Not long ago my son said, “You never make bread any more.” With a teasing tone I responded, “Awww, would you like to have fresh bread waiting for you when you get home from school?” With a sheepish grin (because he is an 18 year old boy) he said, “Yes.”
Not long after that I made fresh bread for him and had it waiting when he got home from school. There was one problem. I forgot the xanthan gum.
Do you ever wonder what would happen if you just left xanthan gum out of recipes? Well, some recipes would be okay. Maybe not optimal but okay. But bread is not one of those.
What happened
First of all, if you’re wondering about the shape of the loaf and what kind of bread it was, I made this sorghum bread in the slow cooker. It worked really well as far as cooking goes.
When I made the dough, I knew it was too wet. That should have been my clue, but instead of thinking to add the gum I added more flour. That only added to the problem. This bread did not hold together AT ALL. I tried cutting it in chunks like corn bread, but when you tried to eat it, it just crumbled and pretty much had to be eaten with a spoon.
So much for the idea of treating my son to fresh homemade bread! He did eat a little, but most of it went into the freezer as bread crumbs.
Repurposing gluten-free failures
The bread was perfect for bread crumbs and only took slight pressure from my hand to crumble. As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In my case, when life gives you crumbly bread, make bread crumbs.
Most gluten-free baking failures don’t have to go into the trash. A sad cake can be used in a trifle. Failed cookies can be crumbled and turned into a pie crust. Failed bread can be used in a casserole or turned into bread crumbs.
Why is gum used?
Why do gluten-free breads need gum? Well, because they don’t have any gluten. Gluten acts as a binder. You know how wheat bread is made from dough that is elastic and stretchy (think of Italians throwing circles of pizza dough up in the air)? That elasticity is due to gluten.
And have you ever wondered why gluten-free dough is not kneaded like wheat dough? Kneading works the gluten. Without gluten, kneading is not needed.
Gluten-free dough never becomes stretchy like wheat dough, and it is usually much more wet (closer to a batter). Gum is used to hold it together. My bread was a perfect example of why xanthan gum is used.
Sometimes you see guar gum in recipes. I even have it listed in a few of mine. Guar gum also acts as a binder. Xanthan and guar can pretty much be used interchangeably, though they are slightly different.
Gum substitutes?
Some people avoid gums for various reasons. Recently, I have been avoiding them too because guess what? That same son recently figured out that he doesn’t tolerate gums!
I’ve read that people use flax seed and/or chia softened in water as a gum substitute (it is also used as an egg substitute), but others say that using psyllium husk works even better. Psyllium husk is used in many fiber supplements, but if you try it, be sure you are getting 100% psyllium husk without sweeteners or flavorings.
I have experimented a little with using whole psyllium husk, and so far it has worked great and not been noticeable at all in the final product. I have not yet tried it for a loaf bread, so I’ll have to keep you posted on that. But you’re likely to start seeing it show up in recipes I share.
So that’s the story of my failed bread. I’d love to hear about a time you forgot to add gum to a recipe and how it turned out!
I am so glad to read this, I have realized I don’t tolerate too much gums in recipes. So I always decrease it to 1/2 tsp per cup of flour in breads recipes. In cakes I have had great results leaving out the gum as long as you use eggs. I made a great victorian sponge cake that took no gums. I have made the regular toll house cookies recipe with out gums too but you have to increase the flour by a 1/3 cup and decrease the butter by 3 Tbsp. It also helps to melt the butter and sugar in the microwave first then add the eggs and flour. It has been a trial and error process some breads end up sinking so you have to get familiar with the batter, but cakes and cookies are doable.
YES! Love this Linda- Pinning and praying it goes viral!
So while I never forgot it in a recipe per se, I made a gluten free flour blend and spilt maybe 1/4 cup of it on mum’s kitchen table and then left a few grains here and there. It left the worst texture, it was like gum and jello mixed together. Actually, I lied, I did have a disaster. I tried making blender ice cream once and it turned to punishment.
You had me laughing that your ice cream turned to punishment. After going GF about 6 months, I was craving crust and wanted empanadas. To my great dismay, I bought 2 tubs of Pillsbury GF pie dough – and it is awful stuff – like spackle and does not hold together. I wound up pressing it into a muffin tin just to cook and get a taste of it, thinking “ok, I’ll scoop the beef filling on top” and it’ll be fine for me. Anyhow, it smelled bad, was greasy, and inedible. Meanwhile, I promised my daughter I’d make regular empanada for her, using Goya discos. I could only bring myself to make 4 because I wanted them and had I made more I’d have eaten them. I did not take care and roll out the discos, I just added the meat and pinched them together. Upon tasting, my daughter said “these taste like resentment” and I had to agree.
Arman, I know what you mean. Cleaning up spilled xanthan gum with a wet cloth makes it so slimy! And that’s funny about the blender ice cream. I never realized that pretty much every ice cream in my local grocery stores and health food store have gum of some sort in them. Thankfully, I have an ice cream maker so gum-free son can still enjoy the treat. Thanks for the pin!
Linda I’m sorry about your bread, but at least you are resourceful enough to turn the disaster into something positive! I’ve never forgotten to put the gum in, but that could be why the corn cakes I tried were so crumbly. They were an early biscuit substitute…I only made them a few times!
I think those of us who don’t mind cooking (so much) venture into baking when we go GF out of necessity and desire. There are so many lousy products on the market, it makes me wonder how long some of them will last before being taken off the market due to poor sales, no repeat sales. There is also so many different recipes for GF flour “blends” and those of us who want convenience don’t want to spend the $ needed to buy 20 different flours, starches, gums, to get a multi or all-purpose flour. Anyhow, the reason I’m posting here is because I have been seeing TAPIOCA being used in recipes to provide elasticity. I wondered if you ever experimented with it, and also since I have never made bread (I’ve made fruit breads that are like muffins, but never conventional bread or worked baked with yeast) but does yeast have a function in gf breads?
Yes, yeast still has a part to play in making breads rise. With gf things are pretty much the same in that regard – quick breads don’t use yeast but other breads do. You might see recipes calling for a little more yeast than other recipes because gf flours can be heavy, especially rice flour.
Oh, hey, would have made sense to read your recipe before making comments on tapioca and yeast. Sorry. 🙂
Excellent article. I shy away from baking since going gluten free. This is a great resource. Thank you, Linda.
I like to use gelatin to replace gums, about 1T per 2 cups of flour. Adding some sweet rice sometimes helps too, a gummy texture that can help!
So I made some GF rolls, and since I used Robin Hood GF flour WITH xanthan gum in it, I didn’t add the 2 tsp that it asked for. My rolls were like biscuits, crumbly when you pulled them apart. Not quite as crumbly as in your photo, but certainly not what I was expecting. They also didn’t rise very much at all. Should they have? I proofed the yeast in warm milk before adding to the dry ingredients. The dough looked perfect (was not sticky at all) but over all was disappointed in my GF experiment. 🙁
It sounds like there was not enough liquid in your recipe. GF dough is really more like a batter. If there’s not enough moisture, it won’t rise. GF flour mixes can vary quite a bit. It may be that yours didn’t have enough xanthan gum and that the combination of flours require more moisture. I would use whatever flour the recipe called for.
After reading all these comment, there will be no xantham gum for me. Nancy Cain’s “Against The Grain” cookbook uses none. I was going to make a chicken pot pie using a different crust recipe. Instead, I am going to top it with G/F cornbread!