Though I own a bakery with a friend, we don’t sell 100% gluten-free bread due to the cost of the flour. That’s why I decided to start making my own. I don’t mind paying almost $3.5 a kilo for the buckwheat flour but from a commercial view this is just too much. There is simply not a market for this at such a high cost here in Cambodia.

Though more healthy food is coming to the country, it is still very hard to find certain ingredients such as buckwheat, nutritional yeast, quinoa, amaranth, goji berries, etc. And if you do come across some of these items they are very expensive.

However, my hubby’s and my health is just worth that little more.

Ever since he got diagnosed with MS more than 14 years ago we have been on a mission to tackle the disease with food instead of the damaging medicines he took many years ago.

And it works out just fine. He hasn't taken any conventional medicine and hasn’t had a single flare-up in the past 7 years, all thanks to the healing power of whole foods. Impressive right?

DIY EASY BUCKWHEAT BREAD (VEGAN-GLUTEN-FREE)

Though we don’t eat bread very often, the other day I made a chocolate spread (find the recipe here) and was craving some bread to go with that.

And I must say, my first tryout tasted pretty good, even though I made a few small mistakes. The baker gave me a few tips on what went wrong, so the next loaf will be even better.

Mistake #1: since I don’t have a hand mixer, which I should buy if I am going to make this more often, I didn’t mix the dough long enough by hand so the crust is a bit crumbly when you add the chocolate spread.

Mistake #2: in a tropical, hot climate like Cambodia you don’t have to activate the yeast,. So the yeast already lost most of its activity before I even started using it.

Apart from that, the bread came out super yum and it’s so easy to make too

INGREDIENTS (makes 1 loaf)

16 oz buckwheat flour
10.5 fl.oz water, lukewarm
2 tbsp oil (olive oil, coconut oil, etc. I used extra-virgin olive oil)
2 tsp dried yeast
3 tsp raw sugar, I used raw palm sugar
1 tsp Himalayan pink salt
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 chia seed egg (1 egg= 1 tbsp chia seeds and 3 tbsp water)
Sesame seed (optional topping)

DIRECTIONS

If you live in a cold climate, activate yeast for a few minutes by mixing the lukewarm water, sugar, and yeast.

Make chia seed eggs by mixing the chia seeds with the water. Let sit until jellified. This will take a few minutes. Then add the oil and mix well.

In A big bowl, add buckwheat flour and salt. Mix before adding the chia-oil mix. Give it a good stir. Then add the yeast, water, and apple cider vinegar. Mix well and add more water if needed until you get a thick, sticky batter.

Line a loaf pan with baking paper and spoon the batter into the pan. OPTIONAL: sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Cover the pan with a plastic bag or paper bag, giving the dough room to expand. Put the pan in the oven (which is turned off of course) and proof for 1 to 2 hours, depending on your climate.