Gluten-free Baguettes, Quick and Easy

I know that I've got a good bread recipe if, after first tasting a loaf, my boyfriend immediately plans on making a sandwich out of it.  If the bread is just okay, I get an unconvincingly encouraging "That's good!"  If it's great, I get, "We could cook some bacon and make a BLT with melted cheese!"  Then, even if it's 11:00 at night after a heavy meal, he will make that sandwich.

If you have been following my blog or Facebook lately, you know I've been obsessed with bread.  I've been making dozens of baguettes, trying to get it right. I got the recipe to work ages ago - but they didn't look that great.  I tried everything under the sun to get the crust to brown.  It's easy when you cook the loaf in a dutch oven like I do with my boule bread.  However, the baguettes are too long to fit in the pan.  Finally I figured out how to simulate the environment of a dutch oven without the dutch oven.  You just trap your steam with parchment paper!  



I got all kinds of compliments on my baguettes for Christmas dinner, from people who ate gluten and from those who were gluten-free.  It was an amazing and filling meal, and yet my boyfriend made little turkey sandwiches afterward with baguette slices and turkey bits.  That says it all.

Quick Baguette Recipe


For this recipe you will need:

- warm water
- apple cider vinegar
- a baguette pan (not 100% necessary, but it helps to shape the loaf)
- extra flour - I recommend potato starch

In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together:

1 1/4 C (245g) warm water (100-115 degrees F)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar


Add:
15g whole psyllium husk

Whisk the psyllium husk into the wet ingredients until the mixture begins to thicken, 1-2 minutes.  Add:

225g gluten-free bread flour 
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp yeast


Form the baguettes by dividing the dough into two equal portions.  Flour your work surface (I recommend using potato starch) and scoop the dough onto the work surface.  Wet your hands and press the dough into a rectangle.  Take one long side of the dough and fold it over onto the middle of the rectangle.  Pinch the edge down.  




Repeat this step to close the dough into a tube. Re-flour the surface if necessary.  Roll out the dough with your hands by gently but firmly rolling it against the counter as though making a play dough snake.  Get the snake as even as you can, but don't roll it out longer than your baguette pan.  Taper the ends by rolling them out more firmly.  You don't need to get too fussy.  

Place them diagonally on a large piece of parchment paper on the baguette pan.  (If you don't want them as floury as pictured, brush the flour off with a clean, dry pastry brush.) Cover the baguettes and let the dough rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.  Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Score the top of the loaves deeply, holding the knife at a 45 degree angle and overlapping the cuts somewhat.  See a good demo video here.

Wrap the loaves by stapling the parchment paper together in a tent shape as pictured.  This traps the steam so that the crust browns nicely.




Cook the bread for 25 minutes, or until it is done.  When the bread is cooked through it will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.



Enjoy your baguettes after they have cooled for at least 10 minutes.

Comments

l'actrice said…
Thanks for the recipe! Looks like a real French Baguette:-) Tasted probably even better:-)
Gina said…
Thanks Iris! The bread was great :)
Gina said…
Thanks, Ann... ^_^
Anonymous said…
Wow, your baguette is very good looking! Congrats.

I tried this recipe for the first time tonight, using my regular home-made mix/recipe, using your instructions (steps). It turned out well for a first attempt. I realize my dough was too wet, the bread is cooked but very moist, and the dough was sticking to my knife when "scoring".

My regular mix is 1.5 cup brown rice flour + 1.5 cup tapioca starch, 2 eggs. I have buckwheat, sorghum and teff so i'll try creating a mix similar to your No 4 Boule bread mix.

I'll definitely try again, since your baguette is very, very tempting.
Gina said…
I'm glad people are trying my baguette recipe! Thanks for the comments. I'd try leaving out the brown rice flour and using teff flour instead. I have a recent post on how to mix bread flour here: http://glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com/2013/02/Make-your-own-gluten-free-bread-flour.html

If you're using eggs, that is another liquid, so you might have to reduce the amount of water you use. Each egg is about 1/4 cup liquid. Let me know how they turn out!
Anonymous said…
Hello again,

It was a success again tonight with a variation of this recipe. I have to work without psyllium and I mixed your recipe with one of my successful bread machine recipe. Everybody loved the baguettes. Still, I'd like to perfect them...

