Gluten/Dairy free baking. Trial 1

Introduction:

Today begins another series of baking experiments: Gluten free baking

Three of my coworkers have gluten allergies and have sparked this new endeavor. The challenge with baking gluten-free is finding other methods to replace the elastic nature and texture which gluten brings to a recipe.

For my first recipe to explore this gluten-free variable I chose a quick and easy bread sticks recipe (because who doesn't love bread sticks?) Trial 1. was the control group: gluten-free flour, but no additional attempts to supplement the missing gluten molecules.

Proceedure:

Ingredients:

1.25 cups gluten-free flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

0.5 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup margarine (softened)

1/3 cup water

3 tablespoons margarine, melted

Directions:

• In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 
• Add softened margarine and water and stir to form a soft dough
• Roll out until approximately 0.5 inch thick see Fig 1.
• Cut into breadsticks. 
• Add melted margarine to 9" x 13" pan. Place breadsticks in the margarine. see Fig 2.
• Bake at 450 degrees F for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm. see Fig 3.

Figure 1. rolling out glutenless dough

Figure 2. bread sticks ready for baking

Figure 3. Finished product

Results and Observations:

The dough was very stiff, brittle, and crumbly like shortbread, but otherwise was buttery and delicious as normal. My three non-gluten coworkers enjoyed the bread sticks, so the end product was a success and trial 1 should serve well as a control group for future trials. I will keep you posted on my progress.