gluten free pastry

Homemade Gluten Free Brioche Bread

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If you’ve never tried brioche, you haven’t lived. When I was a kid, it was one of the things I looked forward to most when going grocery shopping. My parent’s would always buy a fresh brioche bun from the bakery, it was sweet and pillowy with a golden, sticky crust. Brioche is a French bread, traditionally loaded with eggs and butter, making it rich, light and fluffy. The best way to describe it is a pastry-like bread. Unfortunately, if you’re gluten free like I am, finding a gluten free brioche is tough. Gluten is what helps dough rise in pastry, which means that gluten free pastries are usually more dense.

When I was buying a traditional brioche for my family the other day, I finally decided I had to attempt make a gluten free one. But, because I felt this would be hard enough to achieve, I decided not to make this recipe dairy free. So, this recipe uses traditional butter, but you can always try vegan butter if you cannot have any dairy. I can use butter in my recipes because it’s low in lactose, using vegan butter should work fine although keep in mind it may change the taste of your brioche bun.

Types of Brioches

Brioches come in all shapes and sizes as well as different flavours. They can be plain or have sweet or savoury fillings. They can be made into a loaf, individual buns, or one big bun. Traditionally, they contain  flour, eggs, butter, milk or cream, yeast, salt, and sugar. Some of my favourite types of brioches are chocolate brioches, coconut-filled brioche buns, and the raisin filled loaf. However, in this recipe I chose to make a plain sweet loaf, but you can easily add any filling you like to the dough.

Why this recipe?

The best thing about this recipe is that it is quick and very easy to make compared to most brioche recipes. It’s perfect for someone who has never even tried a hand at pastry making or bread making. The ingredients are also simple and easy to find, but a fair warning, you will want to make it more than once! Here is how you can make your own brioche bread…

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs (+1 for the egg wash)
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup coconut sugar or xylitol
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup almond or oat milk
  • 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
  • 1 pinch of salt (if butter is unsalted)

Directions

  1. Pre-heat your oven at 150ºC, you will want a warm place for you dough to rise. I like to warm up the oven, then turn it off, and leave the dough to rise for 1-2 hrs.
  2. If you’re using active dry yeast, you may need to activate it; warm up 2/3 cup milk, milk in 1 tbsp of sugar, and spread the yeast on top. Let it sit for 10 mins before mixing. You should get a frothy mixture.
  3. If you’re using instant yeast like I did, you can simply add it to your flour, mix in the salt.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and butter together.
  5. Mix in the sugar and slowly fold in the flour (Incorporate the yeast mixture at this point if you’re using active dry yeast)
  6. Ensure you do not overman the dough, just well enough that you don’t have any dry flour.
  7. Lightly dust your surface and scoop out the dough.
  8. Dust the top of your dough so that you are able to handle it. You don’t want to knead it, but you want to be able to fold it over 3-4 times.
  9. Divide the dough into two halves, form it into two lengths so that you can twist and lace them into shape. You can also opt for a 3 strand plait or simply shape the loaf as a whole. The dough should be thick enough to handle but soft and moist enough that it easily moulds into shape.
  10. Place your loaf into an oiled silicone loaf tin or one lined with parchment paper.
  11. Allow to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.
  12. Beat one egg to brush over the top of the dough, I did two layers, one before baking and one 20 mins after.
  13. Bake for 30-40 mins at 200ºC. Allow to cool before slicing.

A note from the author

Thank you for joining us on this recipe post, I hope you enjoyed it. If you’ve reached the end, or even better, decided to attempt the recipe, please like and follow for more recipes like this one. There’s a lot more in store.. xoxo.

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Gluten Free Banana Tarte Recipe

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Banana pie
Tarte
Banana Tarte

Hey guys, welcome back to the blog! Today’s recipe is a gluten free banana pie/tarte. It took me a while to achieve a simple but delicious gluten free pie crust. This recipe, although not dairy free, is basic and requires only a few ingredients. I made this pie for the whole family and it was well received.

Gluten free pies can be tricky, the crust can sometimes be too hard or too crumbly. My ideal recipe involves two types of crust; a crumb layer for the base and a firmer dough for the lattice design. The best part is you can make both crusts from the same bowl. I usually use the lattice design for banana tartes but when I bake apple or berry pies, I simply use the same crumb mixture as the base. So here’s what you’ll need…

Gluten free flour

When baking a gluten free crust I like to use an all purpose gluten free flour and an almond flour. You can use any mix, although I’d avoid flours with bean flour as they can be a bit bitter. I often use Free form flour but any all purpose should work well.

I like adding almond flour for a bit of texture and to ensure the gluten free flour stays soft. You want to use a fine almond flour rather than a coarse one.

Making it dairy free

I usually use coconut oil for my gluten free crusts but because I wanted a foolproof crust, I opted for butter in this recipe. However, coconut oil should work just as well, but it might change the taste and color. Similarly, I haven’t tried this recipe with vegan butter but it should perform well as long as there is enough fat content in the crust.

Pie Crust
Baking
Pie crust

Ingredients

Crust

  • 3 cups gf flour
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 85g unsalted cold butter (or 6 tbsp)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp sugar (truvia for a sugar free option)
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Filling

  • 6 medium sized bananas
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp sugar (or erythritol)
banana pie
Banana filling

Instructions

For the crust

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 1/2 cups of gf flour with the almond flour, sugar, and salt.
  2. Add in chunks of the cold butter and mix into the flour until it starts to form small clumps.
  3. Mix in 1 egg and the apple cider vinegar until you get a crumb texture, it should clump together when you press it.
  4. Grease a pie mould and press in the crumb mixture all around the edges first. Once you’ve pressed in the edges, you can use a spoon to shave off any excess before pressing in your base. You should use about half of the crust mixture by this point.
  5. Bake the crust at 150°C for 10 mins.

For the filling

  1. While the crust is baking you can make your filling.
  2. Mash up 6 ripe bananas until smooth.
  3. Transfer to a saucepan and mix in sugar and vanilla on low heat.
  4. Cook on low heat until it turns a darker brown.
  5. Pour in the filling into the pie crust.
Pie crust
Tarte
Baking

For the lattice crust

  1. Now you can make the pie dough with the last half of the crumb mixture. Add in two eggs to the crumb mix and about 1/4 cup of flour.
  2. Mix and knead until it forms a dough. It shouldn’t be sticky but malleable and still soft.
  3. Roll out the dough on a piece of parchment paper and use a knife or pastry cutter to cut out strips. They should be about 1cm thick and long enough to cover your pie.
  4. Once you have enough strips, you can start layering and crisscrossing them over the filled pie. Cut off all the edges, pressing them into the lower crust.
  5. Bake at 170°C for 15-20mins or until golden.

Tips

  • For the lattice layer, I like to lay down all my vertical strips first and then thread through my lateral strips.
  • If you want to, you can use the same crumb mixture as your top layer. It works great on my apple pies.
  • You can use an egg wash on your upper crust layers to bring more of a golden color.
  • You want your crust strips to be thin enough to handle but thick enough so that they don’t break.

Gluten free pie crusts can be a challenge so I hope you found this recipe helpful. I definitely believe everyone has a recipe that works out for them and this blog aims in helping you find what works for you. Thank you for reading, please like and follow for more recipes and let me know what you think about it down in the comments, xoxo.