Gluten-Free Bread Recipe for an Oven or Bread Machine

Tips for making gluten-free bread

Here are my tips that work with this gluten-free bread recipe. See below for my gluten free bread machine recipe.

Don’t substitute anything in this gluten free bread recipe unless I specified above that I’ve tested it. This is important. If you substitute something I can’t guarantee anything and I can’t help you troubleshoot if something doesn’t work in your gluten-free bread.

Ingredients at room temperature work best. You can always run your eggs under warm water for a couple of minutes to bring the temperature up.

Read the recipe instruction and get all ingredients out before you start.

Use dry active yeast or quick yeast. I use Fleischmann’s yeast: it’s labeled gluten-free. I’ve also used Red Star yeast.

If your bread sinks in the middle before it is done baking you most likely let the yeast proof sit too long before using it or you let your bread rise too long. You want to put your gluten-free bread in the oven when it rises just above the top of the loaf pan, no longer.

Make sure your water is between 95-110 degrees before adding the yeast. If you don’t have a thermometer I suggest you get one.

Line the loaf pan with parchment paper and then spray it with oil, this will help you remove the loaf from the pan.

Pan size matters. If you use a wider pan your loaf will be wider, and shorter. If you use a narrower pan your loaf baking time might change.

Again, if you have any questions on how to make gluten free bread, please leave me a comment below. I’ve included a video that shows step-by-step how to make gluten-free bread.

What are the drawbacks of freshly milled flour?

I’ve found baking with freshly milled flour requires a slightly different approach to baking bread. Typically, using whole grain freshly milled flour results in a dough that’s not quite as elastic and strong as one made with aged flour. This doesn’t mean you should mix the dough less or be more delicate; it simply means you need to adjust your expectations when using fresh flour. Instead of expecting a loaf with huge volume and a wildly open crumb, expect a squatter loaf with a tighter interior. But! When you might sacrifice in terms of volume, you’ll gain back (doubly?) in flavor, texture, and aroma.

Baking Larks with an Apple for March 22

Birds can be shaped in different ways. I use “knot” most of the time. I roll up part of the dough with the help of my palms into a plump flagellum and twist it into a knot. In order to make a lark out of it, three strokes are enough: on the head (upper tip of the knot), extend the nose, insert raisin eyes on both sides of it and make two cuts on the tail (lower end of the knot).

warm water – 700 ml
dry yeast – 11 g (or 50 g live)
premium wheat flour – 1250 g
sunflower oil – 6 tbsp.
apple – 1 piece
sugar – 1 tbsp
salt – 1 tsp
turmeric – 1 tsp
raisins – handful

Do you remember what larks look like? They are brown in color, often with a yellowish tint. And sometimes a well-defined yellow breast or muzzle. In order for the dough larks to have a similar color, I added turmeric to the dough.

And yet, I introduced one of my notions into this recipe – I mixed a grated apple into the dough. I did this so that the lean dough was soft and not dry. Of course, there is no apple flavor in the buns and cannot be, but there is tenderness, as I planned!

I sifted 600 grams of flour into a large deep bowl.

She poured dry yeast, turmeric, salt and sugar into it. If you want to use live yeast, then dissolve it in water and enter it in the next step. If desired, the amount of sugar can be increased up to 200 g.

Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients for even distribution. I poured warm water (all at once – 700 ml).

I stirred the dough and left it just on the table, covering the dishes with a lid, for about an hour.

During this time, the dough rose magnificently and bubbled!

I washed a large apple, cut off the peel from it, and rubbed the pulp coarsely. Added to steam.

Stirred, and then sifted the remaining flour (600-650 g).

At the end, when kneading, poured in sunflower oil (this time I took refined).

She rolled the dough into a ball. It should not be too dense – you should not hammer it with flour. Let it stick a little to your hands (but just a little).

She covered it again and left it on the table. The dough rose quickly, in about 40 minutes. I hugged him and let him rise again (it took about the same time).

The dough was divided into 4 parts for convenience. And then I cut each of them into 10 approximately equal ones. I always bake exactly 40 larks – according to the number of the Sebastian holy martyrs. I do this even if I do not knead from 1250 grams of flour, as now, but from 500-600 g. It’s just that in the second case, the birds turn out to be small. And in today’s version they are medium in size.

I formed a tourniquet from each part of the dough with my palms.

With a simple movement, she rolled it into a bundle.

Here’s what happened:

She formed a head from the upper free end of the knot, slightly extended the nose. On the sides I inserted eyes from halves and quarters (depending on size) of raisins. To prevent the raisins from falling out during or after baking, before inserting them, I press a little indentations on both sides of the spout with a small knife. Then I insert a piece of raisins (you don’t need a whole one, even if it’s small it will fall out) and again press it deeper with a knife.

The second (lower) free end of the knot was slightly extended and cut in two places, as if separating the feathers.

By the same principle, I formed all 40 birds. I baked on foil (you can do without it), greased with sunflower oil, 10 pieces on a baking sheet.

The birds need 25 minutes in the oven at a temperature of 180-200 “C.

Let the larks cool completely. Greased with sunflower oil on top and laid out on a dish.

OK it’s all over Now! Festive, yellow, light and tasty larks are ready!

Ingredients

1 ¼ cup (10 oz.) water between 95°F-110°F
2 tablespoons (25g.) sugar (or honey)
2 ¼ teaspoons dry active yeast (a 7g. packets worth)

For the bread

1 cup (145g.) white rice flour
¾ cup (85g.) tapioca starch
¾ cup (92g.) potato starch (or arrowroot starch)
½ cup (60g.) millet flour (or almond flour)
¼ cup (25g.) ground flaxseed (flaxseed meal)
2 ½ teaspoons (9g.) xanthan gum
1 teaspoon (5g.) baking powder
1 teaspoon (6g.) salt
¼ cup (2 oz.) oil of choice (I used avocado oil)
3 egg whites (75g.)
1 teaspoon (6g.) apple cider vinegar

How long to bake gluten-free bread

This gluten-free bread recipe works best when baked for 60-65 minutes in the oven or on the gluten-free setting in a bread machine.

See my notes on gluten free bread recipe for the bread machine below.

Remember to cover your gluten-free bread with foil half-way through baking so it doesn’t over-brown.

You might read that a loaf is done baking once it hits around 200 degrees F. Please bake this loaf 60-65 minutes even if your thermometer says otherwise.

How to make a picture with flowers from salt dough

“Daisies in a vase” – this is the name of this picture, and it is done quite simply.

You will need:

cling film or cellophane;
salty dough;
cardboard sheet or wooden plank for the background;
matter (optional) for the background;
toothpick;
tassel;
nail scissors;
water.

