How it All Began

There was a point in my life where I decided it would be fun to learn about bread and making bread. I bought a book about baking bread the traditional way, with flour, yeast, and water (and sometimes eggs and milk.) I learned how to knead the bread, and the best places in the kitchen to let it rise. I learned how to proof yeast. I also learned that making bread is messy, takes a lot of patience, and that the process from flour and yeast to a nice loaf of bread takes a long time and effort. Even worse, I learned that there are a lot of variables in making bread that are heard for an amatuer in their kitchen at home to control. As a matter of fact, within a few weeks, I was sick and tired of making bread!

Fast-forward twenty years and I discovered that I'm gluten intolerant. I spent a lot of time and money looking for decent gluten-free bread. All the manufactured gluten-free breads are awful! They're all either like a big chewy flavorless white twinky, and they're hard as a rock. Trader Joe's gluten-free bread is made with rice. It's kind of strange. You have to toast it for ten minutes before it starts getting crisp, and even then it seems to seep out moisture. Many gluten-free breads seem more like something extruded from a machine rather than something that was kneaded and formed into a loaf before baking. In short, store-bought gluten-free breads are really disappointing. If someone has found otherwise I hope they'll tell me in the comments below.

What a Difference!

Finally, I discovered that I can make really good gluten-free bread myself with a bread machine. All you need is a couple different kinds of gluten-free flour, some yeast, and a couple of other ingredients. The bread machine does all the hard work and makes the process much more fool-proof. Without a bread machine you don't know if you're kneading enough, or too much. You can't be sure that your bread is rising at the correct temperature. So many variables normally associated with making bread are no longer a problem. Another really nice thing is that besides putting all the ingredients together, you don't really have to spend a lot of time making your bread.

There are a lot ot great books with gluten-free bread recipes. My personal favorite is Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread. You can basically make any recipe in this book with a bread machine. Bette Hagman even includes basic tips and instructions in the book on how to make the recipes with bread machines. Another good book is Gluten-Free Baking Classics for the Bread Machine by Annalise G. Roberts. As the title would imply, this book is literally about making gluten-free bread with a bread machine.

How to Choose a Bread Maker

Here are some things to keep in mind when looking for a bread machine to cook gluten-free bread. Either try to get a bread machine that has a gluten-free setting, or make sure you get one that is fully programmable. Because gluten-free flours have some differences from wheat flour, you will need to be able to change how the bread machine makes the bread. Escpecially with how much it kneads the dough.

Last, here is a list of popular bread machines:

• Breadman Bread Maker
• Oster ExpressBake Breadmaker
• Cuisinart Automatic Bread Maker
• Zojirushi Supreme Bread Machine or Programmable Mini Breadmaker
  
• Panasonic Automatic Bread Maker

Click here to see a much more comprehensive and detailed list of gluten free bread machines. Here is a site on bread makers. Making gluten-free bread with a bread machine is the best! Now I can eat sandwiches that don't taste horrible! If you're gluten-intolerant and tired of bad store-bought bread, you should give it a try.