Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Gluten Free Maple Pecan Bread for #WBD



Even though I've been participating in Zorra's awesome event for years (along with hundreds of other bloggers!), I never knew until this year - my seventh - what the true message behind this gathering of yeasted goodness was! The idea of World Bread Day, according to our founder, is to be able to appreciate and honour the fact that we have sufficient nutritious food every day. Not all of us are this lucky, and not all of us really realize how much we really can live without and still survive day to day. So let's make today the start of everyday appreciation for the little things - it's not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas that we have to think about what we're grateful for!

This year for World Bread Day (follow #WBD / on Twitter and like the Facebook page!) I wanted to make something that really could include all bread lovers - even those who have dietary restrictions like egg and dairy allergies or celiac. I found a gluten- soy- and gum-free, vegan recipe on Nourishing Meals that looked perfect to start with and gave it a little seasonal twist with rich pecans, cranberries, maple syrup and coconut milk. With my changes, the dough was too sticky to shape into the lovely rustic-looking boule that Ali made, so I greased my trusty GF-only loaf pan and bunged it into that. The result was a loaf that was moist and dense like a hearty country-style pumpernickel, but not heavy and brick-like as many storebought gluten free breads are. My mom has been enjoying it all week (it both freezes and toasts well!), and I never told her it was gluten free (I honestly forgot). At any rate, she gave it two thumbs (and a foot) up!

Maple Pecan Bread

Gluten Free Maple Pecan Bread
Makes one 9x5" loaf, 16 slices
2 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp maple sugar (or dark brown sugar)
1 cup sorghum flour
½ cup teff flour
½ cup quinoa flour
½ cup sweet rice flour
½ cup psyllium husk powder
⅓ cup ground chia seeds
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ cup ground pecans
½ tsp sea salt
2 ½ cups coconut milk alternative (like Coconut Dream, not the canned kind), warm
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup dried cranberries
  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the yeast, maple sugar, flours, psyllium, chia, cornstarch, cornmeal, ground pecans and salt. 
  2. Add the coconut milk, coconut oil and maple syrup. Mix well with a wooden spoon until a thick doughy mass forms.
  3. Beat in the pecans and cranberries.
  4. Cover bowl and let rest 45 minutes.
  5. Grease a 9x5” loaf pan.
  6. Press dough evenly into the pan, cover loosely and let rest 1 hour.
  7. Halfway through the resting time, preheat the oven to 400F, arrange the racks on the bottom two sections of the oven and place a pan of water on the bottom rack.
  8. Place the loaf directly above the pan of water (careful of the steam!) and bake for 40 minutes. 
  9. Turn out immediately onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 206.6
Total Fat: 7.7 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 29.0 mg
Total Carbs: 32.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 6.1 g
Protein: 3.5 g

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