There are thousands upon thousands of kinds of leavened breads in the world, but only a handful of types—injera and dosa, for example—are gluten-free by nature. The others rely on gluten for their elasticity and structure. That means making a gluten-free loaf of bread is a very difficult endeavor—after all, the familiar structure and texture of bread is defined by gluten. Because they lack the signature texture of wheat-based breads, gluten-free loaves are technically more like savory cakes than breads.
For us, creating a successful version of gluten-free bread means replicating the consistency of traditional bread and trying to make our experimental gluten-free loaves as bread-like as we can. While this process is not without challenges, we believe our recipes come very close to achieving our goal. We’ve come up with a blend of flours and then add thickening agents and enzymes to make loaves that resemble regular bread as closely as possible.
Even if you’re not gluten-free, learning to bake a gluten-free loaf is a valuable skill—perfect for making something special for a friend or family member who is.
Gluten-free brioche is a great place to start. Brioche is the granddaddy of sweet enriched breads; it’s rich and tender (and deeply satisfying) because it’s laden with butter. The richness of butter and eggs provides gluten-free dough (which is typically dense) with some welcome softness. For this recipe, the hydration level is slightly lower than it would be for a wheat-flour dough. This is to ensure that the dough is easy to work with given that there is no gluten to contribute structure. Many of our tasters did not know this brioche was gluten-free—it’s that good.
