Key Attributes of the GF Cottage Mix?

Our breads are...

What are the Nutritional Values of the GF Cottage Mix?

This nutrition panel is for the GFCottageMix which is used to make our breads and is the foundation of all other products.

Our other styles of breads also use the GFCottageMix as the key ingredient but may vary a little in water, oil, vinegar, yeast and seed content.

Are our Breads Healthy?

Designed for those requiring the strictest gluten free diet. Tested to Australian standards which require ‘zero detectable gluten’

Tested by the University of Sydney to show a Glycaemic Index of 50/100. This is designated as Low GI and is thus “suitable in controlled amounts by people with diabetes in line with their individual dietary requirements” Its GL (glycaemic load) is also low at just 9. (Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Report #1545.)

Australian and New Zealand Food Standards require food labelling that shows the relative health of a food product based on things like protein, energy (calories), carbs, sugars, fats, salt, fibre. The more healthy foods score a higher Star Rating – with 5 stars being the highest nutrition and 0 being the lowest nutrition value. Our breads score very high at 4/5 Stars.

Many people suffer from poor digestion and stomach (and other) issues caused by hard-to-digest carbohydrates found in many many foods – including wheat. These foods are called ‘high FODMAP foods’, and make life very uncomfortable for many. Our breads and many of our other products are ‘low FODMAP’ foods and can be easily digested.

Due to the slow digestible carbs, the low levels of allergens and good levels of soluble fibre in our breads, our customers find our breads and other products easy on their digestive systems, and in fact have been shown to encourage smooth, soft, clean-bowel-exit stool formation. Soy is the only allergen (in the world’s Top 8 allergens) present in our products.

We chose this high value protein over other proteins for the following reasons…
• 2-3% of young children initially have an allergy to soy, but 50% of these grow out of the allergy by the time they are 7 years old
• soy flour contains other vitamins, calcium and other important minerals
• soy flour helps produce a soft, pleasant texture and taste

How Hard is it to Make my Own Bread?

If you have successfully made bread at home before, you will have no problems making bread from GFCotttageMix.

If you’ve never made bread before, or yours results were pretty terrible, then we provide lots of support including a tried and tested recipe sheet, and clear video tutorials online (in production) . We are not happy unless you can make loaves from home that are soft, light and delicious. We started our company by making these breads at home from our GFCottageMix.

The tutorials show how to

• make bread by mixing the dough by hand and using minimal equipment
• make the dough using an electric stand mixer

What about using a bread machine?

We have tried many brands and styles of bread machines over many years and we can’t currently recommend any of them. An ideal bread machine means you just add the ingredients, press start (or put on delayed start) and come back when it’s baked. If you have to be around during the mixing to pull in the unmixed flour, or add extra baking time beyond the machine’s settings, or if the loaf doesn’t allow a longer or hotter bake than a wheat bread, then it’s not worth spending money on one for our breads.

Bread machines were initially designed to mix stretchy wheat dough where the machine blades can stretch and pull the dough around without it sticking to the sides of the pan and can pick-up all the dry ingredients in corners to enable a thorough mix, an even rise and long low-heat bake.

Eventually they made machines which can also mix batter for cakes as a batter mixes pretty easily because it is quite wet.

GFCottageMix does form a stretchy dough (real breads are always formed by a stretchy dough and not a batter) but it still does not act like a wheat dough that machines were really designed for. Even bread machines that have a “gluten-free” setting expect you to use a recipe that makes a batter (like a cake). And yes the results are gluten-free breads which taste and feel like bland cake rather than a true bread.

While it is possible to make loaves from GFCottageMix in some machines, these tend to have issues like under-baking, poor mixing, uneven baking, side collapse, large inner holes and so on because the dough is not as stretchy as wheat and needs a longer and/or hotter bake.

The closest we’ve come to a reasonable loaf in a machine is when you can totally adjust every stage of the machine cycle to allow for a

• 10-15 minute mix, followed by
• 60-70 minute rise (without any ‘knock-down’), and then
• long bake of 80-90 minutes. This long bake is needed because machines don’t usually bake hotter than 150degC (300degF) when we really need 210degC (410degF) for 60-70 minutes for a good loaf.

But you can use bread machines to assist with the mixing of the dough if you stay around and scrape down the sides occasionally during mixing. You can then transfer the dough to a pan, leave it to rise and bake in your normal oven. (or you can leave it in the bread machine pan, allow it to rise, and bake that in your normal oven!).

We will put up some details about this shortly and hope to find the perfect machine in the meanwhile.

Storage & Freezing:

• Your GFCottageMix will keep perfectly for at least 2 years when sealed in its bag and stored in a cool dry place.
• The ability to store fresh bread and keep it fresh, varies with the ambient temperature that it is stored at.
• It is therefore affected by your house temperature and weather and climate. A basic rule is…
The warmer the temperature surrounding the bread, the 'fresher' it will remain but the quicker it will attract mould growth.
• Microscopic moulds and yeasts are everywhere in the air and on kitchen surfaces and will readily colonize your fresh warm bread as air gets to it. So depending on your environment mould may become a problem from about day 8 onwards with our breads.
• Storage in cool temperatures (like refrigerators) dries and stales bread quickly, so avoid this.

Use Fresh:

Fresh enough for lunch sandwiches
To use fresh for 2-3 days when stored at 25 - 35degC (77degF – 95degF), follow th4se steps...

After the bread has completely cooled from baking,
1. place bread in an airtight container or plastic bag
2. gently suck most of the air out if possible (air/oxygen stales bread quickly)
3. seal with a tie
4. leave in a warmish area (25 - 35degC or 77degF – 95degF) and consume within 3 days
5. if you leave it longer than 3 days, you will likely need to refresh each slice in the microwave (20-30secs) before using it as sandwiches or as ‘fresh bread’. Mould may appear from about day 8.

Use from Frozen:

After the bread has completely cooled from baking,

• place bread in an airtight container or plastic bag
• gently suck most of the air out if possible (air/oxygen stales bread quickly)
• seal with a tie
• freeze for up to 3 months
• remove slices as required. Slices should easily dislodge from each other if your loaves have not been compacted or sliced when too warm.
• refresh in the microwave for around 20-30 seconds per slice ...on high, This will bring the slice/s back to very warm/hot and cool on wire rack for a few minutes before making sandwiches or eating as required

You can make sandwiches in the morning, wrap in plastic lunch-wrap and they will stay fresh for lunch. Thawing on your bench direct from the freezer to make sandwiches can cause the cold starches in the breads to feel too dry to eat at lunch-time.

Toasting from Frozen:

Allow to mostly thaw (using toaster thaw feature or microwave for 10-15 seconds) and toast as required.

Our GF breads take a little longer than wheat breads to toast.

Other Breadmaking Hints & Tips:

These are found on your recipe sheet which is included with the purchase of our GFCottageMix.