King Arthur Gluten-Free Bread Mix

What a happy loaf!

I have been wheat-free, due to a food intolerance, for over seven years now. And in all that time I haven’t yet baked my own loaf of gluten-free bread. Until now. King Arthur Flour has sent me a sample of the GF bread mix some time ago. *They make their gluten-free products in a top 8 facility – yay!* The King Arthur Gluten-Free Bread Mix wasn’t past its expiration, so earlier this week I decided to try it. I did buy fresh GF yeast as yeast doesn’t last long and I was concerned that the one packed in the mix wasn’t fresh enough.

There was great pleasure in proofing the dough, watching it rise and then punching it down to proof again. Whilst baking, the happy loaf, pictured above, gave off a bread-y, home-y, yeast-y aroma – oh how I had missed that. Once out of the oven, I took out my large serrated bread knife (I had to root around for it as I haven’t used it on fresh homemade bread in so long) and sliced into the loaf.

There is a thin, beautifully brown “crust” and the inside, had clear air pockets produced by the yeast reaction. The texture was spongy, cake-like more than bread-like and to my taste buds, very clearly a tapioca-based product. It wasn’t able to hold up to very heavy toppings (on separate occasions, it buckled under both a layer or hummus and a layer of cream cheese.)  I don’t know that it would hold up to a traditional French toast creation (although I bet it would do fine if you did a baked version like Smitten Kitchen’s).

Upshot: it is definitely not what I remember bread like but warm out the oven with butter and sea salt it was pretty darn good.