is I'm Free Gluten Replacement. Now, the recipe calls for HPMC K4M, or Methylcellulose K4M. I couldn't get it shipped to Canada reasonably, so I decided to get the Modernist Pantry "I'm Free" version. They wouldn't tell me which methylcellulose it was and said it was "proprietary." So I figured I'd chance it. I had considered buying CMC (Carboxymethyl Cellulose) since there are papers on companies using this for their gluten free goods, but decided to take a chance with the "I'm Free" stuff since it was developed for gluten free goods. I was hoping it was K4M.
I also don't think I have the right kind of alpha-amylase (original calls for 0.05 g... so I put a few little granules). I could only find some at a local brewing store, but it is made to be denatured at higher temperatures (to be able to withstand boiling water for brewing). So the first batch I left it out, but the bread was very pale. I surmised that it was because the sugar was all eaten up by the yeast, and maybe the additional amylase would convert the starch to sugar, allowing the bread to brown more. But the second batch ended up slightly gummy and had huge holes in the middle. I think that I need amylase that denatures at a "normal" temperature and not the "special" kind. I am considering buying BSG amylase, but the shipping to Canada is a bit much.
FYI, the main things in this recipe that contribute to the dough being a dough (rather than a batter) are the psyllium husk and the modified cellulose, and as far as I know, the transglutaminase as well. And protein and the transglutaminase contribute to the structure. The modified cellulose is a hydrocolloid, and it works in a similar way to xanthan gum (helps the bread retain moisture). These additives are present to try and mimic the gluten in wheat bread. See how difficult this is?
The first loaf turned out the best. The inside wasn't gummy like the regular gluten free loaves made with xanthan gum. It was soft, and the crumb was tight, reminiscent of a good wheat sandwich bread (what I want!). The flavour and smell were a bit off, though. It had that weird "cracker smell," and strange starchy taste that the high starch gluten free breads have (boo).
Besides all that, I just couldn't get the dough to be smooth on the outside. It was pretty sticky, so I didn't want to add more water, and I think more flour would have made it too dense. So I tried to smooth it out with wet hands, but it just wouldn't work. Even before it rose, the surface looked weird and porous.
Does this ever happen with regular wheat bread? If so, what is the cause? Maybe then I can figure out how to make a "smooth" dough?
I think I'm going a step in the right direction, at least! If anybody else out there wants to take on this kind of experimentation, let me know your results!!! :)
Here are some additional pictures:
^^2nd loaf (outside slightly darker than first; has alpha-amylase)
^^1st loaf, inside
^^1st loaf, cut open side facing down (we ate a bunch of it for supper, lol). See how super light coloured it was?
^^ For reference, here is a picture of my gluten free paska (Mennonite Easter Bread) which was made with xanthan gum (and was a batter). This is what I mean about it being "gummy." It snaps in half easily when bent compared to wheat bread, and it dries out very fast.
I make gluten-free bread fairly regularly for one particular customer of mine. I started with recipes from "Health Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" and "Gluten-free Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". They have some good recipes, actually. I prefer whole-grain flours to the pure starches and try to use very little of potato starch, tapioca starch or others. I use a lot of brown rice flour, sorghum flour, amaranth flour, teff flour, buckwheat flour, that sort of thing. For giving structure to the dough I use ground psyllium husk in some breads, and eggs and xanthan gum in others. I use extra virgin olive oil, honey, Kalamata olives, different seeds, etc. Nothing I can't pronounce (except xanthan gum, perhaps!). These particular customers love my bread and eagerly order it every week.
The breads made with ground psyllium husk can have a cracked surface, depending on how much I put in the loaf, but the dough is easy to handle and shape. The ones with eggs and xanthan gum tend to be quite soft and sticky but I can shape them with wet hands. I shape both kinds free-form (not in a pan) and they hold their shape quite well.
Can you post any pictures of your bread? I'd love to see!!!
Hmmm, don't have any recent ones but here are some earlier versions of the Olive bread (brown rice flour, whole sorghum flour, limited amounts of potato and tapioca starch, ground psyllium husk, a bit of sugar and salt, olive oil and olives), and my GF "Not Rye" bread, with teff flour (bound with xanthan gum and eggs). I don't like the pure starches such as tapioca, corn, etc. because they have almost no nutrition or flavour. Same for white rice flour.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing! What is the crumb like in these? Is it right? Or is there "big holes" like ciabatta? Just curious.
