Bread

These multipurpose rolls are great as part of a continental breakfast, for making ciabatta sandwiches or panini, along with soup or salad for lunch, and they are a fabulous roll to pass at dinner. This one covers all your bases. Bon appetit!

Soft and warm, these rolls have a wonderful aroma. I have given proportions for a large batch because I find these rolls get gobbled up quickly. They also freeze well, so you can keep a batch in the freezer, defrosting, then warming a few . . . whenever.

My grandmother and mother very often made cornbread sticks along with our summer suppers when I was a child. I grew up on Cape Cod, and we ate a lot of fresh fish back in those days. Cod, haddock, flounder, and bluefish were all staples at our summer table. Cornbread is eaten alongside fish to help push down any bones you might accidentally swallow. Due to food allergies, and tragically polluted and overfished waters, we’ve stopped eating the fish. But the cornbread sticks have remained. My mother still bakes them up every year when we go back East for our annual summer reunions, and I make them for my kids, who love them just as much as I always have. I make them with my Basic Gluten-Free Flour Mix, but you may also use Gluten-Free Bread Flour Mix (page 158) for a more intense flavor and a slightly more crumbly texture.

This is an outstanding loaf of bread and a great way to showcase your talents as an allergen-free baker. I have chosen seeds that I know can be found free of cross-contamination risk with other allergens (see Resources, page 177), but feel free to substitute.

This rustic flat bread is great served with white bean dip or dunked in red sauce. It’s also wonderful dipped in olive oil. Be sure to serve it warm.

The easiest loaf of bread you’ll ever bake, ever. The yeast in the beer eliminates the need for a rise with traditional yeast. So thank you, whoever you are, for the advent of gluten-free beer . . . for so many reasons. For those of you making this for children, I can hear you now, but do not fear, the alcohol cooks out, just leaving behind a wonderfully subtle yeasty beer flavor. I use Redbridge, made by Anheuser-Busch (yes, they make Budweiser!), because it’s easy to find, but if you want to use a gluten-free microbrewery beer, bake your socks off. This bread is fantastic with soup or salad, or really anything savory.

This simple no-knead bread is so easy, you could make it every day. It’s great for scooping or dipping; just break off a chunk and dig in.

This hearty old-world bread is great eaten anywhere you’d traditionally eat rye or pumpernickel bread. Use maple syrup to make it like “rye” or molasses for “pumpernickel.”

This majestic brown bread is an excellent breakfast loaf. Try it toasted with a little vegan margarine. If truth be told, this is my favorite meal of the day.

This is classic slicing bread, great for toast in the morning, and wonderful for sandwiches. Make it the morning after a big supper when you have leftover mashed or baked potatoes.

This simple quick bread is one of my favorites. It’s wholesome and subtly sweet. Whole-grain amaranth has a nutty flavor, adds great texture, and is packed with protein and fiber.

This tasty quick bread is a great way to sneak vegetables into your kid’s diet. When you combine chocolate and zucchini, the zucchini disappears. I tell my veggie-phobic son Lennon he’s eating chocolate cake and he’s none the wiser! He thinks he’s really lucky to get chocolate cake for breakfast.

With rich, tempting spices and a lovely autumnal hue, this bread is perfect during the harvest season.

This modern twist on a traditional favorite has the added benefit of being fat-free. That’s right—no fat. So go ahead, dig in. I love this fresh out of the oven with a little vegan butter. It’s also great toasted.

These simple, traditional Indian flatbreads are wonderful served with any of the curried soup and stew recipes in these pages.

Although this excellent traditional Italian bread is yeasted, it does not take as long to make as other yeasted breads, since it requires only one rather brief rising. If you are making a long-simmering soup, this bread will likely fit into the time frame. It’s a natural pairing with Italian-style soups such as Minestrone (page 50), but it’s good with most any tomato-based soup.

This tasty bread goes well with many soups. Try it with mixed vegetable, tomato-based, and bean soups.

Here’s an unusual bread that teams beautifully with many kinds of soup. Try this with anything from hearty bean soups to light, brothy ones. Use your favorite kind of olive; it works well with most any variety.

This moist cornbread is an ideal companion to bean soups and chilis.

Try serving this offbeat pan bread, studded with pink beans and scallions, with hearty vegetable soups and stews. I especially like this with soups that feature corn and/or squash.