There are so many store-bought gluten-free breads out there, but nothing beats homemade. Baking gluten-free bread is a delicate and precise art, and if you constantly find yourself with collapsed loaves after baking, you are not alone. To get to the bottom of why gluten-free bread is so prone to collapse, we spoke with Nathan Myhrvold, the founder of Modernist Cuisine and co-author of “Modernist Bread at Home,” who offered some valuable insight into the problem. “Given their structural differences, gluten-free breads are generally subject to different flaws than those of standard recipes,” Myhrvold explains. “The structure of the bread can be impacted in a few different ways, but luckily there are clear and simple ways to avoid problems.”
A frequent source of collapse is residual heat from your loaf pan. “Sometimes [a] gluten-free loaf implodes after baking,” Myhrvold notes. “If this happens, the loaf likely remained in the loaf pan too long. Remove it from the pan after baking, and let it cool on a wire rack.” Not using a cooling rack is one of the most common bread baking mistakes around, but it’s a crucial step to ensuring your bread doesn’t accumulate excess moisture from steam. Other issues stem from the baking conditions themselves. “If you see a hole in [the] center of a gluten-free bread after baking, it may have been underbaked, or the oven may have been too hot,” Myhrvold continues. “This also occurs when gums are omitted. The crown collapses after baking, which signals that the loaf was likely overproofed.”
Proper proofing is essential
According to Nathan Myhrvold, the key for a well-structured gluten-free bread is proper proofing. “The ultimate goal of final proofing is to increase the volume of a shaped piece of dough through the production of carbon dioxide,” he explains, noting how mixing infuses air bubbles into the dough. “As the dough ferments and proofs, the bubbles expand. With wheat bread, each bubble behaves like a little gluten balloon that inflates as gases of several kinds seep into the interior and then expand in response to the gas pressure.”
Without gluten, gluten-free bread proofs differently than you might expect. “Bubbles of gas can grow large in wheat bread thanks to its high-gluten content,” Myhrvold notes. “And in gluten-free bread, other ingredients, such as hydrocolloids, are typically added to retain gas—but so far none match the stretchiness of [gluten], which results in a dense crumb.” For a boozy ingredient swap for homemade gluten-free bread, try adding gluten-free beer — the carbonation helps the bread to rise.
Because gluten-free bread lacks the crucial elasticity that gluten provides in a standard loaf, knowing when your gluten-free bread is finished proofing is essential. Though it can be difficult to know for sure, Myhrvold offers some final guidance. “You will notice some expansion in the dough,” he says, “but the dough will not spring back into place if you perform a fingertip test.” It’s really that simple.
