super simple celiac safe bread recipe?

[wombatclay]

Heyla!

My 4yo dd1 was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease. While we're starting to get the hang of things at home, she will be returning to her Waldorf preschool in a few weeks and it suddenly dawned on me... they bake every day to make rolls/buns for snack and they bake "special" items for holidays and celebrations during the year. And if any of these baked goods contain wheat, barley, or rye not only can dd1 not eat them, she can't participate in making them and may even become ill if she comes into contact with the flour/dough/finished product/utensiles used to make the dough/the table or plates that were in contact with the flour/etc.

I'd be happy to provide the school with a gluten-free flour mix but given our limited budget it needs to be a "home made" mix and can't include the pricier ingredients like xantham gum. I've looked through dozens of gluten-free and/or celiac-safe baking books and all the recipes seem much too complicated for the sort of "daily baking with a group of 3-4year olds" scenario.

So does anyone have a favorite "simple" gluten free flour mix or simple gluten free bread recipe?

Thanks all!

(oh, and if you've parented a Celiac child at a Waldorf school please PM me with any BTDT ideas or advice... I'm all ears! thanks again )

[bluets]

if you want to masquerade as regular bread, with some rising, you cannot avoid xanthan gum. the good thing is that you use only a teeny bit at a time. the best kneaded GF bread i've made was from this website: http://www.curiousfrau.com/recipes/m...n-free-recipes using her "Holy Grail" flour mix. it kneads well, rises nicely, has the look and feel of bread (without the gluten), and was pretty easy for this non-baker to do. i even managed to twist it around into a nice little spiral loaf

in actuality, it is far easier to just go without bread period and find some new tastier (unrelated to bread) substitutes. but with a new babe due any day, this change would be impractical for you right now.

[wombatclay]

Thanks!

The bread wouldn't be for home use, but for dd1's school. Baking is a BIG part of their daily ritual (and there are special baked goods that are important to their seasonal rituals as well) and since it is a very small school (just the one classroom/kitchen/meal table) there needs to be an option that will allow for group baking without affecting dd1's health or excluding her (and then requiring a decontamination of the kitchen/meal table before she can help prepare lunch). And all the measuring, mixing, kneading, shaping etc is done by 3-4 year olds so it really does need to be pretty easy with a consistant/edible outcome (I've tried a few gluten free baked goods that were pretty horrible in terms of taste... plus the flour goes everywhere in the classroom given that 3-4 year olds really like flour ).

I'll check out the Holy Grail mix and the website though! There are a number of gluten free flour/bread mixes at my local grocery store but they're too pricey for me to consider bringing every day for an entire school year, you know? So I was hoping to find something I could make in bulk and leave at the school... I've seen a few recipes that just swap rice flour for the wheat flour but I don't know how well it works and you're right, with babe due any minutes I don't have the energy to test lots of recipes!

[crunchy_mama]

http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/in...ic=56641&st=30

This is the easiest recipe I know of- it is made for the microwave but IIRC there are those on there that are using the oven as well. However, generally speaking you are not going to be doing a lot of kneading with gluten free bread. I am not a big baker but have baked a fair sampling of gf bread and really there hasn't been any kneading. Usually the batter is stickier and more liquid. With this recipe you could make up the dry at home and then just have him add the wet and mix it.

I would suggust you invest in some xanthum gum though- it lasts a very long time as you use it a lot and if you want some kind of texture similiar and that elasticity you need the xanthum.

http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/tag/lavash-bread/

this is my favorite gf easy bread recipe it takes me literally less than 10 min to get it into the oven. If you had all the dry premixed it would be less. It calls for xanthum however makes a great flatbread. If you are just doing it for 1 little kid I would make about 1/4 the recipe.

Is he going to have his own surface to work on? Separate non- gluten pans- if they are non-stick they need to be NEW! I would be there to supervise for at least the first few times.

[wombatclay]

Thanks! I'll give those a try as well.

There is no way to provide a seperate work space or baking area and as the kitchen/classroom are a single space there is also no way to prevent baking materials from contaminating the general classroom... so whatever baked good is being prepared needs to be gluten free every time. And they bake every day.

It's a private preschool and dd1 will be the first kiddo with celiac that they've had. Her class does include a few other children with dietary restrictions (a diabetic child, a few vegan children) and the school has been great about adapting to their specific needs. But I also know those parents provide a lot of the materials that make this possible (for example special plates and utensiles for the vegan children as well as vegan substitutes for things like butter). The daily baking isn't really optional and given that it's a single space there is simply no way to avoid contamination...

As for attending or supervising for a few days... I have a 2yo with special needs and a babe who was due on August 7th (and still isn't here!) so unfortunately there is no way I can attend preschool with her. There just wouldn't be "room" in the room for out little circus!

[bluets]

gluten-free gourmet has a baking book that uses a homemade mix. the problem with it, i think, is that it uses bean flours which are notoriously hard to digest.

i think amazon.com has subscription offers (with free shipping and $$ savings!) for lots of GF stuff, including, I think, Bob's Red Mill mixes (pizza, pancake, brownies).

if you're looking for pasta, Tinkyada is good and I think it is available through the amazon.com subscription service (which you can cancel after even just 1 shipment).

lots of great GF cooking websites out there that i recall having bread/quick bread recipes: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ and http://www.elanaspantry.com/ are the first ones that jump into my brain.

quick breads with lots of eggs could be alternatives - then there wouldn't be a need to use xanthan gum. in the really old days, "flour" meant any ground up grainy thing (wheat was very very expensive), and they used a lot of eggs to bind and induce rising.

[crunchy_mama]

Yah, totally forget about Elana's recipes- I use them all the time! However, as you said in something like that you are going to be needing eggs. Elana's recipes are super simple and easy. She uses almond and coconut flour. you can get a decent deal on almond flour at TJ's- about $4 a lb IIRC.

[wombatclay]

Cool. I bet the kids would like the eggs... the school has their own chickens and the kiddos help feed/care for the flock so there should be eggs available!

[LBMarie9]

sub for bread ideas-thanks
though life is much easier without bread and then no yeast

[mellowjello]

i like this one:

http://mudspice.wordpress.com/2007/1...ee-dairy-free/

i have used extra water (or juice) instead of the rice milk and it was fine. the brown rice flour is expensive though if you can't buy in bulk. i agree you need the xanthan gum but my bag has lasted awhile.

[Chinese Pistache]

TBH, I don't see how it would be possible to keep your child gluten free in such a setting if she's going to participate in baking. She would need her own surfaces, utensils, pans and even, not be in the same room where wheat flour was wafting around. It would be one thing to send her with safe already cooked gf bread if they were just going to eat it, but to have her make it under those circumstances, just doesn't seem possible. That sounds like a really tough situation.

ETA: Sorry, I went back and reread. Am I understanding correctly that they will bake gf everyday and eliminate gluten from their projects? If so, beware that there's definitely a learning curve to gf cooking and baking. Maybe you can send them some info in advance. A lot of the gf bloggers have how-tos and troubleshooting info on their blogs.

[bluets]

CP: i think that is the plan - to give the teachers a lot of info, some recipes, and a basic (low cost, parent-provided) mix that they can use, thereby eliminating all gluten at (the tiny) school.

[wombatclay]

Bluets hit the nail on the head and put it much better than I did!