When my son Kell was diagnosed with celiac disease several years ago, I was completely overwhelmed by the idea of gluten-free baking. It was just too complicated! But he had to avoid all forms of gluten–even trace amounts from cross-contamination–or he faced severe intestine damage.
Eventually, I was forced to face those fears because he missed bread and a “normal” diet. As a mom, I have learned the hard way that sometimes you have to make changes to your plans very quickly. Celiac disease and finding the best gluten alternatives to create my own bread recipe was never in the plan. But you adjust.
I am not fond of the gluten-free (GF) bread options that are available in the stores. Many of the pre-mixed, pre-packaged, and pre-made GF bread products that we tried just did not taste good. I wanted to find a solution to give him a sense of normalcy. But also, the list of ingredients is often written in small print and can contain surprisingly high amounts of sugar.
Related: How To Make The Best Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread
I decided to try writing my own gluten-free yeast bread recipe. But, what ingredients are ideal when making a gluten-free bread recipe at home? There are now so many options for gluten-free flour on the market, but that does not mean every gluten-free flour is ideal for bread. Did you know that tapioca starch doesn’t hold up to heat as well as corn starch? From xanthan gum to xylitol, what is the best sweetener to use?
I researched and tested available alternative flour options to clarify the ingredients that are best for a healthy gluten-free bread recipe. I wanted my loaf of gluten-free bread to hold together, taste great and not dry out or feel gummy. I found a gluten-free flour blend is better than choosing just one, and I decided not to include almond flour or flaxseed flour because of taste and texture reasons.
After spending time looking into my options, I worked on my recipe hard to put together the best GF bread recipe available. My son sure appreciated it, and now I want to share it with you! After all, you shouldn’t have to give up toast with cinnamon sugar just because you’re gluten intolerant!
Homemade Gluten-Free Bread Recipe
Gluten-free bread never tasted so good! Pay close attention to the packaging of every ingredient to verify it is marked gluten-free for truly gluten-free recipes.
Makes: 1 Loaf
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Bread Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups of brown rice flour
- 1 1/3 cups of corn starch
- 1 1/3 cups of tapioca flour
- 1 Tbsp of potato flour ((If you can’t find potato flour in the store, you can make your own by blending a handful of potato flakes in your blender.)
- 2 tsp of salt
- 1 Tbsp of xanthan gum
- 1/2 cup of dry milk
- 1 Tbsp of gluten-free egg replacer
- 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) of gluten-free active dry yeast (not INSTANT dry yeast)
- 2 cups of warm water
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup of honey
- 1/4 cup of butter, softened
- 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar
*A couple of notes about eggs:
- Yes, this recipe calls for both eggs and egg replacer. The combination helps create the wonderful springy texture of the finished bread.
- If you can’t eat eggs, you can replace the 3 eggs with: 9 tablespoons of water and 3 tablespoons of ground flax seed, or substitute the correct amount of egg replacement powder (in addition to the tablespoon called for in the recipe).
GF Bread Directions
Prepare two 8-inch bread pans by spraying them with cooking spray.
Add the yeast to the 2 cups of warm water, and stir until mixed. Set this aside to activate while you mix the rest of the ingredients.
Mix GF flours together with a whisk for an even gluten-free flour blend. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and set aside.
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Put eggs, butter, vinegar, and honey in the bowl of your mixer. Mix together for about 30 seconds using the paddle attachment. The butter will be chunky, and that’s okay!
Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in the mixer. Mix just until blended, and then add the remaining dry ingredients and mix for another 30 seconds, until blended.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the warm water and yeast mixture, then turn the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for 4 minutes. After the 4 minutes your bread dough should resemble thick cake batter.
Spoon the dough into your greased bread pans. Dip your fingers in water to smooth the top of the dough, if desired. Set aside in a warm place to rise for approximately one hour. While the dough rises, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
When the dough has risen to about an inch above the top of the pans, place the pans in your preheated oven on the middle rack.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the bread’s internal temperature reaches 200 degrees with an instant-read thermometer. (This is very helpful! It’s hard to tell when gluten free bread is done. If you don’t have an instant read thermometer, just use your best guess based on your particular oven.)
Remove the bread from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Then remove loaves from the pans and place on a rack to cool completely. (As you can see, I brushed the top of mine with butter when they came out of the oven.)
After allowing it to cool COMPLETELY before slicing. (This is important! Don’t rush it and cut into it while it’s still warm or you will flatten it.) And make sure to let your bread knife do the cutting for you! You provide the “sawing” action, but let the knife blade do the work. Don’t press down, just keep “sawing” across the top until you get all the way to the bottom of the loaf.
Tips to Improve Your GF Bread
- Before you start mixing your ingredients, allow them to reach room temperature. Take all cold ingredients the recipe calls for, like eggs and butter, out of the fridge and allow it to sit on the counter until they warm up. Your ingredients need to be room temperature to rise. In a time pinch, you can warm your butter up in the microwave on a low power setting (around 4) for 20 seconds and soak your eggs in warm water to help speed the process.
- Always check your ingredients to ensure they are gluten-free before you start the recipe (Bob’s Red Mill has some great options for GF flour). Pay particular attention to any flour or yeast you select from the store to ensure that you do not have any risk of contamination from ingredients that contain gluten.
- If you are looking for a dairy-free or vegan GF bread recipe, then opt for milk alternatives, like soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, etc. Butter can be replaced with margarine or olive oil. Adjustments may impact the taste or texture of the bread and may not go well the first time. You will want to try a few different alternatives to determine the best substitute for your taste. You will likely need to replace the full amount of water in this recipe with the milk alternative since it will be liquid and not powder.
