Corn-Rice Gluten-Free Loaf

In the last few months we have had several threads on rice flour gluten free loaves.  Some seemed more successful than others, and some seemed to be a little quirky as to how well they would bake up without collapsing.  There was also a GF thread the other day, which produced a loaf that looked like bread but used psyllium and xantham gum.  I don't need to eat gluten-free but I got curious. I didn't want to include either psyllium nor typical gums that are often used for GF products so I needed some other approach.

As I searched the internet I came across Pickering Stabilization.  This phenomenon helps to stabilize bubbles at interfaces, especially oil-water interfaces bit also other interfaces. Larger (than flour-sized) particles can produce this effect. I hoped that this effect might allow better gas rentention or larger gas pores.  It seemed that fine cornmeal and possibly masa harina particle sizes might qualify.  I like corn products like corn breads so I decided to add corn flours to rice flour and see how that worked.

It works pretty well, as things turned out.  I don't know if Pickering Stabilization really happened but I like the results. I've been tuning up the recipe and I think this one is good enough to share.  It contains 60% corn (maize to Europeans) and 40% white rice flour. The corn is split 50-50 between fine corn meal and masa harina.   The dough/batter also contains a helping of @trailrunner's "Trinity": EVOO, honey, yogurt (I used some labne). Here's a cross-section:

This version shows a tighter crumb than my previous try. This one had less water and made for a dough consistency between a loose dough and a thick batter. The last one was a medium batter that had to be scraped into the pan. It's hard to know if the difference mattered.  Either way, this bread tastes like corn bread, slightly diluted, which makes sense because the rice flour would be fairly bland. Unlike most corn breads, this bread doesn't crumble while being cut and handled.  It has a pleasant pale yellow color.  The color would be more yellowish if the masa harina were made with yellow corn but I used white. It won't fool you into thinking it's a wheat bread but it's pretty satisfactory if you can't or don't want to eat a wheat or rye bread. 

I didn't know how much dough it would take to fill up my Pullman pan (I knew it wouldn't rise as much as a wheat loaf) and I guessed low.  So scale the amounts up if you want a deeper bread.  From my notes:

This is take 3 on a gluten-free corn-rice bread.

One goal was to get closer to a dough as opposed to a batter. Another was to increase the quantities to bake in a full-sized Pullman pan to make sure the loaf wouldn't collapse.

Recipe
Flour Weight 475

Baker’s Percent Actual Weight (g)

Flours 100.0 475.0 

rice 40.0 190.0

masa harina 30.0 142.5

corn meal 30.0 142.5

Liquids 114
water 105.3 500 

water with yeast 9 43

yeast 2.4 11.4

Salt 1.7 8.1

Trinity
EVOO 5.0 23.8 
honey 5.0 23.8
labne 5.0 23.8

Process

• combine corn flours
• heat main water to 180 - 190°F
• Mix water into corn, stir well, let cool
• mix Trinity (EVOO, honey, yogurt)
• mix yeast into warmed water, let stand
• butter 4 X 4 X 9 Pullman pan
• mix salt, yeast, trinity into corn batter
• mix rice flour into corn mixture
• knead or mix, try to aerate a little.
• form log, put into pan; or scrape batter into pan; smooth top.
• preheat oven to 390°F
• cover pan, proof ~ 45 minutes or 50% rise
• bake covered 1 hr
• remove lid, bake 10 min ar 400°F
• cool on rack.

There was not very much rise in proof or oven. There was no sinking in the middle. The color is a pleasant yellow color. Final internal temperature was 208°F. The crust on the sides and bottom was a darker yellow color, while the top was a paler yellow - lighter because the dough did not touch the lid so didn't brown as much nor get a buttered crust like the sides.