Gluten-free Bread and Cakes from Your Breadmaker: With Full Details for Dairy or Lactose Intolerance (Real Food)

Jury is still out on this one. The first time I followed one of the recipes (the simplest one) the resulting dough was a bit like glue. It eventually produced a loaf of bread that was more like a giant, lumpy scone. It actually tasted ok, but would be no good for sandwiches.The second loaf was much the same, so I think maybe one of the ingredients I bought to make up the flour isn't what it claimed to be. Possibly the potato flour is in fact potato starch? Who knows. Once I have tried with some other ingredients I will adjust the review accordingly.On the plus side, it will encourage you to experiment with your bread maker. A lot of the recipes can be adapted to work with ordinary shop bought gluten free flour, so all is not lost. However, you can say the same about the manual that doubtless came with your bread maker.

I've been reading several GF recipe books but finding one reliable it's a treasure. This book it's a tresure! Especially if, like me, you are not an expert on GF baking. I've tried now 15 recipes from this book and all turned out perfect and tasty. The ingredients are easy to find (all available on Amazon) and worked well with my breadmaker basic programme for bread. There are also several recipes that do not require a breadmaker. Recipes don't have picture but I prefer reliable and well explained procedure to fancy photos. The book is also light and easy to carry.

I bought this book just over 6wks ago and to be very honest, I'm really struggling to get a decent loaf and I'm not sure why this book gets so many 5 star reviews. I use a Panasonic 2500 Breadmaker and have been trying to make several of the bread recipes numerous times either sticking exactly to the recipe or making slight tweaks as needed. I tried the milk loaf first which came out smaller than I'd like (I like high risen loaves for large slices!) and just had a taste I didn't find acceptable for me personally, it seems I don't like the taste of milk in my bread.I then tried the moist loaf several times and being very exact with the recipe but for a 'large' loaf as described in the book it came out about 3" tall and did not rise much (yes, I opened a new packet of yeast in case it was that, it wasn't) it also had again a smell and taste that I can't stomach. I then tweaked it as I found it was the cornflour and the dry milk powder giving it the taste I don't like and substituted the milk powder for soya flour. Again, still no joy with that recipe.I then went on to the sandwich loaf. Getting closer, very, very soft and the taste was much better (with milk powder omitted and no soya flour as it gave the bread a smell and taste that literally made my stomach turn! An eggy, wet dog smell and taste) . However, there seems to be a major error in the recipe with the amount of water needed as the loaf turned out very soggy and sticky and with an undercooked texture. I then remade it with 480ml of water instead of the 550ml in the recipe, put it on the gluten free setting to let it knead and rise then stopped the machine and set it to bake only for 1hr and 20mins as the 55mins longest setting was just not enough. It was cooked properly this time and had made a large loaf as there was no knock down and second rise as when using the basic setting as per the recipe but still far too much water as it was still very sticky and stodgy. This could well be my perfect loaf as I love the taste, just not the sticky, stodgy texture! If any one knows the correct amount of water please do leave a comment as I have made this recipe tweaking it with each one trying to get it right, I must have made it 10 times by now and I'm close to tearing my hair out not to mention the expense in ingredients wasted.It's such a shame as this seems to be the only gluten free bread book for breadmakers that is suitable for a UK market, although is quite dated now, maybe an updated version from the author would be a welcome idea!

Tried the very first recipe, a white loaf, in a Panasonic three times. First loaf was put on the rapid bake setting, all ingredients at blood heat, with no tweaking and it came out like a large, dense, spiky rock cake. I swear I could have killed my husband with it. Second attempt, cooked on the gluten free setting, I smoothed over the dough once the kneading cycle had completed and although it resembled a loaf it was dense like a brick and only 3.5 inches high. This appeared to be because the gluten free cycle, indeed all the cycles on a Panasonic, includes a brief knock-down cycle before the final rise. So the paddle knocks your lovely risen dough down flat and there is insufficent time for this heavy dough to rise again before the bake cycle. For my third attempt I returned to the rapid bake cycle but this time I removed the paddle after the initial kneading and smoothed the dough. I also stopped the machine just before the bake cycle was due to start to give the dough a little more time to rise. I manually selected Bake only option for 50 minutes. This did help and I found that the bread was half-way decent and had a slightly domed top even though it rose only two-thirds up the pan. However the loaf was still quite dense but was edible unlike the first two loaves. I will try again with a different loaf recipe but my initial experience was very disappointing and expensive in ingredients.

I will update this when had chance to use it. It has some nice recipes, including a couple of decent looking cakes. Fairly basic but if recipes work it will be worth it. The only gripe is that I didn't realise it uses large quantities of Xanthan gum - some recipes 3 x teaspoons! I can't cope with it, and so am going to try psyllium husks instead. I've never seen such huge quantities used in other recipes, so beware if you are intolerant, this book isn't for you unless you know other ways to bind that work. It made the book disappointing for me.

I have only been a Coeliac for a few months and bought this book because I have always used a bread maker.So far I have tried about 6 different recipes and have had to tweak a couple.A usefull tip is to use dried egg white instead of fresh egg white which is required in some recipes.I also found that during the initial mixing stage it is a good to check if all the dry ingredients are being incorporated with the liquids.As already mentioned my bread also does not look nothing like the picture on the front cover.All in all I have found that this the best bread recipe book on my book shelf even though some recipies need adjusting.