The commonest result in gluten-free baking is a tight, dry product. Cheese poğaça is among the recipes where that problem is easiest to overcome.
What does gluten do in a poğaça?
The gluten in wheat flour forms an elastic network with water and kneading.
That network traps the carbon dioxide the yeast produces.
The dough rises and a porous interior forms.
That network cannot be built in gluten-free flours.
The carbon dioxide escapes and the dough cannot rise.
The result is a dense, tight product; binders and sources of moisture therefore step in for a gluten-free poğaça.
| Component | Quantity | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Rice flour | 250 g | The base |
| Cornflour | 100 g | Lightness |
| Potato starch | 50 g | Softness |
| Xanthan gum | 6 g | Binder |
| White cheese | 200 g | Filling and moisture |
| Yoghurt | 120 g | Moisture and acid |
How does the flour blend get built?
A single gluten-free flour does not suffice.
Rice flour forms the base; neutral in taste and fine in texture.
Cornflour adds lightness.
Potato starch holds moisture and delays the drying of the product.
The ratio runs around six parts rice flour, two and a half parts cornflour and one and a half parts potato starch.
Ready gluten-free blends get used too; most already contain xanthan gum and no further addition becomes necessary.
Why is a binder needed?
Another substance has to take over the structural function of gluten.
Xanthan gum is the most widespread; a polysaccharide produced by bacterial fermentation.
Meeting water it forms a viscous gel and traps bubbles of gas.
Fifteen grams of xanthan gum per kilogram of flour blend.
That quantity falls slightly in products like poğaça; excess xanthan leaves a sticky, gummy texture.
Psyllium husk is an alternative too; a more natural option contributing fibre to the product.
How does the cheese contribute to the structure?
That is the factor making a gluten-free cheese poğaça easier than a plain one.
White cheese contains protein and fat.
The protein coagulates in the oven and the filling builds a structure of its own.
The fat stops the dough drying.
Two hundred grams of cheese markedly improves the moisture balance of four hundred grams of dough.
Some of the cheese also gets mixed into the dough; that distributes moisture and taste through every part of the product and gives a better result than a poğaça with cheese only in the middle.
What does the dill contribute?
Dill provides more than aroma.
A fresh herb contains water, and that water passes into the dough.
Sources of moisture are valuable in gluten-free doughs; every addition reduces the dryness.
Thirty or forty grams of fresh dill suffice for a batch.
It gets chopped fine and mixed into the dough.
Dried dill can serve too, but the quantity falls to a third and it contributes no moisture; the fresh herb gets preferred in this recipe for both aroma and function.
How does the shaping work?
Gluten-free dough cannot be shaped by hand; it is sticky and not elastic.
The hands get wetted or lightly oiled.
Pieces come off the dough with a spoon.
They get pressed lightly into shape rather than rolled in the palm.
Using moulds is an option too; silicone muffin moulds offer a practical answer for gluten-free poğaça and the product does not spread sideways in the oven.
At what heat does a gluten-free poğaça bake?
A hundred and eighty degrees for twenty-five to thirty minutes.
That is five minutes longer than a wheat-flour poğaça.
The moisture in gluten-free dough runs higher and takes longer to evaporate.
Egg yolk gets brushed over.
Sesame or nigella seeds get scattered on.
The poğaça cool on a wire rack out of the oven; left on a tray they take up moisture from beneath and the base softens.
How do gluten-free poğaça get stored?
Gluten-free products go stale faster than those made with wheat flour.
A starch-based structure speeds the loss of water and the texture hardens within two days.
Two days at room temperature in an airtight container.
They do not go into a fridge; cold speeds the retrogradation of the starch and the product hardens.
They keep two months in a freezer.
Baked poğaça get wrapped singly and frozen; heated twelve minutes at a hundred and eighty degrees from frozen they come close to their texture on the first day, and that is the most practical method of storage for gluten-free products.
How does a gluten-free poğaça rise?
Without gluten the rise gets built through a different mechanism.
Yeast can be used, but in a gluten-free dough it cannot hold its gas and its effect stays limited.
Chemical raising agents therefore get preferred.
Baking powder and bicarbonate go in together.
The bicarbonate reacts with acid; the yoghurt in the recipe provides that acid.
Twenty grams of baking powder and five of bicarbonate per kilogram of flour blend.
That quantity runs above wheat-flour recipes; because more gas escapes from a gluten-free dough, more raising agent becomes necessary.
The dough does not wait once made; chemical raising agents start working on contact and most of the gas disappears from a dough left standing.
The oven heats in advance and the dough goes in the moment it is ready.
Why does a gluten-free poğaça dry so fast?
A starch-based structure follows a different curve of staling from a wheat-flour product.
The starch that gelatinises during baking recrystallises as it cools; that process is called retrogradation.
Water molecules get pushed outside the crystal structure and the product dries.
The gluten network slows that process in a wheat-flour product.
No structure stands in its way in a gluten-free one, and the drying becomes clear within two days.
