Breadmakers- and no wheat?

[Joey]

I have been offered a bread maker :great:great

But I have absolutely no idea about them, never seen one in action or anything, and my DD has a wheat intolerance, she can eat rye/spelt etc but not wheat.

Are they easy to use and can you buy mixes for them or is it better to make your own from flour and whatever else is in bread?

Thanks excellent cooking advisers

[soulmama]

Spelt & rye are fairly east to work with. :)
Breadmachine depends on the model but with a little tweaking I'm sure you will get a decent result. ;)

[michelle_j_r]

you can buy lots of bread mixes. i use Lauke (i think that's how it's spelt) but i just use their Crusty White mix so i am not sure about other flour alternatives. But heaps of people use bread machines now so i am sure you'd easily find rye mixes.... oh, and you don't even need a pre-mix. You can just buy bread improver and add it to whatever flour you like (assuming that you can use bread improver- it adds extra protein.... i don't know enough about wheat intolerance).

I chose the premix cos i love the texture of the bread. And i was not too keen on the smell of the bread improver! LOL! (not a big deal, though). But if you are not getting the instruction manual for the machine you have been offered then have a google for it. Cos all machines seem to have their own little tweaky things you need to play with to get a good loaf. I know mine took three goes of average results before i found the settings that i liked.

[jodiemiller]

Bread improver = gluten, but if spelt is tolerated, then gluten should be fine. Test it out and see. I can give you some bread improver to test with if you like. Not sure how small a quantity they sell at the supermarket.

[soulmama]

I think it's Lotus brand Jodie... that's the only one I've seen and it comes in 250g. :shrug I don't find I need it with the organic flours though.

Found a couple of recipes for you Jo:

http://www.intuitiveparenting.com.au/showthread.php?1888-Breadmakers-and-no-wheat&p=45684#post45684
http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/8454/spelt-bread-in-a-breadmaker.aspx
http://www.bread-maker.net/Bread-Types/Rye-Bread.htm

[Bron]

i don't use bread improver (i think the nasty in it is soy emulsifier but can't remember for sure), so i use strong flour (which is gluten flour).

when i first got a bread machine it had no manual, so i'm glad my current one does. if yours doesn't have one, joey, this might help.

the order in which the ingredients goes in is - water, oil, sugar, salt, flour (in which i include the gluten flour), milk powder, yeast.

[soulmama]

Bron it does depend on the brand... my Panansonic was yeast first and water last and it always made a much nicer loaf than any of my Brevilles. ;)

[Rinelle]

Be aware that if the bread machine has been used to make wheat bread before, then there could still be trace amounts of wheat on it. Depends how sensitive your DD is. The fiddly little bits can be hard to clean.

[Phoenix]

Simply Good at Alderley have a really nice light rye pre mix and a dark rye but I haven't tried that.

[Bron]

it is so bizarre that the order in which the ingredients go makes any difference to the end result :D

by better, c, do you mean a nicer taste or a fluffier/lighter loaf??

[soulmama]

Yes Bron... it just tasted waaaaaaay nicer. I did a few batch tests running both machines with the same ingedients and it always turned out wonderful in the Panasonic... but the loaf size was just inconvenient - the Breville had more functions and capabilities though so we just got used to it. :shrug

[Bron]

that is so weird! i can't think of anything weirder :2lol

i almost put the ingredients in mine in a different order, but didn't, cos if i stuff it, the kids go without lunch :)

[zookeeper]

Bread improver = gluten

Hi everyone! Don't post here much but read this and thought I'd let you know that bread improver isn't gluten and it should be fine for gluten free baking. Check out this link for more info on what bread improver is and what it's made of. http://www.squidoo.com/what-is-bread-improver

I've used ascorbic acid as a substitute in the past.

[Madi]

Yes, I've used crushed vit C tablets myself. But I don't bother these days, my bread turns out fine without it.