My sister Becky called me one day with an unexpected discovery in gluten-free bread baking. “Gluten-free bread is not temperamental or hard to figure out. It is rather forgiving and much easier than making regular bread,” she gleefully announced.

Having found gluten-free yeast bread making to be anything but easy, I was somewhat bewildered by such a statement. However, as Becky described her timesaving process for mixing yeast bread dough and baking it without letting it rise first, it did sound quite simple. In fact, it sounded very much like the process one would use to mix a batch of muffins and bake them. I began to wonder: could her quick-mix, quick-bake scheme really work and produce an acceptable loaf of yeast bread?

I decided to accept Becky's quick-mix part of the scheme as she described it but experiment to see whether bread turned out equally well whether the dough rose before baking or not. I would use the quick-mixing instructions to make the dough, divide the dough evenly between two small loaf pans, and bake one loaf immediately. While the first loaf baked, I would allow the second loaf to rise at room temperature and bake it afterwards. Then I would be able to compare the results of immediate baking versus rising before baking.

For the experiment, I used my recipe for Whole Grains Brown Bread. Following Becky's instructions, I measured all the dry ingredients, including dry yeast, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, I mixed the dry ingredients well. To the dry ingredients, I added eggs, oil, and warm water, using somewhat less water than the recipe suggested. (Becky uses warm tap water; I heated water in the microwave oven.) By hand, I stirred until the dough was evenly blended, adding more water a little at a time until the consistency of the dough was the same as that of the cookie doughs I used to make with wheat flour. When the dough was thoroughly mixed, I divided it evenly between two pans that I had prepared by greasing and rice flouring. (Becky sprays her pans with non-stick spray and does not flour them.) I put one pan of bread dough into the pre-heated oven immediately and set the other pan on the counter to allow the dough to rise before I baked it at the same temperature.

When I compared the appearances of the two baked loaves, I was astounded. The loaf that had not had time to rise before baking was actually taller than the other loaf; however, its shape was crested like a quick bread made with baking powder, not rounded, as yeast bread should be. When I cut the loaf, its texture was dense and closely packed. The second loaf, which had risen before baking, had a nicely rounded top. The inside texture was less dense and looked more like that of whole wheat bread. In a blind taste test, my testers (my husband and son-in-law) reported that the bread that had not risen before baking had a denser feel than the other loaf. My unreserved son-in-law was unequivocal about declaring it to be drier and grainier. Both testers agreed that the second loaf had a lighter texture that was more like “real” bread. While the two testers could not detect a difference in flavor, I thought I could detect a slightly yeastier taste in the bread that had time to rise before baking.

In all, I performed this experiment three times, trying three different baking temperatures: 350°, 375°, and 400°. For the loaves that were allowed to rise before baking, I also varied the rising time, allowing 45 minutes in the first experiment and 30 minutes in the other two experiments. The baking temperature that produced the best results was 375°, and the better time interval for rising was 30 minutes. In all three of the experiments, the loaf that did not rise before baking was as tall as or taller than the other loaf, but it was crested rather than rounded, and the texture was drier and grainier than the texture of the other loaf. However, it tasted almost identical to the loaf that was allowed to rise before baking.

The experiments convinced me that my sister's quick-mix, no-rise method for baking gluten-free yeast bread does produce an acceptable product and is a great way to make gluten-free bread expeditiously, as baking yeast bread in this manner takes no more time to prepare than traditional muffins. However, when time allows for rising, the quick-mix method combined with a short rising time produces a prettier, better-textured bread. Either way, Becky was right: gluten-free yeast bread does not have to be difficult nor time-consuming to make.

Sideview. Left: Bread baked without rising first
Right: Bread baked after rising 30 minutes

Cross-Section. Left: Bread baked without rising first
Right: Bread baked after rising 30 minutes

Endview. Left: Bread baked without rising first
Right: Bread baked after rising 30 minutes

To rise or not to rise (before baking): that is the question. Here you can see that though there is some difference in texture and appearance that comes with allowing time for gluten-free yeast bread to rise, bread that does not rise before baking does produce an acceptable loaf of bread, and eliminating rising time may be a practical solution when time is short.