Customer Reviews

The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread: More Than 200 Wheat-Free Recipes

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've had this book on my shelf for a while, always putting off baking some gluten-free bread partly because most gluten-free recipes come out disastrously and partly because I take the easy way out and buy a loaf of rice bread at the local health food/WF store.

The other day I was having a rice-bread shortage so I thought I'd try a recipe, "Basic Featherlight Rice Bread," from the cookbook. Good thing I gave it a try. That was the best, most delicious gluten-free bread I have ever tasted. The texture couldn't be more perfect, crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle, qualities that I miss and long for from regular bread. It tastes very delicious. It also doesn't necessarily need to be toasted, as most gluten-free breads require to make them more palatable. The bread was actually very easy to make. The batter is much like cake batter, thus no worries or guess work in the kneading department. I had only filled the loaf pan barely to the quarter mark, and after about an hour the darn thing rose to the top edge of the pan. I was shocked. There was one ingredient that I had to omit, the egg replacer, since I didn't have any at hand and I really do not know what it is anyways. The bread came out perfectly regardless. I also substituted the xanthum gum with guar gum since it is significantly cheaper...

Bette Hagman organizes her recipes according to how much bread you would like to make, from small, medium or large. This was extremely helpful since I didn't want to go too overboard. She includes instructions for bread machines as well. She gives a lot of different suggestions for flour mixes that you can use. I personally prefer the rice/tapioca/potato starch mixture, so I most likely will ignore the other suggestions. Hagman has truly found an excellent method to "raise" gluten-free breads, since gluten is what allows regular wheat breads to rise so well.

I highly, highly recommend this book. I think it'll be a long time before I buy gluten-free bread at the store again.

Addendum:

I've been using this recipe for quite a while now, always making the "small" loaf-size, and thought I'd share some of the renditions with the recipe that work. Instead of the 1 egg plus 1 egg white, I use 2 eggs; I got a lil' tired of freezing the yolks - I was amassing a large collection of frozen egg yolks and not knowing what to do with them... I use the whole packet of yeast instead of measuring it out; it's close enough and the tiny bit of extra yeast will only make the bread better. I use olive oil instead of butter/margarine. (I would not recommend margarine for anything). And finally, I add 1/4 cup of flax seeds, for the extra nutrition and fiber (gluten-free foods lack fiber...) The flax seeds give it a nutty delicious flavor.

For anyone newly diagnosed with Celiac disease, it doesn't take long to figure out the Bette Hagman is 1st in gluten free cookbooks. Her previous books not only contained recipes, but wonderful information for Celiacs. So I must say I was disappointed to find out that I could not try a large portion of the recipes in this book because they all contain a flour that I am unable to obtain. Bette's latest favourite flour is sorghum flour, and it is produced in the U.S. by JOWAR foods. Neither my local health food store, nor myself via their web page, have been able to get a response on ordering this flour to be shipped to a Canadian address. What recipes I have been able to try have been wonderful, but with the main section of this book based on having sorghum, I would not recommend this book unless you have access to this ingredient.

When we were setting up our bakery, we wanted to try to please people with wheat sensitivities. In the end, we realized that we could do wheat or be wheat free, but not do both.

Still, in our research phase we looked at a lot of wheat free bread recipes, and Ms. Hagman's recipes were the only ones that made us think we were eating bread.

If you are unfortunate enough to have a wheat or gluten sensitivity, and if you miss "real" bread, this book is a must!

I have loved Bette Hagman's cookbooks since I first got "More from the Gluten free Gourmet" with her amazing rapid french bread recipe. WHen I found out she was coming out with a book of JUST BREADS I was ecstatic, and then when I began trying these recipes, I was even happier because they are ALL excellent. I've been trying out new recipes from this book ever since I got it, and I have found some surprising hits, like her amazingly flavorful quinoa bread, and the cinnamon breads, and the sourdough breads... I could go on and on, but I am a huge fan of her new four flour blend with bean flour. I think it's a little unfair to criticize her for the low protein featherlight blend, which she uses in some of her recipes- she doesn't advertise herself as a wheat free high protein baker, but a gluten free gourmet. She has changed the lives of those of us with Celiac sprue who have been stuck with processed breads or mediocre mixes all of our lives.. and I am incredibly grateful. I have been very happy working with her recipes using the new nutritious flours such as sorghum and bean flour, and I'm glad she's always experimenting with new flours to give us more nutritious options (even if they are initially difficult to procure). All of the flour she uses are available in the United States, and most should be available in Canada- Kinnikinnick may be a good source for some of the flours, as well as asian or indian markets. Gluten free products have only been getting better over the last ten years- and I think we can credit Bette's creative genius as inspiring many of these positive changes. BTW, I do love Bette, and her breads, but I have to admit, her sweet tooth and my sweet tooth don't always get along- as in some of her old desserts in previous cookbooks, and savory dishes in VERY early cookbooks- ketchup cabbage jello.... WHAT???? This is her best book to date, and if you're just going to get ONE book, please do yourself a favor and get this one. The crumpets are to die for, if nothing else... And she has many substitutions for those with complex intolerances. I had very good luck with her recipes even when I was a full fledged vegan. Happy gluten free baking! This book is a keeper!

I was disappointed with this book. Many of her breads call for use of unflavored gelatin which gives the loaves a springy texture which works right out of the oven but makes for a gross, hard consistency once cooled (kind of like cold chicken fat - EW!) I have had much more luck with Rebecca Reilly's recipes. I find them more sophisticated, less 1950's inspired. Also, Living Without Magazine featured a great bread recipe in their November 08 issue. This woman has posted the recipe with step-by-step photos on her blog: [...]