I guess I'm just desperately trying to make a normal sandwich bread. But in your breads, do they stale quickly? If they're frozen and then thawed, do they fall apart when you try to slice them?
The other reason why reason why I want to make my own good quality gluten free bread is for communion. It needs to survive freezing and slicing into small cubes.
My husband and I can't have wheat, and there is another guy at our church that is allergic to potato and tapioca (cassava). As you can imagine, that makes things difficult! All the store bought loaves have either potato or tapioca or both.
I don't eat the gluten free bread myself, so I don't cut it or store it. I think my customers freeze it as they buy three loaves at a time. I don't think there are big, ciabatta-type holes in it; probably a more regular crumb. But getting a good, nutritious GF bread that is exactly the same texture as wheat sandwich bread, well, I'm not sure that's possible without, as you have already found out, a lot of chemicals and weird things. :(
Wow, no potato or tapioca! That does make it a bit more tough, but there are other kinds of pure starch like corn starch or arrowroot. Check out this link about GF flours and starches. Oh, and I forgot to mention oat flour - can you eat oats (as long as they are processed in a gluten-free facility)?
I'm actually not interested in nutrition at all. I try to limit carbs for nutrition purposes (HFLC, or high fat, low carb), so the bread is actually a treat for us. I would eat bread with the frequency that I would eat cakes and cookies.
That's interesting that you don't eat the bread, and just make it.
Just remember that chemicals are not that scary. Water is dihydrogen monoxide, salt is sodium chloride, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, etc. You can also think of modified cellulose as similar stuff to Metamucil (basically... a bunch of fibre).
There's a gluten-free bread recipe at The World of Gluten-Free Bread blog that may interest you. It is less fussy, with easier-to-obtain ingredients, and (slightly) lower carb content, since it utilizes flours as well as starches.
The first bread recipe on the page is a batter-style bread that I have not tried and therefore can't comment on. The second bread recipe, titled "My Gluten Free Bread Recipe!", is one that I have used and found to be quite good. What is particularly impressive about it is that it will stay moist and flexible for nearly a week if kept in a plastic bag, with none of the staling and crumbling that is typical of GF breads which rely on gums as the binding agent. The flavor is also pleasing even though buckwheat isn't one of my favorite flours. You could substitute teff flour for the buckwheat flour to obtain a milder flavor and lighter color if you prefer. The texture is slightly spongey, compared to a wheaten bread, but not cakey.
The crust on a GF bread just won't be as pretty as the crust on a wheaten bread. The crust in the photo you posted suggests that the bread had overproofed, since bubbles were breaking through at the surface. If you see pinhole-size bubbles starting to appear, get the bread into the oven as fast as you can. It behaves sort of like a high-rye bread in that respect. You could also smooth the surface of the loaf with dampened fingers or a dampened spatula immediately after placing it in the pan - another rye baking trick. Note that if you use oiled plastic to keep the loaf surface from drying as it proofs, the crust will have a greyish, hazy appearance. That holds true for just about any bread, not just GF breads.
Have fun with your experiments.
Paul
That's the really weird part... it can't be overproofing because it has that rough surface BEFORE I start proofing. I took it out of the mixer and it just stayed rough. I tried rolling it into a ball, and the outside would just not smooth out. I wet my hands and right away tried smoothing out the top. It does nothing. It's like the bubbles are permanently there.
If you look at my post about the bread I mentioned, above, you can see the loaf's surface is rougher a wheat bread's crust but nowhere near as rough as the photo you posted. When I compare the recipes, the one you've experimented with has 6-7% psyllium husk relative to either the flour or water weights, where the one I referenced has 5% or less, also relative to either the flour or water weights. That would produce a stiffer matrix in your bread and might partly explain why the surface is resistant to smoothing.
I have no experience with transglutaminase or modified cellulose, so can't begin to surmise what effect they might have.
Is the bakers yeast a dry granulated product or a moist compressed product? If dry, the 18g of yeast relative to the weight of the flours/starches (345g) is very much higher than anything I've seen in any bread recipe. My suggestion is to dial that back to 7g, or even less.
If for no reason other than to contrast the two approaches, try baking the recipe from the World of Gluten-Free Bread blog. It won't aggravate your husband's coeliac disease, it's about as good as gluten-free bread can get, and both of you will probably enjoy eating it. You can always tweak the flours to arrive at different flavors and colors, too.
Best of luck,
Paul