Process step by step with photo:

Materials for making a painting

For all its beauty, the craft does not require special artistic talents and expensive materials. It is based on budgetary and affordable ingredients for everyone.

For cooking modeling masses you will need:

flour 4 cups;
extra salt 2 cups;
common kitchen salt 2 cups;
cold water 1.5-2.5 cups.

For clearance prepare pictures from salt dough with your own hands:

baking parchment, it is transparent, so the drawing on the drawing paper will be well visible.
drawing paper A1;
stacks, toothpicks or improvised tools;
gouache paints;
brushes;
branches, dried flowers, feathers, etc.;
acrylic aerosol varnish.

For those who have never sculpted from homemade dough, we recommend that you read first. And if this picture seems complicated, try to start with a simpler one or a composition with.

Painting and finishing the painting

Making a picture from salt dough is only half the battle, the most difficult thing is to paint it with your own hands. Do not rush, work carefully, as it is difficult to correct flaws.

cover with white gouache the whole stork except for the beak and paws. Without waiting for the paint to dry, start painting in black large feathers on the wing and the upper part of the tail. Paint the eye black.

With a clean wet brush, smudge a clear outline of black and white on the wing and around the eye. To make the bird look natural.

Cover the beak and paws with orange gouache.

Before the paint dries, add some red and paint on the beak and legs, immediately blurring the transition with water so that there is no clear outline.

Glue broken branches onto the painted base with hot silicone or building sealant, forming a nest. Add dried flowers, real feathers, artificial leaves and berries to the branches.

At the end, glue storks from salt dough to the picture with the same glue. Cover the finished panel with spray varnish, including the base, birds and nest.

Now evaluate the work done. We are sure that you got a panel no worse than the one in the photo. And if for the first time something went wrong, do not worry, training will certainly lead to the desired result.

A master class on making a picture from salt dough with her own hands was prepared by Olga Olefirenko. Do you want to continue? Make a beautiful or. In appearance, the decor is no worse than ceramic.

Instructions for sculpting voluminous storks

On a piece of paper that matches the size of the canvas for the picture, draw storks with a simple pencil. Draw sketchy, subtleties are not required. Place two sheets of parchment on top so that one stork is on one parchment and fits completely on it and on the oven tray.

It is more correct to do it in turn, first mold a sitting stork, placing the parchment horizontally, and then fashion a standing one, laying out the parchment vertically.

Form a ball from a large piece, then stretch it, pulling it into an egg or a droplet. Stick to the parchment in place of the body of the stork. Don’t go beyond the contours.

Form a sausage of the desired width and bend it according to the pattern, forming a neck.

With fingers dipped in water, smooth the junction of the neck and torso. If necessary, place a small piece of dough on the joint and smooth it out.

Roll up a small ball, put in place of the head.

Blind a sausage from salt dough, narrowed on one side and form the beak of a stork – the hero of the picture.

With wet fingers, smooth the junctions of the head with the neck and beak. Squeeze out a longitudinal strip on the beak.

Roll up small sausages of different thicknesses and lengths, round them on one side and sharpen on the other. Moisten the body of the stork with water and create a tail from sausages.

With a sharp stack or toothpick, squeeze out a lot of longitudinal notches, forming bird feathers.

From long sausages create paws, on the paws from two thin sausages make transverse jumpers, forming “joints”. Smooth out all the joints of the parts for the salt dough picture with wet hands.

From thin sausages, prepare the plumage at the top of the paws.

Form a relief, creating the illusion of many layers of feathers. Cover the entire surface of the stork with the same relief, except for the beak, legs and lower “feathers” on the tail. Look, maybe you have a metal heart-shaped cookie cutter. The pointed part of the heart is very convenient to leave prints. You can bend any corner of the pill blister and make prints.

From sausages lay out the wing. The approximate location and size of the wing is in the drawing on whatman paper, you can move the parchment and look.

On each “feather”, press 1-2 vertical stripes, smooth the upper part with wet fingers, then make the same impression as on the entire body. Label the eye.

According to the described instructions, fashion a second stork from salt dough for the picture. If the modeling mass remains, do it. It just needs a small piece.

All components needed dry in the oven. Of course, you can leave it to dry outdoors, but it will take a long time. It is much faster to get rid of excess moisture in the oven at 100 degrees (if possible, even less). Drying to complete drying will take approximately 5-6 hours. The figure can be considered completely dry when a ringing sound will be heard when tapping on the thickest place.

Which grain mill should I buy?

There are many great grain mills available to the home bread baker. The choice of which mill is best depends on your situation: how much flour do you want to mill at a time? Do you want an electric mill for convenience and speed, or do you prefer to hand-mill your flour for the finest flour possible?

Mockmill

A cost-effective mill brand that produces wonderfully fine flour at the flip of a switch, Mockmill has several models with different specifications to accommodate a range of outputs depending on how much ground flour you’re looking to produce (they even have a new mill with a substantial wooden housing).

KoMo Classic

I’ve had the KoMo Classic for ages and have used it to mill countless kilograms of flour here at home. It has a solid housing made of wood, and the design is, well, classic. It mills very fine flour at a reasonable rate.

GrainMaker 116

The GrainMaker is a hand-operated mill with two large steel burrs. It’s a bit of work to turn the crank, but it produces the finest flour out of all the mills I have. The mill is built like a tank and is truly a piece I’ll end up passing down to the next generation.

Line a 8-inch x 5-inch metal loaf pan with parchment paper and spray it with cooking spray; set it aside.
Add the sugar and yeast to your warm water (95-110 degrees F) and stir; set it aside for 5-10 minutes but no longer.
While your yeast is proofing, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flours, flax seed meal, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Turn your mixer to low and mix just until combined.
With the mixer still going, add the oil, egg whites, vinegar, and proofed yeast mixture.
Turn the mixer to a medium speed and mix for an additional 2 minutes. The dough will be thick and sticky.
Using a rubber spatula, add the dough to your prepared loaf pan making sure to fill in the corners of the pan and level the top. Wet your fingers and smooth the top.
Cover the dough with a lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap and allow it to rise in a warm place for 45 to 60 minutes, or until it has risen slightly above the loaf pan.
When the dough is near the top of the pan, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Remove the plastic wrap and bake for 60 – 65 minutes. Half way through baking, cover the bread loaf with a piece of foil to keep it from over-browning.
Remove the loaf from the oven and let cool completely before slicing.
Slice the entire loaf and store in a container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to a month.

