Imagine taking out a loaf of bread from the oven and it looks amazing. You look at its crust and say: “OMG, that should be crunchy”. You grab it, break it apart and hear the sound of fresh bread crunching. But wait, it was not hard to break apart… the bread is not heavy. You look inside. You see a perfect and fluffy crumb with lots of wholes. It is still warm, you grab the butter and put some on it and taste it. You can’t believe how soft and tasteful it is. You can’t believe it is gluten-free bread.
That was my reaction today when I took this bread from the oven. I was really amused by this creation. When I took the bread to my wife, she told me: “This feels the same as any bread with gluten, it’s perfect!”. This is why I couldn’t hold this recipe and had to post it today.
Before becoming celiac, I baked a lot of bread (with gluten, of course). One of my complete favourites was the Italian ciabatta bread. I loved everything about it, from the start, while managing the dough, and of course, the ending when you had to try it and feel the soft and yet crunchy bread.
I don’t know why I haven’t tried making a loaf of bread like the Italian ciabatta before. Maybe I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to achieve it with gluten-free flours, that I would never reach the texture… I don’t know. A few days ago with my wife, we saw this really nice looking ciabatta bread, and she asked me why I haven’t tried making one before.
Well, here is the result. Really, just try it and feel what I felt today. I don’t have more words to describe it. You won’t regret it.
For this one, if you have a stand mixer it would be great since there is a lot of beating to do. The dough will be very soft and runny, so it needs to be mixed around 5 minutes on a stand mixer. If you want to do it by hand, it will be a lot more mixing (at least 15 minutes) to assure that everything is homogeneous, that is the most important part of a gluten-free dough!
Fluffiest Gluten-Free Italian Artisan Bread
Course: Snacks, BreakfastCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium1
loaf2
hours35
minutesThis is the perfect bread. Soft yet crunchy, you won’t believe it’s gluten-free!
Ingredients
450 g of my Gluten-Free Bread Flour Blend.
30 g of honey (3 tsp)
15 g instant yeast (2.5 tsp)
480 ml warm milk (2 cups at 105-110°F / 40-43°C)
60 g of unsalted butter (4 tbsp)
16 g salt (2 tsp kosher salt)
Cornstarch for dusting.
Directions
- In a bowl, mix the warm milk, yeast and honey. Leave it around 3-5 minutes until it starts foaming.
- In a stand mixer with the flat beater on, incorporate all the ingredients. Start mixing slowly, and increase the speed progressively as you see that the dough starts homogenizing (or everything will fly away!). Beat it up for at least 5 minutes at high speed.
- You will end up with a sticky, runny and soft dough. You don’t need to take it out from the stand mixer bowl, just cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for 2 hours in a warm and draft-free place (I use my oven, heating it up to 120°F (45°C), turning it off, opening the door for 1 minute, and then leave the dough inside with the door closed and the oven light on). After the two hours, you will see that the dough has risen double its size at least.
- Take out the dough from the oven. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C) and prepare an oven sheet lining it with parchment paper.
- Dust the top of the dough with cornstarch and transfer it to the parchment paper (just let it fall from the bowl to the paper 😉 and scrape what is left on it).
- Dust the other side of the dough, and put some cornstarch in your hands. You will start giving the dough its shape now.
- Gently with the sides of your hands, insert the sides of the dough into the bottom. DON’T PRESS THE DOUGH FROM THE TOP! This way, you have to start giving it an oval shape (imagine a really wide baguette). Although the dough is soft, it will not stick to your hand because of the cornstarch, so add more if you feel it starts sticking.
- Now that you shaped your bread, cover it with some plastic wrap and let it rise again for 30 minutes just to give it a little pump of fluffiness.
- Now it’s baking time! Put the dough inside the oven and quickly throw 3 cubes of ice (around 1×1 inch each) inside and close the oven door, so they create some steam for our bread. This will allow us to form a nice crust! You have to bake this one for 35 minutes (remember to watch your time since all ovens are different!). The bread has to reach an internal temperature in the center of 200°F (93°C).
- Once ready, take the bread out, transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for 5-10 minutes before cutting it.
Enjoy! (take my advice and put some butter on a slice before it cools down!!)
