Easy to make Gluten Free + Vegan French Baguettes!

I am VERY excited about this beautiful crusty bread!! Its soft and tender on the inside & is so fun to watch bake!

With eggs costing a small fortune lately there’s no better time for me to dive into egg free breads which I have been wanting to hone in on for awhile.

The key to success in making a great egg free/ gluten free + vegan bread is Psyllium Husk, Which is an ingredient I have been wanting to experiment with but felt a little overwhelmed knowing there would be a big learning curve and a lot of trial and error. I had tested it out a number of times and felt as though it was actually preventing my breads from getting as big as I knew they could be.

Turns out I was making one mistake.. I wasn’t adding enough hydration to my bread doughs when I used it. The cool thing about psyllium is that it allows you to sneak in a lot more water into the recipe without the dough getting super wet. Typically with gluten free bread recipe development I’m walking the fine line between getting as much hydration into the dough as I can while also making sure the dough can be worked with and shaped. I have spent a LOT of time trying slight variations in the amount of water compared to the amount of flour whenever I’m putting the finishing touches on a recipe.

Basically.. it comes down to this. Psyllium provides the structure to bread that it needs very similar to how gluten works. It allows allows for more moisture which means the bread gets bigger. Its kind of a miraculous ingredient when used correctly. I’m finding it also allows for recipes to contain less ingredients. It really opens the door to a new frontier of innovation & I’m really excited to go down the path and see what I can create.

Psyllium is a really unique ingredient that has properties to it that I have not found in any other ingredients besides gluten itself. So I don’t think (at this time) anyways that I can recommend a way to substitute it successfully.

That brings us to these baguettes. Psyllium really did wonders for the recipe. It makes the dough easy to work with & it allowed me to reduce the amount of steps substantially. This is not typically what I would consider a beginner bread recipe but I think the psyllium gives the recipe more room for error (if that makes any sense). The trickiest part really is shaping the bread without over working it & adding too much flour to it. Don’t stress over your bread looking perfect. That will come with time. The main goal to get started I think anyways is for it to taste good. Which will be the case so long as you follow the exact gram measurements and directions :).

Have you ever heard of the term oven spring?? Unless you are a baker then probably not.

Oven spring is a magical thing that happens in the oven that bread bakers aim for. IF there is enough hydration and structure in the dough and you put the dough into a very hot oven (preferably on a pizza stone or baking steel) then the moisture in the dough quickly bubbles up and creates a lot of height in the bread in the first 10 minutes in the oven. This then equates to a fluffy bread with a beautiful crumb & lots of perfect air bubbles. Even without an oven spring happening the bread will still taste good .. it’ll just be a bit dense in comparison. I discovered that mixing in too much flour when shaping the dough prevented the oven spring from happening because it reduced the amount of moisture in the dough. This is why I suggest trying to shape the dough using only a few tbsp of flour at the most.

Ingredients (Some of these are affiliate links that earn me a few cents if you shop using them! :)

Better Batter Gluten Free Orginal Blend

This flour blend continues to amaze me. It can do so many things better than most other blends that I have tried. As a result its extremely popular. Around the holidays it tends to sell out everywhere. Usually its available on Amazon and at Walmart. Lately I have been ordering it from the Better Batter website directly. When they sell out- they tend to restock pretty quickly. Check back within a day or two if they are sold out when you look. I buy it in bulk now (Up to 40 lbs at a time) as I cant risk running out. I use it in too many recipes that we love.

What if you cant get your hands on it? This may be the case if you live outside the US. My friend Nichole from Gluten Free on a Shoestring has figured out a mock recipe for better batter. Her version should work great in this recipe! The owner (Naomi) of better batter has confirmed that the mix is similar to the official version.

Better Batter so kindly offered me a 30% off promo code to share with all of you! This can be used as often as you would like for every single purchase made directly on BetterBatter.com Use the code: BakingAngell30

Expandex

This bread is truly only possible because of the magic of expandex. It is a modified form of tapioca starch that was formulated to improve gluten free baking. The word Modified tends to worry people- so let me explain further. Essentially they studied tapioca and removed portions of it leaving only the parts that would allow for it to cause amazing elasticity (aka its name) in gluten free recipes. This flour allows me to get an incredible rise with everything I use it in. It traps the air bubbles in the dough just like regular flour with gluten does! Its honestly incredible. If you eat any processed or store bought foods you have eaten many forms of modified starch. Its nothing new- its just semi new to the home baker. Its non gmo and I typically get it from the brand Judee’s on amazon. Under no conditions can you sub it out for another regular starch.

Outside of the US there is a product called Ultratex 3 I have not worked with it but from what I understand its comparable! I would use that in the exact same quantity as the expandex amount that I call for.

Yeast: I recently learned about a special yeast made for sweet breads. Breads with sugar that are higher in fat have a harder time rising and typically take much longer to do so. Which means that this yeast has some extra oomph to it. Which gives me confidence that it could really benefit gluten free bread recipes. https://amzn.to/3AQPMsZ

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of getting that specific bag- any brand will do. Just make sure that its fast acting or listed as instant.

