Not being much of a baker, I had never made a loaf of bread in my life. The idea of baking bread always seemed pointless – why would you make bread when you could just buy a fresh loaf from a bakery?
However, having recently been told to follow a gluten-free and dairy-free diet, and being unimpressed with my local supermarket’s gluten-free loaves, I decided to make my own.
Whenever I do decide to bake something, I always turn to one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes.
Jamie described his gluten-free bread recipe as “simple and delicious” and “not too tricky”.
I followed Jamie’s recipe closely and didn’t make any adjustments. However, I did substitute the semi-skimmed milk for lactose-free semi-skimmed milk.
The recipe was surprisingly easy and only required an hour of proving and 35 minutes in the oven.
How to make Jamie Oliver’s gluten-free bread
Ingredients
325ml semi-skimmed milk
Two large free-range eggs
One teaspoon white wine vinegar
450g gluten-free brown bread flour, plus extra for dusting
Half teaspoon sea salt
Two tablespoons golden caster sugar
1.5 x 7g sachet dried yeast
Three tablespoons olive oil
Method
1. Firstly, preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Warm the milk in a small pan over low heat, then leave it to cool. Crack the eggs into a large bowl, add the vinegar, and then gradually stir in the warm milk until it’s all combined.
2. Add the flour, salt, sugar and yeast to another bowl, then, using a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until a sticky dough forms. Add the olive oil last before forming the dough into a ball using your hands. Add a bit of flour if it’s too sticky.
3. Place the dough onto a lightly oiled baking tray, cover the dough with a damp tea towel and leave it to prove in a warm place for around one hour, or until it has doubled in size. I left mine next to my preheated oven with the oven door closed.
4. Once the dough has risen, place the tray in the hot oven and bake for around 35 minutes, or until the loaf is golden and cooked all the way through. Allow the bread to cool on a wire cooling rack before slicing up.
