Gluten Free Herb and Garlic Tear and Share Bread Wreath

Recipe Video 

This Gluten Free Herb and Garlic Tear and Share Bread Wreath is the stuff that holiday carb dreams are made of. Crusty around the outside, oh so soft and fluffy on the inside, and packed full of herb and garlic flavour. This is guaranteed to take pride of place on your table this Christmas!

I don't think there's any role this Herb and Garlic Tear and Share Bread Wreath couldn't play. It's delightful simply by itself, or you can dip it, eat it with cheese or meat, or serve it as a dinner roll alternative. And as an added bonus it's very pretty to look at, so it doubles as a centerpiece! Two birds with one (very delicious) stone!

This recipe is also a dietary triple threat. It's gluten free (obviously), it's easily dairy free, and it can be easily vegan too! Oh, but you won't taste that it's any of those things. This carb-loaded delight really is for everyone.

This is without a doubt the easiest bread recipe I've ever come up with. There is zero skill required for shaping - basically if you've ever played with play-doh in your life you'll be able to handle this process. Normally I'll be talking about kneading the dough to get a nice, smooth surface to work with, but this bread wreath is rustic. It's a tear and share. It's just lots of little blobs of dough, rolled around luxuriously in a herby mixture and chucked (technical term) into a cake tin.

How to make a Gluten Free Herb and Garlic Tear and Share Bread Wreath

1. Mixing the dough: the process for mixing this dough is nothing special. We get the yeast and psyllium ready first, mixing them individually with some of the water and sugar and setting them aside while we measure everything else. The dry ingredients are combined in a large bowl, either for a stand mixer or with a spoon to mix by hand, and then those yeast and psyllium mixtures and the other wet ingredients are tipped in. A bit of mixing and you're done! My only tip is to try and scrape all the way down to the bottom of the bowl to make sure all the flour is mixed in.

2. First Prove: I coat my doughs in oil to make sure they don't dry out during proving. We just need to drizzle about a tablespoon around and on top of the dough to coat. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, then choose a warm spot if you have one, but regular old room temperature is fine too. You can't really go wrong with the first prove, it's forgiving and mostly for flavour, but the dough should double in size.

3. Kneading: it's important to give the dough a bit of a knead on a lightly floured surface before shaping. This get's all the air out of it and makes it easier to get a good, even shape.

4. Making the Herb Mix: this step simply involves mixing parsely, rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt and extra virgin olive oil in a bowl. You could of course change up the herbs to the ones you love or have on hand - I bet sage would make a wonderful festive touch!

5. Lining the Tin: the size and preparation of your cake tin is one of the more important points in this recipe. The bread wreath is quite large, baked in a 25cm round tin, and the tin needs to be at least 7.5cm tall to make sure your bread doesn't try to excape. Your tin also needs to be solid based - the oil in the herb mixture with leak out if your tin has a loose base. Bread can mysteriously stick to baking tins even if you oil them, so it's important to grease and line both the base and sides of the cake tin with baking paper. I've used an oven safe ramekin measuring 9cm across and 6cm tall to make the hole in the bread wreath, and you can use anything a similar size as long as it's at least 6cm tall. I just wrap the remakin in baking paper and tuck the ends inside it so the bread doesn't stick.

6. Shaping: The shaping process for this Bread Wreath is as simple as it gets. I've just taken a 20ml tablespoon to scoop small portions of dough (you could use any similar sized spoon) and rolled them into balls, just like play-doh! Each little ball is then rolled around in the herb and garlic mixture to coat, and then placed in the prepared tin. I don't worry too much about putting them in any sort of pattern, I just try to place them evenly around the circle.

7. Second Prove: The second proof is pretty forgiving for this Gluten Free Herb and Garlic Tear and Share Bread Wreath too. The dough should rise just about to the top of the tin, and it should feel light and airy when you gently touch it.

8. Baking: I find that preheating my oven a bit hotter to 230ºC and then reducing the temperature to 200ºC once the Bread Wreath goes in is the best way to get an even bake and lovely crusty outside. The bread will bake for 30 minutes at 200ºC, then for an additional 30 minutes at 180ºC after rotating the tin. It needs a pretty long baking time for the size of the bread, so make sure you don't forget to turn those temperatures down!

How to Store this Gluten Free Herb and Garlic Tear and Share Bread Wreath

You can serve this Garlic and Herb Bread Wreath slightly warm or at room temperature. You can make it earlier in the day, but I wouldn't make it too far in advance as, like all homemade breads, it does tend to dry out a little bit over time. Store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature and refresh in a 180ºC oven until warm.