The Kitchen: Experi-baking with low FODMAP yeast bread.

These hands just weren't made for bread. Even before going gluten (well, wheat) free I’ve been rubbish at bread making. Whilst watching Paul Hollywood work his hands on the Great British Bake Off and I can’t help but feel the utmost jealousy. I know it comes with practice - don’t get me wrong - but I knew I had to be doomed after I killed my yeast off during Food class in high school (don’t cut corners and add all of your dry ingredients to a bag, seems like a wise idea unless you realise that salt - in high amounts - kills off the yeast, oops).

Alas, we’ve been experimenting with bread recipes. I can’t for the life of me think where this one was from so apologies. We modified it slightly by using 1 cup of buckwheat in place of 1 cup of flour to try and boost the nutritional content a little. It did mean that the overall mixture was drier and more dense, but it still made a pretty tasty little loaf.

I wouldn’t say this is suitable as a sandwich loaf replacement (it’s definitely not fluffy and light!) but it tastes pretty darn good toasted, with butter and your favourite jam, or thinly slices and stuffed with cheese and toasted!

It’s gluten free, lactose free, totally FODMAP friendly, and void of any of those hidden nasties you often find in shop-bought gluten free bread (inulin anyone?!)

• 2 cups gluten-free flour (I use Doves Farm)
• 1 cup of buckwheat flour (mill your own buckwheat, it’s far cheaper)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp dried active yeast
• 1.25 tsp xantham gum
• 1 cup of warm milk (I use lactose-free)
• 4 tbsp salted butter
• 3 large eggs
• Pinch of salt

First prepare your yeast! Add to milk that’s just warm to touch (you don’t want it too hot as it’ll denature your yeast), whisk, and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes. Normally the lactose in milk will provide enough of the sugar for the yeast to feed on. As I use lactofree milk, I added one of the tbsp of sugar into the milk mixture [check on it from time to time, it should have a frothy layer - if not, check your expiry date!

Add your flour, gum, and sugar to a large mixing bowl. Give your milk/yeast mixture a whisk and gently pour into the flour, mixing well.

Add your butter, and mix.

Add your eggs one by one, mixing after each addition, and add your sprinkling of salt (I actually didn’t use any additional salt in my bread and found it a little lacking so if you’re watching your watching your sodium - omit!)

Now, this whole process if a LOT easier with a stand mixer. Lesson learnt, I’ve been scoping out Kenwood K Mixers to make gluten-free bread making a dream. If you, like me, don’t have a mixer, then you need to rustle up a bit of elbow grease and give this a real good mix for about 5 minutes. It’s murder, trust me, but hopefully yours will come out a little lighter than mine did!

We proved this bread twice to get a decent rise - one hour each time in a warm place. After the first prove, transfer to a well greased bread tin and prove again.



Smooth out the top, sprinkle with golden linseeds and pumpkin seeds if you wish (and all the best of luck - mine fell off after baking!), and bake in a preheated oven (160 degrees) for 40 minutes.

Remove, leave to cool slightly and then tip out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 15 slices: 129 calories || 5g fat || 22g carbs || 3g protein