I conducted an experiment last weekend where I followed this recipe for Cranberry Swirl Bread, traded out the cranberries for apricot preserves, and used gluten-free flour instead of regular ol’ all-purpose flour.
IT. WAS. A. COMPLETE. DISASTER.
I started over with regular flour (because failure is not an option and I was making BREAD, damnit!). My co-workers taste-tested my creation Monday morning and gave it a thumbs up. It’s a sweet bread, almost like a coffee cake/bread hybrid. I went easy on the apricot preserves since I was not sure how much would be too much.
I also used a 8″ round pan instead of a loaf pan. The braided dough and fruit is a bit messy to maneuver and I my thought was it would be easier to transfer to a round pan than to try cramming it into a loaf pan. I sprinkled powdered sugar over the bread after I took it out of the oven and cut it in wedges. It was very pretty straight out of the oven which is probably the only reason I felt compelled to have a piece. Completely hated myself later, though. My system was not tolerating it well an hour or so afterward.
I’ve concluded there is no such thing as gluten-free bread. Honestly, even when I’ve bought it at Whole Foods it was pretty terrible. You can’t really even call it bread. I also made some almond shortbread cookies (regular flour) the other night (if you call 1am “night”). I tried 3 cookies (hey, they were small!) Not sure if they were a success, but they were definitely edible. HOORAY! If you want the recipe, I found it here.
theindoorsyproject.com 