More ideas and schemes for bird crafts from various materials

For needlewomen who are familiar with the isothread technique, it will not be difficult to create pictures with beautiful white swans with their own hands and decorate them with a holiday dedicated to Birds Day. Threads for creativity are better to take floss or iris. From the wrong side of the cardboard we draw a swan and draw waves. We divide the drawing into details, drawing figures of different sizes, and embroider using the isothread technique.

From woolen threads, a very charming feathered creature is obtained. It can be easily created with your own hands according to a simple and understandable scheme.

And according to this scheme, by introducing children to the creativity, you can make a bird of happiness from a beautiful bright fabric.

Even small children can create such a colorful bird from circles of colored paper.

A charming bird can even be made from a strip of colored paper and a clothespin.

A do-it-yourself bird for Bird Day can be planted in a nest glued from paper plates.

Simple clothespins in the hands of a craftswoman can turn into an unusual fairy-tale bird.

And finally, the ideas of bird crafts from natural and improvised materials: cedar or pine cones, painted feathers, cardboard and plasticine.

Let’s call Spring together! Let’s all bake larks together! These cute birds are the true heralds of Spring, sun and warmth! And if you bake a lot of warm, ruddy buns in the form of larks for the whole world – Spring will finally come!

On what holiday are larks baked from dough? According to the Orthodox calendar, March 22 is the Day of Remembrance of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. Also on this day, an ancient Slavic holiday, the Larks, was celebrated. It was believed that on this day these little songbirds flew in, and after them spring came.

Winter, along with its cold and ice, is already pretty tired of us, so we decided to call for a warm sunny spring and bake rich larks.

For larks, sweet dough is made. Do not forget that Great Lent is underway, so the dough will be lean. By the way, I like pastry with water and vegetable oil more than with milk and eggs.

For those who decide to bake larks according to our recipe, we will reveal our secrets of their preparation. For the dough, carbonated mineral water is used, so the dough rises a lot – make the larks not too large and put them on a baking sheet away from each other. To make the birds beautiful and ruddy, grease them with strong sweet tea leaves before baking. After baking, you can grease the larks with vegetable oil.

Well, that’s all the secrets of cooking larks. As you can see, there are few of them, and the process itself is simple and exciting. Let’s celebrate spring with fun and deliciousness!

Flour – 0.5 kg;
Carbonated water – 200 ml;
Vegetable oil – 75 grams;
Sugar – 3 tablespoons;
Salt – 1 teaspoon;
Yeast – 1 sachet (11 grams);
Strong sweet tea – 2-3 tablespoons;
Raisins for the eyes.

Dissolve yeast in warm sparkling water.

Sift flour into a deep bowl, add sugar, salt, vegetable oil, water with yeast and knead the dough.

Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for 1 hour.

When the dough has risen, punch it down and form the larks. We make larks like this – we divide the dough into 15 equal parts, roll each ball of dough into a bundle and tie it in a knot, form a head from one end of the knot, and flatten the other end and cut it in the form of a tail.

There is another way to make larks from dough:

This is how we bake larks from dough:

Before baking, grease the larks with strong sweet tea.

We bake larks in a preheated oven at a temperature of 220-240 degrees for 15 minutes.

Ready larks can be greased with vegetable oil.

What are the benefits of freshly milled flour?

I find freshly milled flour to have an enriched aroma and an amplified taste, and it adds a desirable color to bread’s crust and crumb. It’s hard to quantify, but the aroma is intense, and depending on the grain, a little grassy, nutty, and with notes of cream. And the flavor is nutty, sweet, and rich, and depending on the variety, it can be extremely vivid and forward (Red Fife is a good example).

I like to equate freshly milling your flour to freshly grinding coffee beans before making a cup; you unlock another level of flavor, freshness, and aroma that’s inherently in the food but hard to describe without trying it for yourself.

Is freshly milled flour healthy?

While it can be difficult to determine if freshly milled flour is more nutritious than aged whole wheat flour, using whole grain freshly milled flour is certainly healthy in that we’re making bread with whole grains—the entirety of the grain berry—thus bringing along all the nutrients, vitamins, fats, fiber, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and essential minerals (magnesium, selenium, and copper) our body benefits from.

Speaking of fiber and healthy ingredients, check out my whole-grain and high-fiber seeded sourdough bread for a pan loaf that’s as delicious as it is healthy.

Gum free gluten-free bread

I use xanthan gum in this gluten-free dairy-free bread recipe. I feel it yields the best results. Not everyone can have gums.

You can use psyllium husk powder (not full husks) in this recipe. I only tested it once, but I used 3 tablespoons of psyllium husk powder in place of the xanthan gum – yes, that reads 3 TABLESPOONS.

Psyllium husk powder is not a 1-to-1 for xanthan gum. Again, I only tested this one time so I cannot claim that this is the best sub for xanthan gum.

Sure it worked for me, but I haven’t checked to see if it’s repeatable with that amount of psyllium husk powder.

How to bake dough larks (with photo)

Yeast dry active – 7 g
Sugar (sand) – 110 g
Wheat flour – 470 g
Salt – 1 tsp
Vegetable oil – 75 ml
Dark raisins – 20 g

To begin with, we put liquid dough. Dissolve the yeast in a glass of warm water (200 ml), add 3 teaspoons of sugar and half a glass of flour. Knead and leave to stand until it rises.

Add 5 tablespoons of vegetable oil, ¼ cup of sugar, a teaspoon of salt to the dough, then add flour, about 3 cups, knead, if the dough is sticky, then add flour until the dough becomes tight enough, it should move away from hands Knead and leave to rise, then knead again.

We divide the dough into portions.

And we make larks. How to make a lark from dough? For example so. Roll out a portion of the dough into a sausage:

We turn off.

We twist the muzzle.

We flatten the tail and with the help of a knife we make feathers, insert raisin eyes.

And you can sculpt larks out of dough like that. We split the sausage in half.

I put it crosswise.

We form the wings, tail and head.

We decorate the feathers and eyes.

Or you can do this, take a piece of dough, make it flat at one end.

We divide in half.

And we throw the lower piece up – the wing. We make out the head, feathers, insert the eye.

We plant the birds on a baking sheet. I don’t separate them, because while I’m sculpting them, they manage to separate themselves. Lubricate with sugar water (I diluted 3-4 teaspoons of sugar per 100 g of water)

And send it to the oven, heated to 180-200 degrees. We bake until browned, take it out, grease it again with sugar water, cover with a towel and let it cool. Happy holiday!

