Wheat-free Dairy-free Swedish Rye Bread

Dark, Long-Keeping Rye Bread:  This is a dairy-free recipe  which I published in a wee health book in the early 1980’s.  I used to make  it frequently, especially if people were coming over for lunch, or we were going on a picnic. It was a real favourite.

Wheat free Dairy free Swedish Rye Bread is a great bread recipe for those who can tolerate rye flour.  It does not contain any wheat flour, although it is not gluten-free, because rye flour contains gluten.  It is rich and dark and tasty, and it keeps well.  It will keep for a week or two if you keep it in the fridge.

Natural Iron Tonic: The molasses in this rye bread make it a wonderful iron tonic.  My children were never too keen on eating straight molasses as a tonic, but they did enjoy this rye bread which has a high molasses content.

Recipe for Dairy-free Wheat-free Swedish Rye Bread

2 tablespoons dry yeast granules

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 cup  soy milk

Grated rind of one ripe orange

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup molasses

4 cups of rye flour

1 cup soya flourSprinkle the yeast over 1/2 cup of warm water and let sit for 10 minutes.  Warm the milk slightly and add this to the yeast mixture with the olive oil.

In a bowl, put the orange rind, salt, vinegar, and the yeast mixture.  Gradually stir in the rye flour and the soya flo9urs.  Knead on a floured board until it has a nice pliable texture.  Add a little more flour if necessary.  Grease your loaf tin with olive oil or butter, and put in the dough.

Let the rye bread rise for 45 minutes to an hour in a warm place, such as the hot water cylinder, or the side of the stove.

Pre-heat the oven  to 200C while the bread is rising.

Bake for 20 minutes at 200C, then turn the temperature down to 180C and cook for another 40 minutes.

Remove the bread from the tin when it is cooked, and allow to cool on a wire tray.

This bread is best left for a day or two before cutting and eating.  It will cut better if it matures a little, and the orange flavour will permeate the bread, which makes it very delicious.

Cornmeal and Millet Bread Recipe – Wheatfree and Glutenfree

Gluten Free Bread Recipe.  This is a  meal on its own.  It is a protein-rich bread, and is  completely gluten-free and wheat-free.  It makes a marvellous, tasty  addition to a meal with a good big salad, cooked greens,  and rice or potatoes.  It is great nutritious and tasty bread to include in school lunches, and for picnics.

The Recipe for Gluten Free Wheat free Cornmeal Bread:

60 gm of fine yellow cornmeal, or maize flour

60gm fine millet

2 tablespoons of soy flour

2 tablespoons sesame seed

1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder

2 tablespoons melted butter or olive oil

1 grated carrot

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/2 onion chopped finely

3 free range eggs

1/2 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon honey

1/2 teaspoon sea salt.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

First dry toast the soy flour in a dry frying pan for just a couple of minutes.  Lightly brown it but do not burn.  Keep stirring as it toasts.

Add this to the millet and cornmeal flours with the baking powder

Separate the eggs.  Whisk up the whites to form peaks.

Melt the honey and salt in the boiling water.  Add the butter or olive oil.

Add the grated carrot, the diced onion, parsley, the egg yolk, the honey and water mixture which has the oil or butter in it, to the flours.

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.  Do not stir too much.  Turn the mixture into a greased loaf tin, or a greased square or round  glass pyrex dish. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top.

Cook for around half an hour, or until it has browned nicely.   I found that the cast iron frying pan made a great dish for cooking cornmeal breads such as this one.  Be careful not to hold the handle of the fry pan when the bread comes out of the oven, and keep it away from children until it has cooled.

It can be served with a home-made gluten-free tomato sauce:

Simply lightly stew two or three tomatoes with the remainder of the onion from the recipe above, chopped finely,  a little salt, 1 teaspoon honey, and just a tad of water to give a sauce-like consistency.  Add some fresh chopped basil.  Spoon over your cornmeal bread, or serve alongside.

Wheatfree Recipe for Rye And Barley Bread

This Rye and Barley Bread is NOT gluten free.  Both barley and rye contain gluten, so do not use this bread as an alternative to wheat bread if you need a gluten free diet.