My baguettes tend to raise quite a lot during the 30 minute, the top often start "breaking" so the "scoring" has some effect, but limited since the rise was quite active before scoring. It was on the countertop at room temp (20°C). In the oven, the bread expands a little, but not so much, so the "scores" grow a little but I want more. I know the psyllium helps, but I have to skip on it.

I see different possibilities: 1- my pan is shorter, making the diameter too big; 2- I could use less sugar so the yeast doesn't activate so much; 3- use colder water; 4- try with a 3/4 recipe and see.

Would you please reply back with the length of your baguette pan? Any suggestion on how to improve?

Ingredients I use:
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup sorgho flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1 cup tapioca starch

4 tbsp flax seeds (measured before grinding)
1/2 tbsp Xantham gum
1 tbsp yeast
1/2 tsp baking powder

350 ml water at 55°C (I'll use a tad less next time)
1 egg, beaten in the water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp rice vinegar

Cheers!

Gina said…
It's good to see people's recipes! It looks like you have a good flour blend going.

I don't think there should be any issue with the length of the loaves. My pan is 18", but my recipe is for quite a bit less dough, I think. I am using 225g flour total.

Try cutting down on the amount of yeast you use. 1 Tbsp sounds like too much for this amount of flour. I think the yeast is wearing out too soon, which is why you aren't getting as much oven spring as you want. Yeast is a living thing that needs to eat, and if you put too much in your dough then it eats up all its resources too fast and sort of burns out. There are formulas for figuring out how much yeast to use, but it goes by weight. I'm guessing you should try about 2 tsp. yeast (~6g).

I hope those ideas help!
Anonymous said…
The amount of water seems a lot you have more water than flour ?
Gina said…
The amount of water is high - about 110% hydration. This flour/binder combination can handle that much water for small loaves like baguettes. The psyllium really absorbs a lot of the water. I haven't tried the recipe in other climates though - in a really humid climate the amount of water might be too high. Hope that helps!
Anonymous said…
Can I replace psyllium powder with same amount of xanthan gum? Thanks for your reply:)
Gina said…
I have never tried this recipe with xanthan gum. I don't think it would work. In fact, I've never tried this flour blend with xanthan gum at all, and 15g of xanthan gum is definitely way too much. The reason I use psyllium husk for this recipe is that it makes the dough workable - xanthan gum doesn't allow this kind of stretch.

I'd recommend finding a recipe that has been tested with xanthan gum if that's what you prefer to use. The baguette recipe I posted from Gluten-free Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day can be made with xanthan gum. http://glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com/2014/10/gluten-free-baguette-recipe-from-gluten.html
I hope that helps!
Anonymous said…
Thank u:) I made the recipe today but used buckwheat instead of millet my bread has a nice colour looked like a really baguette but was quite spongy so I will try with psyllium husks instead thanks again:)
Marion said…
Hello !
( Sorry for my english, I'm french ^^ ).

I would like to know if it's possible to replace the yeast by sourdough. How much sourdough ?

Thank you so much.

Marion
Gina said…
Hi Marion! Subbing yeast for sourdough gets tricky because all the ratios change. It's better to just go to one of my sourdough recipes, then instead of doing a boule shape, just shape it as a baguette instead on the second rise. http://glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com/2014/03/gf-24-hour-sourdough-bread-recipe.html
Gina said…
Hi again Marion - I just calculated these ratios for a commenter on another post. I haven't done this, so this would be an experiment for you. You might have to play with the amount of water. My best guess is:

For the yeast: 50g starter (120% hydration)
Reduce flour to: 200g
Reduce water to: 225g (spring water only, no tap water)

Shape as baguette and Rise 6-12 hours.

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