Let them eat bread...

The other day I was sitting at my kitchen table pondering, natch, drooling and dreaming about a piece of homeade yeast bread, slathered in the creamy deliciousness of butter.  I could taste it's soft chewy texture, and smell the sweet aroma it would give.(You're hating me right now I know)  I am pretty sure I was becoming slightly aroused by the idea, but if you are anything like me, that dream seemed very far from reality.  So far, in fact, that the bread most of us are used to reminds me of that cute snack commercial on T.V. right now.  You know the one, with the cute cartoon woman eating some sort of fiber product and hacking what appears to be sawdust.  Yes, that is the sad truth I have fast become accustomed to; cardboard with a dry and tasteless pallate.  That's a thought that makes you want to commit gluten suicide, and yet I was encouraged, and somewhat challenged (when do I ever pass up competition) to create something truly tasty.  So, upon a recent recommendation from a friend I looked up a recipe on the web site for "Living Without" for a Maple Oatmeal bread, and then modified the fashnizzle out of it to create what I found to be a pretty great thing; a Maple Sandwich bread.
The first time I made this recipe I was happy to see that the hundreds of dollars all those multiple flours I bought several weeks ago might get used, but after substituting several things and throwing some salt over my shoulder for luck, the beep of my bread machine produced a very wonderful thing; bread.  You're thinking, "Whoopy, who hasn't had a piece off decent bread?", but let me tell you this was no ordinary bread.  In fact, it was so good I ate it for every meal and in a day's time, it had somehow dissapeared. Although I can't be sure, I'm betting that somehow my husband or three year old snuck most of it, seeing as there is just no way that I ate an entire loaf of bread in less than a day.  (Although, back in my gluten hay day I do remember a time, or two, that I did eat an entire birthday cake all on my own.)
So, the next day I did what any sane person who had just created bread does; I called every member of my family to talk for hours about my loaf of bread.  Is this telling you just how important my days are? 
Then, after many hours and a tired jaw, I made another loaf.  This one I changed some more, adding a little more maple syrup and a little less eggs, afterall, we all know that refined sugar is so much healthier, er, tastier than the naturally made egg.  That loaf came out with perfection written all over it, and in hindsight (you know what they say about that) I should have taken a picture to frame.  I gave this loaf to my parents to enjoy.  By now I had discovered that it made great french toast, and so I made more!
Alas, after a couple more changes, and loafs of bread, which, yes, I pretty much polished off alone.  I give to the world my recipe for bread.  This is like handing over a gold bar; it's truly one of a kind.  This is a unicorn, we all want to believe they exist but have never seen one.  This my friends, is Gluten and Dairy free bread that actually taste like bread.  I'm pretty sure that when you first taste it you'll hear angels singing, so make sure to savor that moment, and maybe you'll start to have that same feeling I did when I was first day dreaming!  Enjoy.


Gluten Free/Dairy Free Maple Bread
1 3/4 Cups Rice Flour
1/2 C Sorghum Flour
1/4 C Potato Flour/Starch
1 pkg. Rapid Rise Yeast
1/2 Tbsp. plus 1/2 tsp. Xantham gum
1/2 Tbsp. Salt
3 Eggs
4 Tbsp Maple syrup (I eyeball this)
1/4 C shortening
1 1/4 C almond milk (heated in the microwave for about 1 minute)

-Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix by hand until it's pretty much incorporated.
-Scrape entire mixture into bread machine canister and set the machine for a 'sweet' bread.  On my machine that is a 3hour and 50 minute start to finish time.

I found that mixing the ingredients first then adding them to the bread machine makes a better loaf with no leftover dry parts that weren't mixed in the bottom.  Also, the extra mixing the machine does seems to make the bread a little more spongy like that wonderful bread we all miss so much.

A small side note.  I am going to be trying this recipe by substituting a large portion of the flours with almond flour as well as substituting grapeseed oil for the shortening.  I think it may produce a tastier slice, plus it would be far healthier.  I will let you all know in the next week how it turns out; and also add some pictures of my adventure.