Anyone who has bought gluten-free bread knows that most loaves come HARD AS A BRICK! They usually have a funny taste and texture, so I only use them for toast. I have found ONE loaf that I like to buy, but it’s also hard to find. (Glutino’s Flax Seed Bread.) So, I wanted badly to make my own bread, especially when I found most store loaves don’t have yeast! No wonder they feel like you could KILL someone by hitting them over the head!

This Brown Bread was my first attempt at making bread with a bread maker, and I was really happy with the result. The molasses give it the color, and the flax seeds add texture. Since it is from a bread maker, there are only a few slices. They can’t be sliced while the bread is warm or the outside crumbles and the inside is still doughy.

My next try was an herb bread. As I put it together, with the help of my granddaughter Joscelyn, we grew more and more excited! It looked great in the bread maker, and the yeast really seemed to help it rise. But, after awhile of waiting, we looked through the window to see goo – sitting wet at the bottom of the bread maker. We continued to wait, and hoped it would rise again. Alas, SMOKE began pouring out of the vent – with an icky burned up smell! I unplugged the machine and ran it out back. Much later when I’d forced myself to be brave, I brought the machine inside to clean out the dough, and found that the dough had poured out of the pan upon rising, and had singed the burner to ruin! I was so depressed, and felt like giving up at bread making! I had to console little Joscelyn, since she was just sure it was her fault!

Last night I was brave enough OR stupid enough to try something new! Knowing that gluten-free flours don’t have the elastic quality that wheat flour does, I decided there was no need for kneading. So I mixed up a batch with my electric mixer, let it rise and put it in two bread pans, thinking I didn’t feel like cleaning up the bottom of my stove when the loaf overflowed! The result was so pleasing and YUMMY! So here is my Oven-Baked Herb Bread. And yes, the sandwich was GREAT!

This bread was baked at a higher heat, since I was experimenting. Next time I will bake at 350, and go from there. I’ll get back to you, when I bake that lighter loaf!