Gluten Free Sandwich Wrap – Take 3 – a new whole grain version – a mock lavash bread

Gluten Free Sandwich Wrap – Take 3, originally uploaded by Kate Chan.

Okay…it’s 10:00AM and I’ve already eaten half of my lunch…..bad bad bad. I just couldn’t resist. I had to try it.

You see, last night at 11:00 (Why do I always start these projects at 11pm?), I needed to make something for my lunch. My mom flew in last night (wahoo!) and we ate dinner out with her last night. It was great fun, but it also presented the hurdle of no leftovers for a quick and easy lunch.

Don’t get me wrong, gluten-free lunch is not hard.
I just like to sleep in. 😛

So at 11, I decided to play around a try a new wrap recipe. I love Cindy’s wraps (she is the one who first modified a recipe she found and made the one posted on this site….it was posted with her permission). But sometimes the wraps are really more dense and chewy than I want.

I used to eat lavash bread sandwiches. Lavash bread is a kind of Middle Eastern bread which is long, thin, and flexible. Originally when I had asked for a wrap recipe, I was looking for something to make the same lavash turkey sandwiches that we LOVE in the summer.

Really… nothing replaces a fresh smoked turkey sandwich with sprouts, a little mayo/tahini and balsamic vinegar sandwich when it is hot outside for me. It’s the perfect summer lunch. NO BAKING! But ah.. now I’m gluten free and baking is part and parcel for me. I really prefer the flavors of gluten free home baked goods to the store bought ones.

So last night I realized that we had Boar’s Head Smoked Turkey (all of their meat is GF!) in the fridge. (OH YUM!) and it was time I figured out the lavash bread. With Cindy’s adaptations as lead and my own experiments as of late, I was feeling fairly confident.

Lately I have been playing with adding more water to Cindy’s recipe – up to one cup. This made the batter more like a pancake batter which I just poured on to a large piece of parchment on my jelly roll pan and baked it. And it worked perfectly. It saved me the trouble of having to push the dough out to make it thin. However, I was still left with a bit of a dense, chewy center. (Especially in the center of the pan where it sinks a bit.) I have really been working toward recreating the evenly thin and non-chewy texture of the lavash.

I think I have it.
And man, it’s good.
Evidence: my lunch is almost gone and I still have two hours before lunch time. =S

This recipe has some added benefits beyond it’s consistency too. It is egg-free and can be easily made to be dairy-free with the substitution of a non-dairy powdered “milk” in lieu of the powdered buttermilk.

And it uses whole grains! (If you don’t like sorghum, you can replace it perfectly with rice flour. Keep in mind that rice flour makes the bread more dense/thick, so you may wish to add another tablespoon of water.)

I hope you like this recipe too. To be honest, this is now my preferred gluten-free wrap bread recipe. I’m heading home after school to make another. We’re having sandwiches for dinner…… 🙂

Gluten Free, Whole Grain Sandwich Wraps
Recipe makes one jelly roll pan of wraps/ gluten-free lavash bread
Ingredients:
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup potato starch (NOT flour)
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 Tablespoons yeast
2 Tablespoons powdered buttermilk or non-dairy powdered milk
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
3/4 cup of warm water (+/- tablespoons of water)
1 1/2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoons cracked black pepper*
3/4 teaspoons cumin*
3/4 teaspoons dill*
3/4 teaspoons fennel*

(*Feel free to omit the seasonings (but not the salt) if you prefer a plain flavor. I found the herbs to be an amazing addition for my sandwiches.)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400F.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients in the bowl of your mixer – sorghum, millet, potato starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, yeast, powdered buttermilk, salt and optional seasonings.
3. Mix together the water (start with 3/4 cup), agave nectar, olive oil and vinegar.
4. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and mix on low until blended. The dough should not resist the beaters and bounce around in the bowl but rather be more of a soft cookie dough – maybe even a bit more wet.
5. Beat the dough on high for no more than 2 minutes. The dough should look like this:
   
6. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Spread the dough as thinly as possible to cover the 10 x 15″ jelly roll pan. (To do this, I used a rubber spatula and kept dipping it in to water to keep the dough from sticking. This dough is not really as sticky as you might think – but the extra water helps push it out easier.)

Bake at 400F for 13-16 minutes until the top begins to brown and the edges are browned. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight bag. (I rolled mine up in the parchment paper and then tucked it in to a gallon size Ziploc last night before heading off to bed.)

Happy GF Eating!
-Kate