Last Updated on August 15, 2021

My bread machine (a Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Virtuoso) has a gluten-free setting.  I thought it would be perfect for King Arthur Flour’s gluten-free bread and pizza mix. (You can order the product from the KAF site or from Amazon.)

I checked the product description to make sure it could be used in a bread machine.

When I made the bread KAF had a special tips page for making the mix in a bread machine. There were two methods for making the bread. Both of them involved the home made cycle of the bread machine, not the gluten-free cycle.

I was really puzzled.  KAF uses Zojirushi machines in their test kitchens, so the fact that they recommended the home made cycle made sense. (Zojirushi’s have that cycle.)  But why didn’t King Arthur Flour recommend using the gluten-free cycle? 

Maybe the article wasn’t updated since that function was added?

I decided to make two loaves of bread.  In one I would follow their instructions.  In the other, I’d use my bread machine’s gluten-free setting.

Loaf #1 – As Per KAF’s Instructions

The box called for the addition of milk, eggs and oil. I used olive oil. I didn’t pay attention to the temperature of these ingredients as the bread machine has a preheat cycle to bring them up to the desired temperature.

I followed the “simple” instructions as per the KAF website.

1. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder to the mix, in addition to the other ingredients called for.
2. Program the following “home made” cycle: preheat 15 minutes, knead 30 minutes, rise 65 minutes, bake 70 minutes, dark crust setting.

The part about “dark crust setting” doesn’t make sense. The dark crust setting basically tells the bread machine to cook for a longer time.  That would have been covered by the baking time of 70 minutes. So I ignored that part.

Loaf #2 – Using the Zojirushi’s Gluten-Free Setting

The box called for the addition of milk, eggs and oil. I used olive oil. I didn’t pay attention to the temperature of these ingredients as the bread machine has a preheat cycle to bring them up to the desired temperature.

I used the gluten-free setting with a medium crust setting.

The Results? Use the Gluten-Free Setting!

The loaf on the left was made with the gluten-free setting of the Zojirushi. The loaf on the right was made with the instructions from the King Arthur Flour website.

The loaves of bread tasted about the same, but the loaf made with the Zo’s gluten-free setting had a much better texture.  Here’s the loaf I made using KAF’s instructions.  See all the holes in the bread?

Here’s the loaf I made with the Zo’s gluten-free setting:

How was the taste?  As I said, both loaves of bread tasted the same.  It was moist, but it did taste different than traditional bread.

I’d also mention that with this bread you can forget about checking for the “ball of dough” after a few minutes of kneading. 

Gluten-free bread is a whole different animal. 

It looked more like cake batter during the first kneading cycle.