Hello friends,
Today I have a crisp and light gluten free ciabatta bread recipe for you! Perfect for sandwiches, olive oil dipping, and garlic bread this bread is simple, but showcases one of the “magical” ingredients in gluten free baking. Psyllium.
I use psyllium in a lot of my yeasted recipes and some others and I’ve gotten some questions about it lately, so I thought I’d send you a recipe that showcases its power, and explain a bit about it.
Psyllium is a fibrous plant, that grows mostly in India and has been used for some time as a fiber supplement. Ever heard of Metamucil? It’s the main ingredient, don’t use there here though just the psyllium. In fact in some grocers that’s where you will find this ingredient, in the supplements aisle, if it’s not in the baking aisle.
When psyllium becomes hydrated with water, as it does when we use it in a dough, it forms a strong stretchy structure, that acts like the outside of a balloon so that when the yeast creates air, the psyllium holds it in the bread like tiny balloons and we get air bubbles and lift in our bread! (In gluten bread, gluten is doing much the same thing.)
So, instead of a dense bread brick (we’ve all seen them or made them right?) psyllium allows us to make light and fluffy bread out of simple ingredients, as we do here. Don’t leave this ingredient out! It’s the key. Also, psyllium brands vary in how finely they are ground - some are very course and some are very fine, meaning its really important to WEIGH your psyllium to get the right amount!!!
Another popular recipe that relies on psyllium is my Gluten Free Soft Pretzels. This ciabatta bread relies on a starchier makeup than most - that’s because starches make lighter loaves, and something like ciabatta needs that to have the right kind of crumb.
I’ve made another episode of “Gluten Free TV” to walk you through the recipe steps, and show you what a difference the ingredients make! Let me know, what other breads would you like to have recipes for?
Happy Baking,
Rachel
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