Making Gluten Free Bread

Add the sugar and yeast to your warm water (95-110 degrees F) and stir; set it aside for 5-10 minutes but no longer.
While your yeast is proofing, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flours, flax seed meal, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Turn your mixer to low and mix just until combined.
Add the oil, egg whites, vinegar, and proofed yeast mixture.
Turn the mixer to a medium speed and mix for an additional 2 minutes. The dough will be thick and sticky. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides.
Using a rubber spatula, add the dough to your prepared loaf pan making sure to fill in the corners of the pan and level the top. Wet your fingers and smooth the top.
Cover the dough with a lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap and allow it to rise in a warm place for 45 to 60 minutes, or until it has risen slightly above the loaf pan.
When the dough is near the top of the pan, preheat your oven to 350°F. Remove the plastic wrap and bake for 60 – 65 minutes. Half way through baking, cover the bread loaf with a piece of foil to keep it from over-browning.
Remove the loaf from the oven and let cool completely before slicing. Slice the entire loaf and store in a container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to a month.

These numbered steps match the numbered photos above and are for illustration purposes. For the complete list of ingredients and instructions, please see the recipe below.

Notes

Please read all the tips and tricks in the post before you get started. If you prefer to use a bread machine, check further up in the post for instructions.
Use dry active yeast or quick yeast. Instant yeast is okay and you don’t need to proof it, just make sure you get it in the oven as soon as it rises to the top of the loaf pan.
For the gluten-free bread machine recipe, add wet ingredients to the pan, and then dry ingredients except the yeast, make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and then sprinkle the yeast into the hole. See complete instructions just above the recipe.
Make sure your water is between 95-110 degrees before adding the yeast. This is warm to the touch, but not hot.
Line the loaf pan with parchment paper and then spray it with oil, this will help you remove the loaf from the pan. Pan size matters. If you use a wider pan your loaf will be wider, and shorter. If you use a narrower pan your loaf baking time might change.
Flour blend option: 2 ½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend + ½ cup millet flour + ¼ cup flaxseed meal. The 2 ½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 is in place of the rice flour, tapioca, and potatoe. You are swapping the three with Bob’s.
Egg free option: Swap out the 3 egg whites with 2 tablespoons of chia seed + 7 tablespoons of water (let sit for 5 minutes and stir before you add it to the mixture). Bake for 70 minutes (putting a piece of foil over the loaf to help prevent over-browning, half way through).
Not everyone can have gums. You can use psyllium husk powder (not full husks) in this recipe. I only tested is once, but I used 3 tablespoons of psyllium husk powder in place of the xanthan gum.

Yield

1 sliceAmount Per Serving: 5g 1g 0g 4g

I posted a gluten-free bread recipe back in early 2015. It was okay, but it wasn’t the best gluten-free bread. It had a little bit of a quick bread texture.

I also now have a gluten free bread recipe for the bread machine (see further down if you use a gluten-free bread machine).

Just look at the texture in this easy gluten-free bread. It’s amazing. The gluten-free loaf featured in this picture could’ve used a few more minutes in the oven but I’ll talk more about that below.

You are going to love this gluten-free dairy-free bread. I promise.

A simple picture “Cat” from salt dough with your own hands

This work is done on a wooden background or on a cutting board. Transferring the drawing is not required, so the work is done on the basis of a sketch.

background or board;
watercolor and gouache paints;
paint brushes;
salty dough;
PVA glue”;
colorless varnish;

Master class with step by step photos:

Where to buy whole grain berries for milling near me

You can find whole berries at a surprising number of locations, and of course, you can always order large bags online. The sources listed below are some of my favorites, though I encourage you to look around your area for local sources–you may be surprised at what you find!

Raw hard red wheat berries

Do-it-yourself firebird from salt dough – master class

By the Day of the Birds, together with the children, you can make a voluminous firebird from salt dough. The work will take little time, require very few materials and provide the children with a cheerful and festive mood.

We will need: salt dough, gouache or watercolors, colorless varnish.

Step two. Divide the salt dough into 5 pieces and color them in different colors. To do this, add gouache or watercolors to each piece and knead it slightly again. Next, draw a sketch of the firebird and sculpt the details of the bird on it: wings and torso. Dry them in the oven at low temperature.

Step three. We make the tail of a fabulous bird. We draw stencils of feathers and sculpt them from pink and blue salt dough on them. Dry the feathers in the oven. Next, we paint all the details of the bird with paints, cover with colorless varnish, and connect. We make a colorful festive panel with crafts. Salt dough firebird is ready!

Gluten-Free Flours to use when making gluten-free bread

When I first made this gluten-free bread recipe I used my gluten-free flour blend. It works great, but I realized it needed something more.

I tested several different flour blend options before settling on the winner, the one that I think makes the best gluten-free bread. See the recipe card for the gluten free bread recipe that readers are loving.

2 ½ cups of my gluten-free flour blend + ½ cup of almond flour + ¼ cup flaxseed meal (ground flaxseed).
2 ½ cups of my flour blend + ½ cup of millet flour + ¼ cup of flaxseed meal. It’s an amazing nut free gluten free bread.
2 ½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend + ½ cup of almond flour + ¼ cup flaxseed meal.
2 ½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend + ½ cup millet flour + ¼ cup flaxseed meal.

This gluten-free dairy-free bread recipe was originally developed for the oven but I have a gluten-free bread machine recipe version below for those that like to us a bread machine.

And If you don’t believe that my friend Megan is a bread-making goddess just look at her homemade gluten-free hamburger buns.

Frequently asked questions about flour milling and working with freshly milled flour

Like storing flour, I store whole berries in the freezer wrapped tightly in plastic to prevent the accumulation of odors from the freezer. Storing whole berries in this way can help keep them longer before spoiling. Because whole grains have their bran layer (which is the protective sheath around the entire berry) intact, they can last a very long time (a year or more) if kept dry and at cool room temperature. Placing the berries in the freezer helps extend the shelf life even further–perhaps indefinitely.One additional benefit of storing grain in the freezer is that the berries are cold when it comes time to mill, which offsets the mill’s heating effect during its operation. The result is flour that’s cooler after passing through the mill, which can help preserve flavor and nutritional value.

How long can I store freshly milled flour?

Like whole grain flour, freshly milled flour spoils faster than white flour, which has had the components that most readily spoil—the bran and, most importantly, the germ—removed. Because whole grain flour includes the entire wheat berry, it’s best to use it within about six months. For freshly milled flour, I like to use it within a week of milling.

Does fresh flour need to be refrigerated?

If you freshly mill flour and decide not to use it that day or within a few days, yes, you should refrigerate it to help preserve its flavor, aroma, and nutrition. Be sure to put it in an airtight container before you place it in the refrigerator. If you don’t have space in the refrigerator, store the flour at cool room temperature in a dark and dry spot.

Do I need to rinse or wash whole grain berries before milling them?

