Beyond Rice and Tofu

Earlier this week I posted about the Crusty Boule that I had made from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, MD and Zoe Francois. The cookbook focuses on gluten containing breads but has one chapter on gluten free breads that is well worth the price of the cookbook. It is my understanding that Jeff and Zoe worked with Shauna of Gluten Free Girl on the gluten free recipes. And they all did a wonderful job!

Today I made the brioche bread. (You can find a copy of the recipe here.) And as you can see below, it baked up great.

This time I decided to make only a half of a batch to test it out. (Plus I don’t need that much bread around the house!) Initially I was a bit concerned because the dough was quite soupy. But I left the dough on the counter to rise as directed and I think it almost doubled in size. I stuck it in the refrigerator overnight and when I took it out this morning I could tell that it had in fact risen quite a bit yesterday. I placed it in a loaf pan, since I don’t have a special brioche pan, smoothed it out, covered it and left it on the counter for the allotted time. When I uncovered it, I discovered that it had even risen a bit more. I brushed on the egg wash and sugar and stuck it in the oven to bake. It came out looking wonderful! It was a bit hard to get out of the pan but with a few hard shakes it finally came out perfectly. Luckily I had to leave the house and so I left it on the counter to cool completely. When I returned, I sliced it up and…YUM! Another delicious bread – many thanks to Jeff, Zoe and Shauna!

If you wish to make your own bread , I would highly recommend this cookbook. This bread, the brioche, is a sweeter bread and probably less nutritious than the boule bread as this recipe contains more highly refined gluten free flours (tapioca, cornstarch, etc.) than the boule (sorghum, brown rice, etc.), but each one has its place. I would imagine the brioche would be good for making French toast. And in the cookbook there is a recipe for Cinnamon Buns using the brioche dough – I bet they are wonderful!

Have you made any of the recipes in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day?

Happy Baking!