The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread: More Than 200 Wheat-Free Recipes

This is a very bean flour heavy recipe book. I am not a fan. When I ordered it I forgot that it was written several decades ago. I feel like gluten free baking has come a long way since these recipes were created. My favorite recipe is the crumpet recipe that I make into English muffins. For that reason I am grateful that I got it.

Didn't receive this book. Got the other 2 but not this one.

I have loved Bette Hagman's cookbooks since I first got "More from the Gluten free Gourmet" with her amazing rapid french bread recipe. WHen I found out she was coming out with a book of JUST BREADS I was ecstatic, and then when I began trying these recipes, I was even happier because they are ALL excellent. I've been trying out new recipes from this book ever since I got it, and I have found some surprising hits, like her amazingly flavorful quinoa bread, and the cinnamon breads, and the sourdough breads... I could go on and on, but I am a huge fan of her new four flour blend with bean flour. I think it's a little unfair to criticize her for the low protein featherlight blend, which she uses in some of her recipes- she doesn't advertise herself as a wheat free high protein baker, but a gluten free gourmet. She has changed the lives of those of us with Celiac sprue who have been stuck with processed breads or mediocre mixes all of our lives.. and I am incredibly grateful. I have been very happy working with her recipes using the new nutritious flours such as sorghum and bean flour, and I'm glad she's always experimenting with new flours to give us more nutritious options (even if they are initially difficult to procure). All of the flour she uses are available in the United States, and most should be available in Canada- Kinnikinnick may be a good source for some of the flours, as well as asian or indian markets. Gluten free products have only been getting better over the last ten years- and I think we can credit Bette's creative genius as inspiring many of these positive changes. BTW, I do love Bette, and her breads, but I have to admit, her sweet tooth and my sweet tooth don't always get along- as in some of her old desserts in previous cookbooks, and savory dishes in VERY early cookbooks- ketchup cabbage jello.... WHAT???? This is her best book to date, and if you're just going to get ONE book, please do yourself a favor and get this one. The crumpets are to die for, if nothing else... And she has many substitutions for those with complex intolerances. I had very good luck with her recipes even when I was a full fledged vegan. Happy gluten free baking! This book is a keeper!

When we were setting up our bakery, we wanted to try to please people with wheat sensitivities. In the end, we realized that we could do wheat or be wheat free, but not do both. Still, in our research phase we looked at a lot of wheat free bread recipes, and Ms. Hagman's recipes were the only ones that made us think we were eating bread. If you are unfortunate enough to have a wheat or gluten sensitivity, and if you miss "real" bread, this book is a must!

I've had this book on my shelf for a while, always putting off baking some gluten-free bread partly because most gluten-free recipes come out disastrously and partly because I take the easy way out and buy a loaf of rice bread at the local health food/WF store. The other day I was having a rice-bread shortage so I thought I'd try a recipe, "Basic Featherlight Rice Bread," from the cookbook. Good thing I gave it a try. That was the best, most delicious gluten-free bread I have ever tasted. The texture couldn't be more perfect, crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle, qualities that I miss and long for from regular bread. It tastes very delicious. It also doesn't necessarily need to be toasted, as most gluten-free breads require to make them more palatable. The bread was actually very easy to make. The batter is much like cake batter, thus no worries or guess work in the kneading department. I had only filled the loaf pan barely to the quarter mark, and after about an hour the darn thing rose to the top edge of the pan. I was shocked. There was one ingredient that I had to omit, the egg replacer, since I didn't have any at hand and I really do not know what it is anyways. The bread came out perfectly regardless. I also substituted the xanthum gum with guar gum since it is significantly cheaper... Bette Hagman organizes her recipes according to how much bread you would like to make, from small, medium or large. This was extremely helpful since I didn't want to go too overboard. She includes instructions for bread machines as well. She gives a lot of different suggestions for flour mixes that you can use. I personally prefer the rice/tapioca/potato starch mixture, so I most likely will ignore the other suggestions. Hagman has truly found an excellent method to "raise" gluten-free breads, since gluten is what allows regular wheat breads to rise so well. I highly, highly recommend this book. I think it'll be a long time before I buy gluten-free bread at the store again. Addendum: I've been using this recipe for quite a while now, always making the "small" loaf-size, and thought I'd share some of the renditions with the recipe that work. Instead of the 1 egg plus 1 egg white, I use 2 eggs; I got a lil' tired of freezing the yolks - I was amassing a large collection of frozen egg yolks and not knowing what to do with them... I use the whole packet of yeast instead of measuring it out; it's close enough and the tiny bit of extra yeast will only make the bread better. I use olive oil instead of butter/margarine. (I would not recommend margarine for anything). And finally, I add 1/4 cup of flax seeds, for the extra nutrition and fiber (gluten-free foods lack fiber...) The flax seeds give it a nutty delicious flavor.

I have found this book to be a most valuable source for gluten-free bread. The best recipe in my opinion is the Four Flour Bread. I was anxious at first because I couldn't find the sorghum flour, but then found out I could order the whole mix from Authentic Foods from their website. This took a lot of stress out of measuring, etc. Bette lists the sources of many of her ingredients in the book and they can be found online. I, for one, really really appreciated all her tips and found them to work just as she said they would.

Being confirmed with Coeliac Disease was bad enough, but trying to combine it with my diabetic diet was something of a nightmare. Until it's forced upon you, you don't stop and think that things like breakfast cereals, yoghurts, certain kinds of cottage cheese etc actually contain some form of gluten and to lose bread from your diet doesn't bear thinking aboutHaving purchased 'The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread', I then found that over here in Britain we are not able to get the specialised flours; sorghum, garbanzo or fava, so after eight months of searching all around the UK, I contacted a supplier over in California and had it shipped over - yes it is expensive, but if you budget properly then you can make it work. Also, as it is too expensive to have shipped over via airmail or courier, it has to come via surface mail which takes about 6 - 7 weeks. But having overcome these obstacles I can honestly say that Mrs Hagman has made a huge difference to my life - and my diet - and I can now happily eat rye bread or white bread once again.Thank you very much Mrs Hagman.