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I use the following dough recipe, it tastes okay, but is very difficult to shape and never holds its shape. Advice please

15 g Dried Yeast (Green Tin when make in Machine / Yellow Tin when make by Hand) 20 g Salt 900 g Light Spelt Flour 150 ml Honey 118 ml Oil 3 Eggs 350 ml Luke Warm Water Flour for shaping, egg for painting and sesame seeds topping

GdD
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Gideon S
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  • Sorry to rain on your parade, but spelt is not gluten-free... – Stephie Jul 19 '16 at 11:10
  • I've changed the title of your question as it was phrased as a recipe request, which is off topic. Your question isn't a recipe request anyway, you have a problem with an existing recipe. – GdD Jul 19 '16 at 12:36

2 Answers2

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Spelt flour is not gluten-free. Light spelt flour has less protein (gluten is a protein) than regular spelt or strong bread flour, but it's still there (5-8% from what I've seen), so if you need gluten free you need to pick another ingredient.

To answer your question, there are limitations to what you can do with low or gluten free doughs. Bread made with gluten is stretchy and keeps its shape because the gluten strands relax and become intertwined with each other, if you take the gluten out you lose that stretchiness and body. Dough improvers like xanthan gum can help give some stretchiness but not to the point of being able to make something like challah. Low or gluten free doughs are always going to be a bit crumbly - it's the nature of the beast - so my advice is to pick bread types where that's an asset.

GdD
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  • Apologies I realised after posting that spelt is 'gluten light' and not 'gluten free' - it was a blond moment – Gideon S Jul 20 '16 at 11:46
  • No problem @GideonS, the answer is the same for gluten light and gluten free. – GdD Jul 20 '16 at 13:55
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Gluten free dough is runny so I put it in a tin.

Google Backform Zopf to get some pictures of challah-shaped baking tins with the plait pattern built in, so you don't need to plait it.

Some shop near you will have them, or there's always Amazon... Look for Zopf or Hefezopf (sorry, I can't find an English name).

RedSonja
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