Easy Grain-Free French Bread
This Easy Grain-free French Bread recipe tastes like French baguettes; no one will believe you when you say it’s gluten-free!
Ingredients
- ½ C Warm Milk or Water
- 2 TBS Sugar
- 1 ½ TBS Yeast
- 3 Large Eggs + 1 Yolk
- 1 ⅓ C Cassava Flour
- 1 ½ C Arrpwrppt Starch
- 1 TSB Salt
- 1 ½ TSP Garlic Powder
- 5 TBS Butter Soft
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the warm milk or water with the yeast and sugar. Stir to combine and then let it sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast.
- Measure out the cassava flour, arrowroot starch, and salt into the bowl of a mixer. Mix it on low to add extra air to the flour.
- Add the eggs to the yeast mixture and whisk slightly, then add the mixture to the dry ingredients.
- Cut the butter into the dough until a soft, but pliable dough has been formed.
- Shape the dough into the shape you want. (see notes above on shaping). Using a sharp knife cut some slits on the top of the dough.
- Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and place it in a warm spot for an hour to let it rise.
- Once the dough has risen (it will look puffy), preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the top of the dough lightly with melted butter or olive oil if desired.
- Bake the bread in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 205 degrees.
- Let cool about 5 minutes, slice and enjoy it warm!
Notes
How to Measure Cassava Flour
Cassava flour settles A LOT. If you do not want to have to bring out your kitchen scale to measure it, here is my trick. Whisk, whisk, and whisk some more. What does that mean? When I measure cassava flour, I always do the following steps.
- Whisk the flour in whatever container you are storing it or the bag.
- Spoon the desired amount into a measuring cup to measure. Pour that into a larger bowl or measuring cup and whisk it again. You will notice when you whisk it, the amount increases. This is because the cassava has settled, so you measured more than what you wanted for the recipe.
- If you have more, merely remove the excess and repeat until you have the amount you need.
Making it Dairy-free
The way this recipe contains dairy, but I’ve had a lot of success subbing out the milk and butter in this recipe for dairy-free options.
Making it Egg-free
I’ve tried this recipe using Bob’s Red Mill egg replacement for equal quantities and it’s worked. The texture seemed a little bit denser but it was still delicious!
The dough is a little sticky
This bread has a soft, slightly sticky but still moldable dough. If you find it hard to work with, either dust your hands in arrowroot starch lightly or wet them slightly to smooth out the bread into the shape you want.
Shaping the Dough
I like to make this dough into two about 12-inch loaves, and then I will cook them on my loaf pan.
If you do not have a french bread loaf pan, you can place the dough into an uncovered Dutch oven to make it a round loaf or simply shape the dough on a baking sheet.
Note: the pan helps to hold the shape, so if you do not have a pan to do that, it will not puff as much. It will still be delicious, though!