However, rye and barley are very nutritious grains and very tasty too.  This bread is quite light, and it is  a very simple recipe to follow.  It basically uses just the two ingredients – rye flour, and barley flour, with yeast and water to make it rise, and a touch of salt for flavouring.  For people who can tolerate gluten, it makes a nice change from wheat bread.

250 gm of rye flour

250 gm of barley flour

1 teaspoon sea salt or kelp powder

2 x 7gm packets of dried yeast granules

300 mls of warm water (about 1/2 a pint)

Set the yeast to start:  Use three tablespoons of the just warm water and sprinkle the yeast over the top.  Leave to work for 10 minutes.  Make sure that the water is not too warm, otherwise this will kill the yeast and your bread will not rise.

Put the rye flour and the barley flour into a bowl with the salt.  Add the yeast starter which has sat for 10 minutes.  Mix altogether.  Use a little more rye flour if necessary so that the dough does not stick to your hands.

Next, knead the dough lightly on a board.  Put into a floured bowl and leave overnight to rise.  The hot water cupboard is usually a good place for breads to rise.

Next day, punch down the dough a little, and knead again.  Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a clean cloth, and leave  to rise for one hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 220C.

Flour your working board, turn out the dough, knead lightly and shape into a round.  Place on a greased baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven for fifteen minutes, then turn the heat down to 180C and bake for a further 3/4 hour.

Two tablespoons carraway seeds may be added to this bread to give it some extra vroom.

 

 

Rich Black Rye Bread – Chicago Style Pumpernickel Recipe

This is a wheatless bread recipe for Black Rye Bread, which is also called ‘Pumpernickel Bread’.   However, because it is made with rye flour, which does contain gluten, it is not gluten free.  This makes it unsuitable for people on gluten-free diets.

Black Bread, or ‘Pumpernickel Rye Bread’, is popular in Germany, Austria, and in Scandinavian countries.

This ‘Chicago Style Pumpernickel’ bread recipe  is an adaptation of the original European rye bread recipes which German settlers took to America.  This bread is a good keeper.  It is still popular in parts of the USA because of its good keeping qualities, its nutritional food value, and its wonderful nutty, rich flavour.

All up, the recipe uses 750 gm of rye flour.  This is added in three  250 gm lots, with rising time allowed after each addition of rye flour.  You might need slightly more to use for kneading, and to make the dough a good consistency at the final kneading of the dough.

Yeast Starter:  First of all, start your yeast off:  Use can use a cake of fresh yeast, or  two 7gm packets of dried yeast.  Put 2/3 cup  (1/4 pint) of warm water  in a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast.

60 gm butter (2 oz)

1 1/4 cups (300mls)  of   milk

5 tablespoons of dark treacle or molasses

1 organic free range egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon of finely chopped lemon or orange rind.

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

Put the butter into a saucepan and melt gently on the stove.  Add the milk and warm together.  Take off the stove and stir in the treacle or molasses if you prefer a really dark bread, and the salt, caraway seeds and lemon rind.   The mixture should be just luke-warm now – test by putting your finger into the liquid to make sure it is not too hot for the addition of the beaten egg and the yeast.  If it is too warm, the yeast will be killed and your bread will be too heavy and hard.

Now add to this liquid mixture 250 gm of rye flour.

Beat this mixture of rye flour, treacle, egg, yeast and milk until it is smooth, and leave covered in a warmish place to work for half an hour.

Then add another 250 gm of rye flour into the mixture. Again, cover with a damp cloth and leave to work for another 30 minutes.

Final Addition of Flour:  Add the last 250 gm of rye flour and knead the dough well for 10 minutes.  Use a little more rye flour if needed, to bring the dough to a nice kneadable consistency without being too sticky.  Divide the dough into two.  Grease two loaf tins.  Shape each piece of dough to roughly fit the size of the tine.  Press down the dough into the tins.

Leave to rise for an hour this time, in a warm place.  The hot water cylinder is good.  Cover up the tins with a dry tea towel.

