I always have this notion that baking bread is difficult and time-consuming. However, after watching several bread-making videos on YouTube, I came to realize that actually it’s doable and it doesn’t require much time. So I decided to give it a try and while I was shopping for baking stuff at Phoon Huat, I saw a box of gluten-free bread mix by Yes You Can. How timely and motivating!
It costs about $7 plus per box but I thought it was worth it since it is made out of high-quality ingredients even though it might cost more than a store-bought loaf of multi-grain bread. And all you will need is some water and eggs to stir into the bread mix and pour it into a baking tin.
I also bought a loaf pan for baking bread and cakes in rectangular blocks. I would recommend you to get those non-stick cake pan or cupcake mould because it is so much easily to wash.
Yes You Can
Multi-Grain Bread Mix
Gluten-free
Non-GMO
High in fibre and omega-3
Ingredients:
Gluten Free Flour (Tapioca Starch, Maize Flour, Potato Starch, Sorghum Flour, Quinoa Flour), Grains & Seeds 11% (Linseed, Sunflower Seeds, Kibbled Buckwheat), Whey Powder (From Milk), Raising Agents (500, 575), Thickeners (412, 415, Cellulose (464, 466)), Skim Milk Powder, Maltodextrin (Maize), Iodised Salt.
The bread mix weighs about 120gram and has a serving size of 6. The mixture fits a 22 X 10 cm loaf pan.
There’s a recipe provided at the back of the box but I didn’t to omit eggs and use chia seeds instead. Below is my adapted recipe.
Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 200°C (fan forced) or 220°C (conventional oven).
2. Grease tin or spray with olive oil.
3. Mix about 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and 50 ml of water into a small mixing bowl. Let it soak for at least an hour until it forms this chia seed pudding consistency.
4. Add the expanded chia seeds into the bread mix with 250 ml of water. In this case, I mixed all the ingredients manually in a large mixing bowl. You can use an electric mixer to blend on slow speed for 1 minute. Remember to scrape down sides of bowl.
5. You can add some seeds into the bread if you like. I added a tablespoon of lavender flowers into the mixture.
6. Pour dough into bread tin. For best results cover with foil and bake for 30-35 minutes*.
7. Carefully remove foil and bake for further 15-20 minutes* or until golden brown.
8. Remove from oven and leave bread to cool completely before slicing.
You should get this pudding like consistency after soaking in the chia seeds for about an hour or so. It is often used as an egg replacer in vegan recipes.
I used this avocado olive oil to smear into the inner sides of the loaf pan so that it is easier to remove the bread from the baking pan.
On their website, they actually suggested that you can add some yeast and sugar for better taste. I would think that adding some yeast would help the bread to rise and make it looked more fluffy.
I place it in the oven for about 30 minutes and I covered it with a layer of aluminium foil. I think this is a good tip to prevent the top layer of the bread from getting burnt during the baking process.
My load of bread is done! I actually couldn’t believe that it has a really nice bread texture except that it is somewhat hard and very dense. Thus I felt that adding some yeast would help to make the bread rise.
But even though it is not as soft and fluffy, the taste of the bread is alright and it smells lovely.
This has certainly given me the boost of confidence in baking bread the next time. I might want to try baking bread from scratch.
Does baking bread require more skills than baking cake?