This book is not recommended for so many reasons. I wish that I had returned it within the time allowed. It has no table of contents. The information in it is poorly organized, vague, and in many ways, out of touch with allergy problems. There are sections of appetizing lists of better sounding recipes which are only references from other books by the author and are not in the book at all.
I bought all the ingredients at a staggering sum and made the basic flour and a basic bread. It looked beautiful! It sank like a Souffle. It tasted weird, made me sick, and turned into a glue like lump. I was surprised that the raccoons ate it. I have since found wonderful recipes online and much much better writing about allergy alternatives including the economic and practical option of making my own rice flour. I cannot imagine why anyone would buy this woman's books. Aside from learning to live with celiac, her knowledge of food is like something out of 1950's Betty Crocker. Don't get depressed allergy sufferers. There's far better resources!

I have found this book to be a most valuable source for gluten-free bread. The best recipe in my opinion is the Four Flour Bread. I was anxious at first because I couldn't find the sorghum flour, but then found out I could order the whole mix from Authentic Foods from their website. This took a lot of stress out of measuring, etc. Bette lists the sources of many of her ingredients in the book and they can be found online. I, for one, really really appreciated all her tips and found them to work just as she said they would.

Being confirmed with Coeliac Disease was bad enough, but trying to combine it with my diabetic diet was something of a nightmare. Until it's forced upon you, you don't stop and think that things like breakfast cereals, yoghurts, certain kinds of cottage cheese etc actually contain some form of gluten and to lose bread from your diet doesn't bear thinking about

Having purchased 'The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread', I then found that over here in Britain we are not able to get the specialised flours; sorghum, garbanzo or fava, so after eight months of searching all around the UK, I contacted a supplier over in California and had it shipped over - yes it is expensive, but if you budget properly then you can make it work. Also, as it is too expensive to have shipped over via airmail or courier, it has to come via surface mail which takes about 6 - 7 weeks. But having overcome these obstacles I can honestly say that Mrs Hagman has made a huge difference to my life - and my diet - and I can now happily eat rye bread or white bread once again.

Thank you very much Mrs Hagman.

I use recipes from this book on a weekly basis for my gluten-free son. It's definitely a worthwhile purchase for the yeast-bread recipes. My son refused to eat sandwiches made on gluten-free bread until I started using Hagman's bread recipes. I like her recipes with garfava flour the best - no gritty rice-flour texture. On the down side, the ingredients are hard to find, as other reviewers have stated. I have to mail-order the flours, and I have not tried many of the recipes because they call for ingredients I just do not keep on hand and would probably not use in other recipes, like NutQuik or almond meal. As for her non-yeast bread recipes, I have had just as much luck adapting wheat recipes myself, and a lot of these recipes are based on mixes that she provides the recipe for. I have not tried these recipes, either, because I am not willing to put my expensive flours into a large quantity of a mix that I'm not positive will turn out well. Overall, this is a very useful book, and considering the limited availability of sources for gluten-free recipes, it's a must-have.

There are so many "Gluten Free" cookbooks available today that offer gluten free versions of just about anything you might want to cook and eat..but most are just regurgitated standard recipes, who needs a gluten free version of something that is naturally gluten free anyway..it's a big waste of money. NOW, BAKING is a totally different story...this does require completely different recipes.

To bake successfully without using Gluten laden flour requires tossing out a standard recipe almost completely and finding a mixture of several other ingredients to achieve the resulting effect of just the ONE missing component, not easily done for us standard cooks.

Baking isn't like cooking...it requires more exacting measurements to produce an edible product. Yuck, have you ever baked a recipe and left out an ingredient by accident? Yup, forgetting that ONE little thing...gave rise to a hockey puck instead of a fluffy biscuit.

After reading alot of the reviews about the recipes in the cookbook I am left to surmise that there are alot of people either not reading the recipes correctly or just not bothering to follow them at all....you WILL get a gummy product if you dump an entire packet of gelatin into ONE batch of bread, your yeast won't respond as well to liquid that isn't warm enough, and adding more of one ingredient when you run out of the one you need won't yield the same results. "rolls eyes"

To blame the cookbook or author for one's own inability to put together a recipe is kind of lame...sounds more like a case of blatant stupidity if you ask me.

I have all Ms. Hagman's books, as well as just about every other Gluten Free cookbook available(so, listen, I have a thing for cookbooks, get over it). Most of the other cookbook's have baking recipes that rely on a cheaper more granular rice flour, which gives your finished baked goods that "horrid fall apart-y commercially produced Gluten Free Bread quality" that sent us running for better home baked alternatives in the first place. What's the point of going through all that work for a poor quality bread? eh, might as well go without.

Ms. Hagman has done the hardest part for us, she has already tested and refined these recipes over the years and was generous enough to share them with us, a little appreciation wouldn't be out of order people.

I eat just as well on a Gluten Free diet as I did before I was diagnosed, with the help of cookbooks like this one of course and I would definately like to say adding this book has helped so much in my quest for good food. Sticking to a Gluten Free diet doesn't have to be like being slapped with a life sentance filled with tasteless low quality food "alternatives".

Seriously, the SPRINGY CORN BREAD recipe changed my life. It is the most outstanding corn bread recipe, bar none, I have ever eaten.

Grab this book.... and Get off your butt and BAKE something already!!