In most cases, no, as long as your source has cleaned the grain for you (which is almost always the case unless you received grain directly from a farmer from the field). All of the grain I’ve purchased has been clean and free from debris. If you’re unsure, you could ask your miller or farmer if they’ve cleaned the grain in any way.

Can I use freshly milled flour in my sourdough starter?

Absolutely. I go through periods where I’ll switch to using freshly milled hard red wheat in my sourdough starter maintenance routine. Typically, I will mill once on the weekend and make enough flour for the week’s refreshments. You can store the fresh flour in a cool, dark spot in the pantry just like any other flour.

Using fresh flour in my starter (and, importantly, also any levain) adds a wonderful aroma and a different flavor profile, which ultimately will change the final bread made with the starter. That said, I still like to use some aged white flour to refresh my starter even when using freshly milled; typically I will use at least 50% aged white flour mixed with 50% freshly milled. This is simply a personal preference; I like that I can still see some strong signs of fermentation from the fresh, while the aged white flour will allow for ample rise and gas-trapping ability. Additionally, it means I don’t have to use quite so much freshly milled whole wheat flour at each refreshment.

Why does freshly milled flour need more water?

Since we mill the entire berry, the flour contains all of the bran and germ, both of which absorb significant amounts of water. So you need to adjust the hydration to accommodate for that increased absorption. In addition, I typically find that fresh ground whole grain flour tends to need more water than aged whole grain flour.

Why does my bread dough overproof when I bake with freshly milled flour?

If you’re not sifting your flour, freshly milled flour is whole grain, meaning 100% of the grain berry that goes into the mill is used to mix the dough. Typically, with higher whole grain percentages, fermentation activity will also be increased.

Cotton pad birds – master class

Another very cute craft that is perfect for decorating a kindergarten on a wonderful holiday, Bird Day. It’s easy, fun and very fast. Young children can be involved in making birds from cotton pads.

For creativity, we need: cotton pads, wooden skewers, colored paper, narrow colored ribbons, plastic eyes, glue and scissors.

We take 5 cotton pads to create one bird. We cut one disk into two halves, and leave four whole.
We fix two pairs of cotton pads on a skewer with glue so that it is inside. One pair of discs plays the role of the bird’s head, and the other – the body.
We glue the halves of the cut cotton pad to the body on both sides – this will be our wings.
We glue the eyes and beak cut out of a piece of colored paper to the head and decorate the bird with a ribbon. A cute chick made of cotton pads for Bird Day is ready!

Egg-Free Substitution in Gluten-Free Bread

For a gluten free vegan bread version of this gluten-free bread recipe, you can use chia-eggs or Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer (2 eggs worth).

I’ve only tested this gluten free egg free bread recipe in the oven. I haven’t tested the egg-free version in a bread machine.

Swap out the 3 egg whites with 2 tablespoons of chia seed + 7 tablespoons of water (let sit for 5 minutes and stir before you add it to the mixture). Or use Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer and mix up 2 eggs worth.

Bake for 70 minutes (putting a piece of foil over the loaf to help prevent over-browning, halfway through).

Spring birds from lark dough

A simple, lean, budget-friendly, versatile dough for buns and pies, and a traditional birdie dough. Step by step recipe.

Wheat flour / Flour – 1 kg
Salt – 1 tsp
Sugar (granulated sugar) – 1.5 tbsp. l.
Yeast (dry) – 10 g
Water (boiled, room temperature) – 0.5 l

Sift flour through a sieve.

Combine dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, yeast) together.

Pour water into a wide, high container.

Gradually pour the dry mixture into the water, stirring first with a spoon, then with your hands. In a bowl, knead the dough well.

Cover with a towel. Put in a warm place for 40 minutes.

Punch down the risen dough.

Divide into two equal parts. Leave one part for work. Cover the second again with a towel so that it does not wind.

Roll out the remaining dough into a sausage. Cut it into equal parts.

From each small piece of dough, roll out a tourniquet about 15 cm long.

Form the birds by tying the tourniquet in a knot. For the eyes of our bird, buckwheat seeds may be suitable.

Plant the birds on a baking sheet lined with foil, let the dough rest a bit.

Brew strong tea, dilute sugar in it. Lubricate the heads, backs and tails of our birds with a brush.

We put the baking sheet in the oven heated to 180 degrees. We watch when the crust on the buns is browned.

Baking time depends on the size of the products and the features of your oven. We take the second part of the test to work. We repeat in the same order. Enjoy your meal!

Dairy-free gluten-free bread recipe

I still can’t get over how amazing this gluten-free sandwich bread is. It’s better than any gluten-free bread I’ve had and my family, including my gluten-eating husband agrees.

This gluten-free bread is also dairy-free. I’ve tested it with dairy (milk for activating the yeast and butter instead of oil) and I found it to add to the quick bread texture.

If you want this gluten-free bread to have the same texture as deli style sandwich bread then you need to use water when activating the yeast and oil instead of butter.

Trust me. Plus, it’s less expensive to use water and oil in gluten-free bread recipes than it is to use milk and butter.

To make this a gluten free vegan bread, see the instructions above for subbing out the eggs for chia eggs.

How to make larks from dough

1 glass of water
0.5 cup flour
3 tsp sugar
7 g dry yeast

¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
5 tbsp vegetable oil,
3~3.5 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water and stir in sugar and flour. Leave in a warm place until the dough doubles in size.

Put sugar, salt into the dough, pour in vegetable oil and add 2.5 cups of flour. Mix. Pour half a glass of flour on the table, dump the dough on the flour. Knead, gradually adding flour, until the dough becomes smooth, uniform, moist, but not sticky to your hands. (Approximately 870g of dough will be obtained from these products.) Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rise. When the dough has increased by 1.5 ~ 2 times, cut it into equal pieces, which are then rolled into balls. Larks are molded in different ways.

Seated lark. Roll out the dough ball into a long sausage. (photo 1) Tie the sausage in a knot. (photo 2) At the end, which turned out to be at the top, stretch out the spout and insert the raisin eye. Flatten the second – lower – end with your fingers and cut into pieces, which will indicate the feathers on the tail. (photo 3)

Flying lark (1 option). Roll out the dough ball into a short thick sausage. (photo 1) At one end, extend the beak and insert the eye. From the other end of 2/3 of the length of the sausage, flatten or roll out with your fingers. When rolling out, you need to stretch the dough in width, and not in length. In the middle of the rolled part, along the roller, make a cut. (photo 2) Then cut both resulting halves with shorter cuts. Lift one part and lay on top of the other so that these parts are perpendicular to each other. (Photo 3)

Flying lark (option 2). Pinch off a small piece from the dough ball. Roll it into a thin circle and cut half of the circle into a fringe. Roll a large ball into a roller, pull the beak on one side and insert the eye. Flatten the other end a little and cut into pieces. (photo 1) Moisten a small circle – a wing – on one side with water and put it on the workpiece of the body, cut side up. (photo 2)

You can make larks more interesting in taste. To do this, roll out a ball of dough into a not very large cake. This cake can either be greased with vegetable oil and sprinkled with sugar, or sprinkled with poppy seeds or crushed nuts, or spread with chopped dried fruits or grated apples. Then roll the cake into a roll (photo 1). After that, the lark is formed according to the first method of the flying lark (photo 2, 3, 4).