Sugar- REAL Sugar is important. Its what feeds the yeast and makes this bread possible. I do not recommend swapping in a liquid sweetener as that could throw off the recipe. Please don’t use any keto sugars or even coconut palm sugar. It may not work as well.

Easy to make Gluten Free + Vegan French Baguettes!

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Yield: 2 Baguette’s

Author: Brittany Angell

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 45 MinInactive time: 2 HourTotal time: 3 H & 5 M

For many years I have worked towards figuring out the perfect combination of ingredients to be able to make bread the way classic bread is made. Psyllium husk is the answer. Used in just the quantity combined with just the right amount of dough hydration and spectacular things can happen. It gives the dough the structure is needs similar to the way gluten does & it allows for a higher quantity of liquids which allows the bread to expand a lot more. This recipe is a great one for beginners as there’s not a lot to it! Just be sure to use the least amount of flour to shape the bread possible! You’ll end up with two crunchy on the outside yet soft on the inside baguette’s that taste like the real thing.

Ingredients

Bread Dough

• 481 grams of warm water (NOT hot. Just warm. Hot water will kill the yeast.)
• 16 grams Psyllium Husk Powder (make sure it’s labeled as powder!)
• 60 grams of organic Cane Sugar
• 1 tbsp fast acting/instant/ quick rise yeast
• 420 grams Better Batter Original Blend Flour
• 40 grams Expandex
• 2 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Add to the bowl of a stand mixer the hot water & psyllium. Give it a quick mix to make sure it’s well combined. Then add In all of the remaining ingredients making sure to measure accurately.
2. Using the paddle attachment mix on low then high for 2-3 minutes. Making sure to scrap down the sides once or twice.
3. Prepare a large glass bowl (glass conducts heat best for proofing.) by oiling it by hand or spraying oil over the entire inside of the bowl. Add all of the bread dough. Cover it tightly with ceran wrap. Place in a warm spot for 2 hours. I like to turn my oven on to 350 just until it’s preheated and then turn it off. Placing the bowl on top of the oven with a towel over the top of the ceran wrap. Giving it the 2 hours allows the dough to rise & the psyllium to absorb moisture.
4. After the 2 hours. Place a pizza stone or baking steel into the oven on the middle rack. Turn the oven on to 450 degrees. Dust your work surface with just a bit of better batter. This part is very important- you are going to want to knead in a good amount of flour to prevent any sticking. But if you knead in too much your bread won’t spring up and get as big as it can possibly be in the oven. I use maybe 3-4 tbsp at the very most per loaf and I try to get it shaped right away rather than kneading and shaping on repeat. Dust your work surface with the flour and dump the bowl of proofed dough onto the flour. Cut it in half. Dip your hands in the flour so help prevent sticking and kneed the dough just briefly to get the dough smooth. Shape into a smooth baguette (the size is up to you!) and set aside. Repeat with the second portion of the dough.
5. Turn a metal baking sheet upside down and place a sheet of parchment on it. Carefully place your two shaped loaves onto the back of the baking sheet on top of the parchment. Brush a layer of layer on the tops and the sides of the baguettes. Then brush or spray a little oil on them. Gently and loosely cover them with ceran wrap then the kitchen towel. Place them upside down baking sheet on your stove that is preheating. Set the timer for 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes your dough will have risen almost all the way. Gently remove the towel and ceran wrap and use a sharp knife to slash the dough to give it its traditional look. Sprinkle the top and sides of the bread with some additional better batter flour and gently cover the bread again. Set the timer for 15 minutes.
7. After the 15 minutes your oven should be fully preheated and the bread should be fully risen. Remove the ceran wrap and towel off of the bread dough. Using the baking sheet as your guide - slide the sheet of parchment holding the dough carefully onto the hot baking stone. Be very careful not to touch the stone with your hands. Quickly close the oven door.
8. Quickly open the oven door and throw a few handfuls of ice cubes into the bottom of the oven. You may add them to a pan or sheet that was preheating on the bottom rack along with the pizza stone or directly onto the oven floor. I go the easy route and just throw the ice into the oven. This creates steam helping the bread to rise as much as possible.
9. Set the timer for 20 minutes. Make sure not to open the oven door during this time. After the 20 minutes turn the oven head down to 350 degrees. (Leaving the bread in the oven.) and set the timer for 20 minutes. At this point if your oven has a hot spot you can carefully rotate the parchment so that all sides are baked equally.
10. Check the oven at the 20 minute mark- if the bread hadn’t gotten too dark if can bake another 5 minutes for good measure and an extra crispy crust.
11. Carefully remove the bread from the oven using the baking tray again or a cutting board. Allow it to cool for a bit and then serve warm or at room temperature. Note that the bread may be a little gummy when hot but that texture goes away once cool.
12. This bread is best fresh eaten in the first day or two! If you intend to have it last longer than that- freeze it instead and or store it in a sealed bag at room temperature after it has cooled all the way. As time goes in the crust gets softer - feel free to throw it in a toaster oven or the oven to reheat to bring back the crispy crust texture.

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