Eating gluten free can be a struggle. I’m not diagnosed as celiac, but I definitely have a gluten sensitivity, so I’ve been eating gluten free for well over a decade. I regret all my life choices when I catch accidental gluten, and I know what my limits are for cross contamination (shared fryer is okay as long as I don’t get crumbs on my plate—crumbs are bad in all forms).
Anyway. I’ve been seeing a lot of recipes using and raving about Caputo gluten free flour, so I was wondering what the big deal is. Is it really that great? I love that it includes psyllium husk right in it, and isn’t overloaded with gums that will suck up moisture. So of course, I decided to buy a (rather large) bag of it, and give it a go.
If you are also gluten free and interested in this flour, please be aware that it has wheat flour in it that has had gluten removed, so it is not appropriate for wheat allergies, but it is considered celiac safe.
My first attempt was the Gluten-Free Ciabatta Rolls recipe from the Caputo site. The only difference is that I wanted to utilize my sourdough starter, so I made a few adaptations.
I lowered the amount of flour from 2.5 cups to 2 cups, and I lowered the amount of water from 1.25 cups to .75 cups. This allowed me to use 1 cup of my sourdough starter, which is a 1:1 fully hydrated starter made from rice and millet flours.
I lowered the yeast slightly, to 6g from 7g, because I used instant years instead of standard. I did not do an overnight rise to get benefit from the sourdough, so I still did need yeast.
I patted the dough (it’s sooo wet) into a larger square and made 9 rolls instead of 6, but I realized later I could’ve done it with 6 and been okay for how carby they would be. Whoops. Next time I get to make them slightly bigger!
The dough is really quite wet, almost like a batter, even after resting. I used a silicone pad well-dusted with flour to do this, then a bench scraper to move them to my parchment-covered sheet pan. At first I thought the dough was too wet—I struggled to move them and some came out not so neat. BUT. The texture was perfect when done, so I don’t want to reduce the amount of water. Instead, next time I will work directly on the parchment, and simply attempt to get rid of extra flour so it doesn’t burn.
I baked for 20 minutes, and they came out almost a little too crisp. But the inside was perfect and I adored having one for lunch with a leftover warmed-up burger. YUM.
A day later, one toasted beautifully, but the half I didn’t toast was a little dry. I am thinking in the future I might leave them uncut, wrap in foil, warm in the toaster, then try to eat it as if it were just baked. I might also underbake them slightly to freeze for future me.
I was incredibly impressed at how amazing the interior was right off the bat. I love this flour, and will be using it for more recipes, definitely. I certainly have plenty of it to play with.