Put the fashioned products on a baking sheet, greased with oil or covered with baking paper. Lubricate with sweet water and bake until browned at t=180~200°C. Ready larks, without removing from the baking sheet, grease with sweet water or vegetable oil, cover with a towel and leave to cool.

What’s next?

See my freshly milled flour area at The Perfect Loaf for a roundup of all my favorite recipes here that use fresh flour. In addition, here are a few of my favorites recipes using fresh flour:

Sourdough with freshly milled Yecora Rojo

Deliciously wholesome with deep fermentation flavors and malty notes.

Sourdough Ciabatta Bread Recipe

Whole Grain Wheat and Spelt Pan Bread

I have been dying to tell you all about these amazing new products I’ve found that make baking homemade pizzas and pastries simple and easy! Introducing Jus-Rol refrigerated dough; it’s made in the USA with the highest-quality ingredients, is Non-GMO & includes no artificial flavors/colors, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil or bleached flour. Plus, all of their products are vegetarian! Jus-Rol was started in 1954 in order to allow for quicker prep time, better results, and easier cleanup. It’s the perfect way to bring your family together with great tasting food even for the busiest families. Jus-Rol makes it easy to prepare impressive appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

First up, we have the Jus-RolTM Round & Thin Pizza Crust. This dough is made with real yeast, has a traditional round, thin, and crispy crust, and can be made directly on a pizza stone or with the attached baking paper on a baking sheet. The baking paper is so nice and helps keep the baking sheet clean, one more reason I love these products so much!

Next, we have the Jus-RolTM Family Size Pizza Crust. This pizza unrolls to fill a full rectangular baking sheet and can also easily be used for forming calzones and breadsticks. It also comes with the baking paper attached to help with a no-mess cleanup. I love this dough because it has the perfect amount of thickness and is so delicious.

Attention all you Vegans out there, or those of you who prefer a thinner crust, this next one’s for you! The Jus-RolTM Flatbread Dough is perfect for those crispy crust lovers! This crust takes less time to bake and is perfect as an appetizer for your family gathering. If you remove the baking paper, you can even throw it on the grill!

Last, but most certainly not least, we have the Jus-RolTM Puff Pastry Dough. Who doesn’t love a good puff pastry?? The dough is ready to bake, no thawing required, and it’s perfect for those sweet or savory recipes you’ve been dying to make! All you have to do is unroll the baking paper and let your imagination go wild!

If you’re like me, you’ll be drooling over this dough, so go out and get yourself some so you can see for yourself how you can have Amazing Made Easy in your own homes too.

Gluten-Free Bread in a Bread Machine

Check out our list of the Best Gluten-Free Bread Makers on the market today if you’re looking to purchase one yourself. (I highly recommend it!)

Add the warm water, oil, egg whites, and vinegar to the pan in your gluten-free bread machine. Do not add the yeast here. We are not proofing the yeast, we will add it in later.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients except for the yeast (sugar, flours, flaxseed, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt) and add to the bread machine pan on top of the wet ingredients, in a mound.
Make a hole in the center of the top of the dry ingredients that are in the bread machine and add the yeast. Don’t let the yeast touch the wet ingredients.
If your machine has a “rest” setting. Cancel it, you don’t need it. With the Zojirushi you have to do this before you select any other settings.
Select the gluten-free bread setting on your machine.
Close the lid and press “start”.

Please let me know if you have any questions about making this gluten free bread recipe.

What size of a pan do I use to make Gluten Free Bread?

This gluten free bread recipe was developed using a 9 x 4 inch metal loaf pan. You can use a different size loaf pan but you’ll want to watch the cook time. Also, it won’t have the same rise, depending on the size.

You can also make this bread recipe in a glass loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Metal and glass pans transfer heat differently and gluten free bread loaves typically have a thicker crust when baked in a glass pan.

How to store fresh baked bread

This fresh-baked bread stays soft for 2-3 days after it’s been baked. You’ll want to let it cool to room temperature before you slice it. We like to store it whole, in a sealed container, or wrap it tightly with cling wrap, and slice it as we need it.

After a day or two, we will freeze any bread that’s left.

Can I freeze gluten-free bread?

Yes, you can freeze this gluten free bread loaf. After it has completely cooled, slice the loaf into equal slices. We like to place a piece of parchment paper or in between each slice, so it’s easy to pull it out of the freezer.

You can either defrost the bread in the microwave or you can let it sit at room temperature until it has thawed.

Why was my gluten-free bread dense?

For your bread machine, does it have a gluten free setting? This setting is important because it only does one mix cycle, not two mix cycles like you get with other settings.

If you don’t have the gluten free setting option, use a quick program that features one mixing cycle, rather than two, when making gluten free bread. Mixing it twice will always cause the bread to be denser.

Are you scooping your measuring cup into the flour? Or spooning the flours into the cups and then leveling? You should always spoon then level.

Otherwise, you’ll end up with more flour than you want which causes the bread to be dense.

Are you storing your flours in the freezer or refrigerator? If flours are stored that way they lose moisture and when they are mixed with other ingredients they tend to absorb more of the moisture and the bread is denser.

I don’t have a recipe for bagels but you might like these Gluten-Free Bagels from Salted Plains. My newest recipe – Gluten Free Rolls!

Want to level up your gluten-free cooking and baking skills? Check out our roundup of the best gluten-free cooking classes online.

Should I sift freshly milled flour?

Sifting (bolting) freshly milled flour with a sifting screen.

Sifting is the process of using a screen (like a fine-mesh sieve from the kitchen) to remove some portion of the bran and germ from the flour, leaving only the starchy endosperm (which mills to a finer consistency) in the flour. Depending on the fineness of the screen, more or less bran and germ will be sifted away, resulting in flour that’s higher extraction (such as whole wheat flour), lower extraction (such as white flour), or somewhere in between. Essentially, the more you sift freshly milled flour, the “whiter” the flour becomes.

Many different sifting screens can be purchased online, and these particular screens come in 40-mesh and 60-mesh varieties. The 60-mesh is finer than the 40 and will result in more bran and germ sifted away, resulting in whiter flour. Korin also has a high-quality sifting screen with various inserts.

