Gluten-Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread: (Biscuits, Bagels, Buns, and More)

This is from a well known gluten free bloggess, that has put out quality content for years. We use her Brioche recipe when we want bread in the house and can afford to make a Brioche (If you know...you know).She gives a wonderful introduction to Gluten-Free bread making, with things such as how to work with a dough that doesn't have gluten to give it shape, common mistakes with troubleshooting, how to do a sourdough starter, tools, modifications, etc.Then we get into her flour blends. She has a bread flour, high quality AP flour, a more simple AP flour, gum free flour, whole grain flour, and a pastry flour. All are quite do-able for the average person, and most of them use the same base flours, with some additions to modify each one.The recipes refer to her flour blends. The thing that makes this different than many of the Gluten-Free cookbooks is that:1. Her flour blends are listed in the book.2. They aren't overly complex3. There is no "brand" AP flour... like Bob's Red Mill, Cup for Cup, King Arthur, etc.While this may seem an issue for the beginner GF baker, each of those mixes are VASTLY different, and often can cause recipes to fail. This could be for many reasons, such as hydration need of the various flours, the protien content, the weights of the flours, the grind, etc. Having the mixes the author uses right in the book, is more than likely going to have more consistent results, and a higher chance of success.While she does have a few more "exotic " ingredients that you might have to order in for, the recipes that you have to use those ingredients are actually not that many in the overall amount of recipes. You could make tons of bread and never have to stress about them. It is just some of the more specialized stuff.As someone who has done a ton of gluten free baking - who because of allergies cant have things like legume flours, nut flours, coconut flour, and brown rice (white rice is ok) flour - I cannot recommend this cookbook enough.The two flour mixes that have brown rice are the high quality AP, and the pastry flour, whick calls for the high quality AP. I find that usually you can substitute the same amount of white rice flour (on top of any other white rice flour in the mix) and it comes out fine, but we shall see.While there are some lovely photographs in the book, not all recipes have photos. I would rather a book be this way, as it means more recipes, but it may be a downside for some. It spends the photo budget more on showing you the how to's, which to me is a more important use of photos. If I need a picture of a bread so badly, I can Google it.She also includes standard US measurements and weight. I highly suggest if you dont have a scale to get one, as it helps you be more precise (and sometimes that can make or break a recipe). You can still use this book without it though.In summary? Get this book if you want to expand your bread consumption beyond what you can find in the stores, have food allergies and need to bake your own items, or just want to learn more about Gluten-Free cooking.

Prior to being diagnosed with Celiac, I regularly baked my own bread/puff pastry/cake/etc. After the Celiac diagnosis, I thought I was destined to a life of ho-hum, store-bought gluten-free bread products, or baking my own bread with recipes that produced dough that was not at all fun to work with and felt more like making cookie batter.I was thrilled to find Nicole's website, and loved baking her recipe for brown sandwich bread, and other breads, from her prior cookbooks. That said, I was still missing that real bread baking experience/feeling that working with gluten-filled yeast doughs used to give me. Baking gluten-free bread was...well, boring.I was also a big fan of Jim Lahey's No Knead bread recipe (if you can eat gluten, you must try it) and other long-rise recipes, so I was used to the bread dough working within my time frame, instead of its own. There was nothing I could find in the gluten-free arena that gave me that option of a long-rise.Enter Nicole's book. I am not sure I would love this book as much as I do if I were just a casual person who rarely baked; or if I were someone looking for a quick bread recipe but wasn't really into baking bread. If that person is you, try one of Nicole's other great books, or her website, for bread and baking recipes that might better fit your needs.This book is serious. It is incredibly well-researched and tested. It is chemistry and art, as well as baking. As we all know, good bread takes time, work and quality ingredients. Good gluten-free bread takes time, work and quality weird (albeit natural) ingredients, too. This book will help you bake GREAT gluten-free bread. Bread that is worth your time, effort and initial expense of sourcing the ingredients you will need, including the Expandex and Whey Protein Isolate mentioned with disdain here in other reviews (and both available on Amazon).The recipes in this book are NOT hard, but to see if they are more involved than you are willing to go, check out Nicole's site where she has posted some of the recipes from this book so you can determine if it is right for you before you purchase it.We're baking gluten-free bread here that tastes like real bread! It's a miracle! If you already bake gluten-free, you know that the gluten-free flours and other ingredients aren't cheap, but they are also not all that expensive when you break it down per recipe. And they are a heck of a lot cheaper than buying sub-par gluten-free products available at the grocery store and pretending that crap is satisfying in any way.I love being able to mix up the dough one day, give it a nice long rice, and bake my bread any time in the next 5 days as fits into my schedule. That's a benefit to me, not a deterrent.So, for those of us blessed with the ability to find the time or spend the money on baking gluten-free bread that is freaking awesome, this book is brilliant. It is real baking. It is real bread. It is not more expensive than what you are already paying for crappy gluten-free bread. If you are serious about baking great bread, this book is what you need.I understand it might not be what everyone is looking for, but for those of us who refuse to settle for crappy bread just because we have Celiac, I give my utmost thanks to Nicole for creating these methods, recipes and this book. Making pretzel rolls today with springy dough that felt like 'real' dough was a feeling I never thought I'd have again. Thanks, Nicole, for bringing my baking mojo back!

I love Gluten Free on a shoestring books, Nicole explains the difference between flours and how they work.These recipes are easy to prepare.

Useful if you can find expandex. If you don't......

Ich habe mir dieses Buch als eBook gekauft.Im Nachgang hätte ich es gerne in der Hand. Denn: es ist ein tolles Werk mit gelingsicheren Rezepten und hilfreichen Tipps!

Només pots fer les receptes amb la seva farina específica. No és gens útil.

Seguo il blog di questa autrice e ho provato diverse sue ricette,di torte e biscotti. Ho deciso di acquistare anche questo sul pane,con la speranza di trovare la giusta formula per ottenere un ottimo pane senza glutine ma purtroppo l'autrice aggiunge ai normali mix di farine dei prodotti introvabili e,ovviamente,questo si ripercuote sulla riuscita delle ricette.