Carrot, Oat, Chestnut and Caraway gluten-free bread

Here is another quick and experimental bread that I knocked together and wow it worked a treat! Be sure to bake only to the point of just done to keep this moist and enjoy with real butter, nut butter, pesto, cheese, or hummus.

This bread is super for hard training recovery and far better for the body than processed gluten-free varieties.

“My goal when I bake breads is to add in more goodness,
and remove the ingredients that I don’t tend to need.
The inclusion of healthier more nutrient dense flours,
and the addition of grated vegetables raises the nutritional
density of the bread.
I don’t add milk, butter, oils or sugar as they simply aren’t needed.”

There are many substitutions that can be made in this bread recipe; for example:

• Flours: I play around with most of the following flours in my baking: oats, oat flour, corn/ maize/ polenta flour, chestnut flour, amaranth flour, millet flour, buckwheat flour, soya flour, gram flour, peasemeal flour, teff flour, coconut flour, quinoa flour, and brown rice flour. I think that covers all of what is in my store cupboards!
• If some self-raising (GF) flour isn’t added to the mix you will need to add some baking powder to help the bread rise.
• Seeds: whole chia seeds will substitute well for flax seeds.
• Vegetables: I have used all of the following in my bread mixes with success: grated courgettes, beetroot, potato, squash, sweet potato, and parsnip. I have also added cooked onions. Fruits add well too and I have used grated apples and pears.
• Spices and herbs: I absolutely love the flavour of caraway seeds in bread. I have also used rosemary, thyme, oregano, sundried tomato tapenade, pesto, ground turmeric and if I am baking sweet bread then I use ground cinnamon and on occasion ground mixed spice.
• Eggs – we use duck eggs by preference in this house as they are always free-range and we prefer the flavour. Choose free range and organic large hens eggs if preferred.
• Water: I always bake my breads on water; however if you prefer then substitute milk, buttermilk or Greek or other yogurts. I don’t feel that oils such as olive or butter or coconut oil are necessary in the bread recipe and so prefer to slather these ON rather than IN my bread.
  

Tools:

• measuring cups
• baking bowl
• fork for mixing
• grater
• Bread loaf tins
• greaseproof paper

It is worth investing in a set of measuring cups for baking as it makes life so much easier! Although saying this I am only measuring things so that I can pass on my recipe; I never weigh/ measure the ingredients when baking my crazy inventions.

Ingredients:

I would guess that the quantities I used to create this bread are fairly flexible and that you could make any number of creative tweaks to produce a yummy healthy bread.

• 2 carrots – washed and grated by hand or in a food processor (get adventurous if you like, sweet potato, parsnip, squash or potato will also work)
• ½ cup whole flax seeds
• 1 to 1 ½ cup organic gluten-free oats
• 1 cup gluten-free self-raising flour (Dove’s farm) (I ran out on my second batch and used ½ cup gluten-free self-raising flour combined with ½ cup soya flour and 2 teaspoon baking powder – this worked well also)
• 1 cup chestnut flour (I buy mine here http://www.realfoods.co.uk/product/14055/chestnut-flour; you could use any other gluten-free flour such as gram, buckwheat, coconut, oat, soya, amaranth, etc.)
• ¼ cup potato flour (important for the texture)
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 teaspoon salt (Himalayan, Celtic or Atlantic)
• 1 duck or large hen egg
• Water to desired consistency

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients (the grated vegetables, caraway seeds, salt, flours, and seeds) in a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix well using a large spoon or fork.
3. Add the egg and then the water slowly while mixing and using your judgment add more water as necessary to create a mixture that holds together with the consistency of regular bread.
4. Place in a standard bread tin that has been lined and greased.
5. Bake at 220 C / 430 F for ten minutes and then drop the temperature to 200-210 C/ 390-410 F for approximately another 40 minutes depending on the temperature of your oven (I bake in a convection oven).
6. The baked bread should come out slightly on the moist side when a knife is run through it. It will dry further in the following hour.
7. Allow to cool and enjoy!!
8. This bread will slice and freeze well.

Enjoy,
Love

Andrea