What is bolted flour?

Sometimes when talking about freshly milled flour and sifting, you’ll hear the term “bolted flour” or “bolting” used in the same context. Bolting is the same as sifting in that you use a screen to remove some portion of the bran and germ from the flour (the amount depends on the sifting screen’s fineness).

How do I sift my flour?

Place your sifting screen over (or inside) a large metal bowl. Then, pour the freshly milled flour on top and shake both the bowl and screen to encourage the finer bits to fall through the screen. Continue doing this until it looks like only the large bran and germ are left on top of the screen.

You might see some recipes call for high-extraction flour, which is flour that falls somewhere between typical white flour and whole wheat flour. You can use a sifting screen (as described above), to sift out some portion of the bran and germ and use the resulting flour anywhere “high-extraction flour” is called for. Either the 40 or 60-mesh screen will work well to sift, depending on how white you want your flour. The bran/germ pieces that are sifted away can be used to top your dough after they’re shaped.

Making bread with freshly milled flour

Whole grain wheat and spelt pan bread with freshly milled flour.

How to adjust dough hydration when baking with freshly milled flour

When using flour I’ve milled myself, I find I almost always have to increase the hydration of my recipe to achieve a dough with the same consistency as when made using aged flour (as is the case with my wheat and spelt pan loaf shown above). Whether I’m using hard wheat or soft wheat or a different grain altogether, I find that fresh flour tends to absorb more water than aged.

How much more water do you need to add when using freshly milled flour? Unfortunately, there’s no single answer. As is always the case with flour, recipes are a good guideline, but ultimately you will need to make adjustments in your kitchen during mixing. This is one reason why I typically call for holding back some of the water when mixing (and why I often label them as Water 1 and Water 2). Holding back a little water initially helps you add it in slowly during mixing if it looks and feels like the dough can handle the addition.

How to mix and strengthen bread dough with freshly milled flour

Flour that’s been milled and left to age (the amount of time is variable)—which is the majority of flour used in baking and all of the flour you’ll find in a regular supermarket—typically results in a dough that’s stronger, has better mixing tolerances, greater gas-trapping ability, and ultimately, it can produce bread with more volume1. One of the driving factors behind this is oxidation (oxidization), which promotes a stronger gluten network in the dough. Freshly milled flour that’s used shortly after milling will not be as oxidized as aged flour, and thus typically results in a weaker dough that has reduced volume and gas-trapping capability. To help alleviate this situation, mixing for additional time can help oxidize the dough to create a dough that’s more elastic and with increased gas-trapping characteristics.

How much longer should you mix your dough that’s made with freshly milled flour?

It’s hard to give an exact time because there are so many variables that can affect a dough. If using a mechanical mixer, I’ll typically mix for 2 to 3 minutes longer for my typical sourdough bread, but if hydration is very high it may require more. My best advice is to test mixing and developing the dough to varying degrees, while keeping everything else in the recipe as consistent as possible, and measure the outcomes. It may help when doing these tests to shoot to the extremes; for example, if you mix a freshly milled flour dough for 3 to 4 minutes, next time try doubling that and mix for 8 minutes, just to see the upper bound, and measure the result.

When working with freshly milled flour, you can mix your dough by hand or with a mechanical stand mixer (like a KitchenAid or Famag) just the same. When mixing by hand, I prefer to use the highly effective slap and fold technique, but techniques such as the Rubaud method, or simply folding the dough directly in the mixing bowl, will all work to the same effect. At the end of mixing, you want a dough that’s cohesive, smoother, and elastic. It does not need to pass the “windowpane test,” especially if you are planning to do stretches and folds during bulk fermentation, but it should not be falling apart or very shaggy. I like to say it should reach a medium development.

Colored paper owl – master class

Cute owls for celebrating Birds Day at school can be made with your own hands from colored paper. We will need directly the colored paper itself, scissors, double-sided tape and glue.

We make a cylinder from a sheet of colored paper, glue its edges on one side, as shown in the photo, and crush the middle so that we get ears.
We cut out a heart from paper and glue it to the bottom of the cylinder – these are the paws of an owl.
We cut circles of the same size and stick them on the central part of the cylinder as plumage. In order for the circles to give the craft volume, it is better to stick them with double-sided tape.
We cut out a triangle of the same color as the paws, and glue it at the top of the plumage – this is the beak.
Lastly, we glue the eyes by cutting out circles for them from black and white paper. The handmade owl is ready!

How to freshly mill flour at home for baking bread

A step-by-step to milling the finest fresh flour at home:

Empty the electric grain mill of berries.
Turn the mill on and set the grind as fine as possible until you just hear the burrs begin to touch, then quickly set the mill to one setting coarser.
Pour the whole grain berries into the hopper.
If desired, quickly set the mill to one grind level finer.

Depending on the speed, capacity, and specifications (burr size, motor speed, etc.) of my grain mill and how much flour I’m looking to mill at one time, I might give the mill a rest halfway through milling to allow it to cool so that it doesn’t overly heat up the flour. One tip for alleviating this issue somewhat is to store whole berries for milling in the freezer. The berries’ cold temperature helps offset the heat generated by the milling process. In most cases, I mill 1 to 2 kilograms of flour directly without rest.

Note: it’s best to not let the mill run excessively without any berries being milled if you hear the burrs rubbing.

See the end of this post for some recommendations on grain mills for purchase and where to buy grain berries.

How finely should I mill my flour?

Fine freshly milled Khorasan wheat on the KoMo grain mill.

As discussed above, starch damage that occurs during the process of milling is important. To look at an extreme case, imagine if a wheat berry wasn’t milled at all: the protective outer bran layer would allow little (or no) moisture into the berry, and the sugars (starches) contained therein wouldn’t be available for fermentation, which would be essentially nonexistent. Milling pulverizes the berry to make flour that is readily fermentable by the wild yeasts and bacteria in our sourdough starter and levain. But in addition to this, in my experience, milling finely produces flour that has better baking characteristics: dough that’s more elastic and extensible, smoother, and with ample gas-trapping capability.

When I want to bake with freshly milled flour, I prefer to mill as finely as possible.

There’s also another approach to fresh milling. The grain can be milled on a fine setting but not too fine. In this way, the bran and germ parts of the berry are left more whole, and you then easily bolt or sift them out, leaving a “whiter” flour. If the mill is set to the finest setting, the bran and germ get pulverized and will be at the same granularity as the rest of the wheat berry. With the bran and germ left more whole, they can then be boiled and then reintroduced into the dough later–as I do with my whole wheat sourdough loaves–used as a topping, or used in another application in the kitchen (cookies, muffins, or even cakes).