Heat up the oven to 200C degrees, or 400F.  After an hour of rising the bread, put the two loaf tins into the already hot oven.  Bake for 1/2 hour at 200C,  then turn the oven down to 180C for a further 15 minutes.

Take out the bread and run a knife around the edges of the tins.  Using a teatowel, hold the tins upside down and sharply tap the bottom of the tins to remove the bread.  Allow the loaves  to cool on a wire tray.

This bread is actually best kept for a day or two before cutting.  It will cut better, and the flavour will be improved if it is left for two days to mature.

 

Diuretic Herbs and Natural Remedies To Help Fluid Retention

Menstruation and Fluid Retention: Some women  suffer fluid retention just prior to having a period.  Expectant mothers are also vulnerable to fluid retention.  With fluid retention, the breasts can become swollen and painful, with the ankles and lower calves, and fingers too, appearing  slightly swollen or puffy. Of course, you must see your doctor for a diagnosis if you have on-going fluid retention, especially if you are pregnant.  But here are some practical hints which might help you, even so.

The answer is an alkaline diet, to reduce toxins in the blood.  Reduce sugar, and also avoid bread and other gluten products,  yeast and fermented foods, meat, and dairy foods a week before the period. Use more fresh fruit and vegetables, with a salad at least once a day.  A liver and intestinal flush might also be helpful, such as a dose of castor oil, or a little rhubarb root tea. Note:  Best to ask a naturopath or health professional about these cleansing methods, and the herbs below,  if you are pregnant, or are on some medication.

Drink Enough Water: As well as ensuring that your water intake is sufficient – You should still be drinking 6 to 8 glasses of water a day, you could include some natural diuretic herbs as part of your daily diet, and increase these just before menstruation.

Natural diuretic herbs to help fluid retention are:

Celery.  Eat it raw in salads, and use it liberally in stews and curries, etc.

Cucumber.  This is another diuretic vegetable which can be used in salads.

Dandelion herb. All parts of the dandelion are useful, and can be used for fluid retention. A couple of chopped  leaves could be added to a salad.  Dandelion root coffee is an herbal diuretic.  Coffee itself is also a diuretic, but it is best not to rely on coffee for the purpose of reducing excess water in the tissues.  Dandelion root coffee, or the fresh herb,  is a healthier option.

Parsley Greens can be added to a salad.  Parsley tea can be made by pouring boiling water over a tablespoon of chopped parsley.  This could be taken once or twice a day just before the period.  I would be cautious with this remedy if I was pregnant,  as parsley’s action could be too intense in the case of pregnancy.

Juniper Berries, used to flavour gin,  are strongly diuretic.  But juniper berries  should be avoided by pregnant women because they can be irritating to the kidneys.

Vitamin B6 is a natural remedy which is recommended for reducing pre-menstrual fluid retention.  Russell Setright recommends 25 gm per day to help reduce fluid:  This advice is given in his book “Get Well – an A-Z of Natural Medicine for Everyday Illness”, Atrand Pty Ltd, NSW, Australia, 1990 and 1992.

Some of Schuessler’s Biochemic Remedies, or ‘Schuessler Cell Salts’ as they are known, may be useful in helping reduce fluid retention.  There are twelve different cell salt remedies, each one having specific healing and restorative properties.  They are perfectly safe to use, as they are in minute homeopathic doses.   Kali Sulph can be helpful if there is a distended stomach with the period.  Mag Phos is often helpful if there is pain just before the period.  Kali Phos is a good constitutional remedy which can be taken every day for up to three months before child-birth.  This remedy may be useful to young women suffering pre-menstrual troubles, including fluid retention.  It could be taken each day for a week,  starting from a week before the period. Natrum Sulph is another natural cell salt remedy which could be helpful in treating fluid retention:  Natrum sulph helps to regulate the amount of water in the system.

Sodium phosphate has also proved helpful in treating pre-menstrual fluid retention.

Avoiding salt, at least for a week before a period, might be helpful in some cases of fluid retention, as sodium chloride can lead to fluid retention.

Some medications can also cause fluid retention, so  if you are on medication of any kind, then check these things out with your doctor.