Book of Yum

I don’t know about you, but every time I see a bakery stand at the Farmer’s Market, or the bakery section of a gourmet grocery store, and see some beautiful herb-encrusted flatbread, I can’t help but get a little jealous. Bread can seem a little boring when it’s just plain, unflavored bread- oh, still yummy, but it doesn’t necessarily have the flavor kick to stand on its own as a meal. (I do love me a good vegetarian sandwich, though… with hummus, fresh basil, tomatoes and sprouts, maybe some cheese if I’m doing dairy- oh so good.) So that’s why I was inspired to create this olive herb flatbread for a recent gluten-free support group get-together. We have members with multiple allergies, so I made the recipe as allergen-friendly as possible, with no soy, dairy, eggs, bean flour, or nuts involved. I was inspired jointly by a Bette Hagman recipe in her “Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy” and a recipe for olive herb flatbread in my The Best 50 Olive Recipes (Best 50) cookbook. Basically, the balance of flour to liquid is the only thing similar to the Bette Hagman recipe, but it was helpful and I’m sure the original recipe (with rice and tapioca starch and seasoned with fennel and onion) would be good as well. However, for my creation I wanted a more healthful flour blend with some help from one of my favorite whole-grain gluten-free flours, teff. According to one online source, teff “contains 11% protein, 80% complex carbohydrate and 3% fat. It is an excellent source of essential amino acids, especially lysine, the amino acid that is most often deficient in grain foods. Teff contains more lysine than barley, millet, and wheat and slightly less than rice or oats. Teff is also an excellent source of fiber and iron, and has many times the amount of calcium, potassium and other essential minerals found in an equal amount of other grains.” These researchers were not well versed on the gluten-free diet, but uncontaminated, gluten-free teff flour can be found through Bob’s Red Mill or The Teff Company. I like teff for the whole-grain nutty brown flour flavor it imparts to baked goods, as well as its high fiber and protein, but I think it works best combined with other flours as it is in this recipe. So, why not give this fancy flatbread recipe a try, and see how you like it. Or, better yet, come up with your own fancy flavor combination, test it out, and tell me all about it in the comments?

Want more whole grain bread recipes?
Try Adeena’s Gluten-Free Rosemary Teff Dinner Roll Recipe
or my South American Socca Recipe
or this Apple Onion Fetta Socca Recipe
Or my Allergen-free Buckwheat Crepe Recipe

BytheBay also has a lovely recipe for Gluten-Free Kalamata Olive Rosemary Artisan Bread that looks very promising.

Got any other favorites? Share in the comments!
*Note- I was making other pizzas in the oven at the same time and the oven door was something of a revolving door, so the bread sank a little. However, it tasted great and the texture was very good, so I think it should be fine as long as you don’t overproof it and don’t open the oven while it’s baking!*

When it comes to gluten-free bread, I am difficult to please. After growing up on packaged Ener-g foods bread, I now can’t stand the stuff. Pamela’s bread mix makes me shudder, Bob’s Red Mill Hearty bread mix confuses my palate, and Kinnikinnick packaged, sliced bread just doesn’t do much for me. What I like best is a soft, warm loaf of bread fresh from the oven or bread machine, baked from one of the lovely recipes in “The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread.” Or, if I want to be really decadent, I’ll make Bette Hagman’s recipe for french bread from “More From the Gluten-Free Gourmet” for a dinner party. I don’t know how she makes white rice flour and tapioca starch taste SO GOOD, but it’s amazing, and that recipe has converted more than one glutenoid to having a favorable opinion of gluten-free breads. Actually, I can’t make enough of it, as a moderate party of glutenoids tears through a loaf before I can say, “Would you like some basil dipping oil with that?” So, I have my favorite recipes well established, and although I’ve flirted with recipes by Carol Fenster or gluten-free bread recipes found online, I always end up coming back to Bette. However, I had to add one more to my favorite bread recipes of all times when I discovered Adeena’s recipe for Gluten-free dinner rolls below. This recipe was added to the SillyYaks Yahoo group files in 2005 and everyone who tried it seemed to like it, so I was inspired to try it, especially when another member suggested adding a little teff flour and making it as rolls, rather than just bread. As I mixed up the dough I started to have a good feeling- after years of GF baking you can tell when a dough is going to be nice to work with and this stuff was gloriously elastic. I pulled out a glob to make into a roll and I was thrilled with how workable and easy-to-handle the dough was. I baked it up and had lovely, hearty brown gluten-free dinner rolls to enjoy with our dinner. I’ve made them many times over the years, and even served them at a Bay Area Celiac group get-together with very positive response. I wanted to post them here, but first asked Adeena’s permission, which she kindly granted. I’d been reading about some interesting baking techniques lately, so I decided to see what would happen if I tried them out- I was hoping for a hard, crunchy exterior with the same soft, tender interior that I’d been enjoying. Happily, the ol’ ice-cubes-in-the-oven technique, combined with a higher temperature for the first few minutes, did seem to create a crunchier crust, and brushing the rolls with egg wash, while not entirely necessary, gave them an attractive, glossy sheen. [Note: I also tried brushing them with milk, but found that egg wash created the best texture. See thumbnail photo below (#3) to see difference between egg brushed and milk brushed gloss.] Onion, rosemary, gourmet salt, and fresh thyme added another dimension to this tasty recipe, but you can experiment with your favorite seasonings to come up with a customized roll. I also tried sundried tomatoes in some of the rolls, but found that I preferred them without. This really is a great bread recipe. I’ve enjoyed them so much over the years I really wanted to share them with you. So thank you, Adeena, and thank you, M, for the brilliant idea to add teff and to bake these as rolls. Who knew gluten-free baking could be so much fun?

If you try this recipe, tell me what modifications you make and how they turned out! Also, do you have a favorite GF bread or roll recipe? Tell me about it in the comments!