When I bake with freshly milled flour, I prefer to mill it as fine as my mill can possibly go and use all of the fresh flour produced. In other words, if I’m going to mill fresh flour, I almost always skip sifting or bolting—I want the whole nutrition of the wheat berry!

How to mill “hard” grain

Some grains, such as Khorasan (Kamut) or even durum, are harder (as in, the berry is a tougher consistency) than others. When milling these berries, it may be beneficial to set the electric mill to a fine grind level, but not the finest, and mill the grain. Then, set the mill to the finest level, and pass the coarsely milled grain through the mill a second time. This two-pass milling will help reduce the heat generated by the mill (believed by some to decrease nutritional content) and should result in finer flour. I also find it helpful to be sure to store hard grain in the freezer since the cold temperature will help offset any heat generated by the mill.

Cracking grains or cereals for bread

Some recipes at The Perfect Loaf, like my soft honey buckwheat sandwich bread, call for grain (or cereal) to be cracked and soaked or cracked and cooked into a porridge. A home flour mill can crack grain by simply setting it to the coarsest, or near-coarsest, setting and giving your grain a pass through the mill. Chances are, your mill will also produce a lot of middlings and fines along with the larger cracked bits, and if desired, you can sift the larger pieces out, though I typically use everything that comes out of the mill.

Holiday Larks – Baking Options

2 glasses of warm water;
30 g fresh yeast;
3 tablespoons of sugar;
3 tablespoons of sunflower oil;
raisins – a smaller, darker shade is better suited for the eye, it looks more like a large light, amber raisin.

We knead the dough.

We crumble the yeast into a bowl, grind with sugar to a liquid state, pour in 1 cup of warm water, stir.

Sift 1.5 cups of flour.

Knead the dough and put in a warm water bath for half an hour.

Gently mix the approached dough, add the remaining glass of warm water and gradually, sifting, mix the flour – I added 4 cups one at a time. At the end of kneading, pour in sunflower oil.

It turns out a dense dough, a little steeper than usual for pies, so the larks will keep their shape well. Sprinkle the table with flour and knead the dough well so that it becomes homogeneous, smooth. Then sprinkle with flour on all sides so that it does not dry out and does not stick to the bowl, and again put in a water bath for 20 minutes.

Now the fun part – it’s time to sculpt the larks!

We have tried 3 methods. The first one I liked the most. When they made the second batch, it became so easy and great to get it! The dough is over.

We make sausage.

Tie this sausage into a knot.

At one end we make a round head with a beak, cut the second with a knife, it turns out a fan – this is a tail.

We insert eyes from raisins. Stick them deeper so that they do not fall out when the dough rises.

We plant the larks on a baking sheet for proofing. As long as you blind everyone, they will just fit. I do this: I turn on the oven on a small light, and put the baking sheet on top of the stove. And the oven is warming up, and the buns are warm.

The second way.

We also roll up the sausage, but do not tie it, but simply fold it in the form of a loop.

The loop itself is the head, the tips are the wings. We cut the feathers with a fan, make eyes.

The third way. We make a cake, narrow on one side, on the other it expands.

At the narrow tip we make a beak and eyes, and a wide one, slightly pressing, cut into two – a tail and a wing.

We cut the “feathers” on the tail and wing, bend the wing up.

We spread the larks on a baking sheet not very close to each other, the distance between them should be at least 5-7 cm so that the baking that comes up does not stick together.

Sprinkle the larks with sugar, put in a warm oven and bake at 180-200 (depending on how it fits), I baked for 45 minutes.

Ready-made larks are very beautiful! Golden, and when you take it in your hands – warm! This is how spring feels!

Testoplasty is a new exciting type of needlework, which involves the creation of a wide variety of paintings from salt dough. If earlier this type of needlework was intended to develop fine motor skills in children, today it is a full-fledged art form. Adult needlewomen create whole pictures from this material.

Why has dough molding become so popular? There are a number of reasons for this:

It is not expensive. If any other needlework, be it embroidery, knitting or drawing, requires the purchase of quality tools and materials, then this needlework requires only flour and salt;
It doesn’t require any special skills. It is not at all necessary to graduate from an art history department or a sculpture school in order to create masterpieces;
It develops. Modeling contributes to the development of thinking, imagination, the ability to compose a composition;
It improves spatial thinking. With the help of modeling, you can learn to convey shapes, proportions and colors.

Dough modeling has been popular for a long time. The history of this needlework is rooted deep in history. Even with the advent of the first flour (about 6000 years ago), people began to sculpt various figures from ready-made dough, and later they became the first charms, along with herbs and stones.

Very often, for a skillfully molded amulet or figurine, people received an equilibrium price in gold.

Today, such paintings are very popular among craftswomen and needlewomen. Usually they consist of a canvas (a sheet of cardboard, canvas, etc.), on which various paintings are molded. They are not flat, but voluminous due to the texture of the material. Products are painted or varnished in order to subsequently decorate the interiors. Testoplasty is a full-fledged art form that you should definitely try to do!

Preparing salt dough for modeling is very simple. All that is needed is:

flour – 0.2 kg;
salt – 0.2 kg;
water – 125 ml;
vegetable oil – 1 tbsp. l.

If you need to get a multi-colored product right away, then you need to add a dye that dissolves in water to this recipe.

There are two methods of kneading. Both of them are good and are chosen according to personal preferences:

Salt is mixed with flour until smooth (if desired, it is fluffed up with a blender), and then water is gradually poured into this mixture. The dye dissolves in water;
Salt and dye dissolve in water, and then flour is gradually introduced into it.

It is necessary to knead the resulting mass hard. First, the dough must be brought to such a state in which it will not stick to the hands, and then beat on a wooden or iron surface. If it starts to crumble, then you need to add water, and if it sticks to your hands, flour. After kneading, it is highly desirable to keep the finished material in the bag in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. And after that you can start sculpting.

Fresh milled vs. store-bought flour

Milling fresh flour at home is very different from professional large milling operations. At home, flour is typically milled in a single pass. Depending on their milling method, a large miller might successively crack (or crush) the berry in a long process of increasing fineness to ensure optimal bran, germ, and endosperm separation. They want such separation so that they can produce types of flours by holding back or including bran and germ for whiter or darker flour, respectively.

Additionally, store-bought flour is typically aged for several weeks or more between milling and selling. Aging (also called maturing) flour gives it time to oxidize, which can help result in a stronger, more elastic dough. But, using flour shortly after milling doesn’t always result in a loaf with a lack of volume, desirable texture, or increased flavor—in my experience, it’s just the opposite (more on this in a moment).