The key to staying gluten free is to make being gluten free as easy and tasty as possible. One of my tricks is to keep a stash of Gluten Free Sandwich Bread mix in the freezer. It only takes 2 minutes to grab a bag of flour, mix in the liquid ingredients (handily noted on the bag), and pop the dough into the bread machine.
Even better, my husband can do it too, so bread making is not “my” responsibility. (This only works if he remembers that you showed him the new stash of bread mix in the freezer!)
And, if you’re thinking that it would be easier to pick up a bag of bread mix at the store, you’re probably right. But it wouldn’t taste nearly as good, and that’s more important than being easy.
If you’d like to make your own stash, grab you favorite gluten free bread recipe and follow along.
How to Make Homemade Bread Mix
First, mix up a big bowl of the main flours in your recipe. I used my Gluten Free All Purpose Flour because I wanted to make my sandwich bread. Since I use my All Purpose mix for lots of recipes, I didn’t do the math to figure out how much flour mix I would need for 8 loaves of bread. But you could certainly do that.
If you’re new to gluten free baking, the main flours would be any grain or bean flours, plus any starches like corn, potato, or tapioca.
Now, measure enough flour for one loaf of bread into each plastic freezer bag. I used a quart size bag. If you’re making a recipe for a 2lb. loaf you may need to go up a size. My recipe calls for two and a half cups of my All Purpose Flour Mix, so I don’t really have to think about how much flour to add. If your recipe calls for separate flours, add up the measurement for each of the flours you mixed in Step 1 to determine how much flour to add to each bag.
Take each additional dry ingredient and add it to each bag. For example, I add 1 Tbsp of yeast to each bag, and then 2 tsp. of xanthan gum to each bag, and then the sugar, and then etc. It’s very important to pay close attention during this step because it’s really hard to tell the difference between 1 tsp. of xanthan gum in a bag and 2 tsp. of xanthan gum in a bag. (Don’t ask.)
Now you can close each bag, lay it flat, squeeze all of the air out and seal. The only reason that you have to get most of the air out, is that it makes it so much easier to write the recipe on the bag. The bread mix will be in the freezer and should stay fresh for at least 6 months.
Using a Sharpie, write the name of the recipe and the amounts for the wet ingredients on the bag. You can also write any additional directions, if you (or any other bakers) will need them. I chose not do to that, because I follow the dump and stir method with this bread. Dump the dry ingredients in, dump the wet ingredients in, stir, bake.
Stack the bags in the freezer and forget about them till you need them. Be sure to tell everyone of baking age in your family about your stash, so that they can bake you bread in your time of need. (This is particularly handy if you’ve just had a baby or an illness in the family.)  If for some reason your husband keeps making Flat Bread from scratch even though this easier option is available, he may have been distracted by a more enticing view (of you, of course)when you (proudly) showed him your stack of bread mixes and explained (in a very excited voice)how to use them. He may need a reminder.
What a good idea! I’m all over doing that this weekend.
Oh, Mary! We *so* do things alike! I have a dozen wrap dry mix baggies in the kitchen from my weekend “bagging” event too. LOL
And YES – It does save a TON of time!
🙂
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It occurred to me that these pre-made bread mixes would be great to send to school with a gluten free college student. If they have access to an oven, then the only supplies they would have to store would be vinegar, egg, oil, and a loaf pan, bowl, and spoon. And measuring spoons.
I love it! I waste so much time making a different gf flour blend each time. Thanks for the idea, I’ll do this and “encourage” my husband to make the breads now too! I really like your site, you do a great job- I’m a new fan!
I keep trying to convince my husband that he can use the breadmaker himself so he doesn’t have to depend on me for sandwiches. Like everything else, I think the lazy side of his brain forgets we even have a breadmaker before I’m done telling him about the mix in the freezer. So, I still get to make the bread.
Hmm, I thought I had posted here once before, but it doesn’t seem to have taken. I made up a GF bisqcuit mix that I was able to take camping with me. By using all dry ingredients (like buttermilk powder and dried eggwhites…but these could be allergy subs as well), all I had to do was add some water. We then cook the bisquits on a stick. The GF worked just as well as the bisquick everyone else had.
Mary, I recently discovered your site through a Google search for gf flour tortillas (which I’m making later today). What a great resource this is for us, thank you! I definitely need to break out some of my mixes like this, but I find my biggest challenge is just figuring out how to store my dozen or so flour types. If you have a good system for storing all the flours, egg replacer, xanthan gum, etc, would you please share it on your blog?
I am very satisfied with the Really Good Sandwich bead using the soya free mix in that it works great in my machine, has good texture etc.
My frustration is that, to me, the bread has a slight bitter after taste. What would you recommend to correct that? I have tried adding milk powder and ground flax seed which helps to some degree. I do not think it is a brown rice flour problem because I made up other recipes from the same brown rice bag with out bitter after taste.
Thanks
June
@June: The bitterness may just be a personal preference thing. That is often an issue with gluten free flour mixes. My favorite flour may be one that you cannot stand! You might try substituting another grain flour (like millet) for the sorghum flour for or using almond flour instead of masa harina.
Thank you Mary Frances for the reply. I will try your suggestions. I have tried many mixes and like the performance of yours the best so I will try a lot of things to get it to match my taste buds. I would like to compliment you on your site. I have been GF free for many years and find great information, good recipes and responses to comments and quickly too. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Hi,
Mary
Do you have a recipe for a really good GF bread that does NOT have to be toasted before eating? Or is your recipe already like that? Love your website and thank you so much.
Sandy
Sandy, good news! My recipe does not toasting! at least, we don’t think so.
I thought yeast & salt couldn’t be combined ahead of time? My bread machine recipe book (I read it because my family is not gluten free, so I have to bake regular bread that I can’t eat, grrrr) warns me not to mix the two ahead of time. Is this not a problem when you store the mix in the freezer?
@Tobi: I haven’t had any issues with premixing the salt and yeast, but you could always just add the salt with the wet ingredients if you’re concerned.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I am so excited to try this! I saw some other lady posting about other dry mixes she makes ahead and puts in freezer. Can she post the recipes or share via you?
Also, I heard Winco has some bulk flours. I hope it is what these require. Winco is 2 hours away and will go in a couple weeks. It is just too expensive by the bag. Bob’s was 4.79 for a teeny-weeny all purpose bag. Yikes.
@ chelle I buy Bob’s Red Mill brown rice in 25lb bags which is the least expensive option. The other flours can usually be obtained at Walmart for good prices.
Hi – this is a wonderful idea. I’m a very new breadmaker so i am a little confused. In the recipe, you add the yeast, sugar, and water together separately and set aside. if you put the sugar together with the flour and all other dry ingredients in a bag in the freezer, how do you do that step with the yeast when it’s time to make the (sandwich) bread? Thanks . . .
I’m very new to this topic, but a very experienced and long time cook. I’ve been baking bread for several years, so I understand the basics. My question: does this method adapt to oven baking – I don’t have a bread machine.
Do appreciate and enjoy your style and info – Thanks!
Lori
I too don’t have a Gluten Free dedicate bread machine. How would we adapt this for oven baking?
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Can someone help?
Recently had to go GF. We are using GF baking mix but items are coming out dry, sometime crumbly.
What R we doing wrong? HELP?
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that IS a good idea. Not yet had much success with gluten free recipes but now I feel there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks so much for your diligence. Cheers for now.