- Store extra bread in the freezer if you do not plan to eat the entire loaf of bread in one day. For easy gluten-free sandwich bread or french toast: slice the bread and put wax paper between the slices before putting it into a freezer bag and storing it. Remove the number of slices you want for a meal and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds to thaw at a later date. Freezing the bread will help keep it fresh until you are able to eat the entire loaf.
- For corn sensitivities or allergies, you can make a corn-free GF bread by substituting potato starch.
This gluten-free bread recipe is a great option if you have extra time to make an entire loaf from scratch. If you are in a hurry and do not have time to make a whole loaf of bread, then you can make a single serving of GF bread in your microwave.
Jillee’s Best Gluten-Free Bread Recipe Ever
Ingredients
Brown Rice Flour Blend
- 1 1/3 cups brown rice flour
- 1 1/3 cups tapioca flour/starch
- 1 1/3 cups cornstarch
- 1 tbsp potato flour
Gluten Free Bread
- 4 cups Brown Rice Flour Blend see recipe above
- 1 Tbsp xanthan gum
- 1 Tbsp gluten-free egg replacer
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup powdered milk
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/4 cup butter room temperature
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar room temperature
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (not INSTANT dry yeast)
- 2 cups warm water
Instructions
- Prepare two 8-inch bread pans by spraying them with cooking spray.
- Add the yeast to the 2 cups of warm water, and stir until mixed. Set this aside to activate while you mix the rest of the ingredients.
- Mix the flour blend, xanthum gum, egg replacer, salt, and powdered milk together in a medium-size bowl and set aside.
- Put eggs, butter, vinegar, and honey in the bowl of your mixer. Mix together for about 30 seconds using the paddle attachment. The butter will be chunky, and that’s okay!
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in the mixer. Mix just until blended, and then add the remaining dry ingredients and mix for another 30 seconds, until blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the warm water and yeast mixture, then turn the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for 4 minutes. After the 4 minutes your bread dough should resemble thick cake batter.
- Spoon the dough into your greased bread pans. Dip your fingers in water to smooth the top of the dough, if desired. Set aside in a warm place to rise for approximately one hour. While the dough rises, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- When the dough has risen to about an inch above the top of the pans, place the pans in your preheated oven on the middle rack.
- Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the bread’s internal temperature reaches 200 degrees with an instant-read thermometer. (This is very helpful! It’s hard to tell when gluten free bread is done. If you don’t have an instant read thermometer, just use your best guess based on your particular oven.)
- Remove the bread from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Then remove loaves from the pans and place on a rack to cool completely. (As you can see, I brushed the top of mine with butter when they came out of the oven.)
- After allowing it to cool COMPLETELY before slicing. (This is important! Don’t rush it and cut into it while it’s still warm or you will flatten it.) And make sure to let your bread knife do the cutting for you! You provide the “sawing” action, but let the knife blade do the work. Don’t press down, just keep “sawing” across the top until you get all the way to the bottom of the loaf.
Notes
Nutrition
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I love this bread but sometimes the bottom of the loaves appear not to be cooked. I have make sure the temperature of the bread is what is in the recipe so not sure how to prevent this. Also I sometimes get a hole in the center of the bread so my slices are not completely whole. Thank you
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi Allison… It sounds to me like you need to bake the loaf longer. That being said, the bottom of the loaf always appears less “done” than the top. But it shouldn’t feel wet at all. I’m not sure about the hole in the center of the bread. Might be that the dough was over proofed. Try varying the amount of rising time. Good luck! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hey!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’m so happy to be here! I’m slowly learning how to bake gluten-free for myself as flour products in America tend to give me instant sinus infections. I feel as though I almost have an addiction to bread because I miss it so much! I’ve even considered moving to Italy because when I lived there, I could eat rolls with my salad and NEVER got sick…I’m so happy you made up this recipe and I can’t wait to try it after collecting all the extra ingredients I had no idea I would need. Now I would like to learn how to make gravy for my biscuits and gravy. I use bacon instead of sausage and I’m wondering if I can use a gluten-free flour blend to make the gravy? Do I need to add anything else? My fingers are crossed. Hope this is possible! Thank you so much!
I made this wonderful bread, it came out as good as described. However, I would like to know if I could reduce the amount of honey. Will this affect the way the bread will be? it is too sweet for my taste to use the bread in a savory sandwich. Thank you so much for your help.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Marici, you could definitely reduce the amount of honey if you felt that the bread was too sweet.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Fantastic recipe! I make it every week now :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.However, I find the yeast won’t activate without adding sugar
I would like to know if there are any changes I should consider for high altitude? I live at 6600 feet above sea level. Thank you!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I found this website you might find useful for gluten free sugar cookies. Enjoy! https://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/gluten-free-drop-sugar-cookies/
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Im really excited to finish this recipe and try the finished product. The texture so far seems so much better than others I’ve seen. I’m curious though as to why you split this into two loaves? Have you tried it as one loaf? I’m thinking I might try just to have larger bread. Obviously cook times would need to be adjusted. Would love your feedback and thoughts. Thanks!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I made 2 loaves today. I like the larger recipe because I find assembling ingredients a pain. I also added Dough Enhancer from Authentic Foods (gluten-free) 1/4 tsp per cup of flour. The loaves took about 1 1/2 hours to rise. I choked on baking though and baked it for 35 minutes for fear of over baking or burning it. However, in hindsight I should have trusted the process as my loaves are quite moist. But the taste is wonderful and I will definitely make it again.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi Jillee,
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love your recipes and I’m able to modify the ones that use flour by using cornstarch for my GF husband, luckily, he is not allergic to corn.
However, as I am well into my 80s I look for the “easy way out.” There are some great GF breads in many grocery stores. Schar make great GF bread, hamburger rolls and hot dog rolls. Also, if there is an Aldi’s Market near by, they have a GF bread called “Live Free.” Aldi’s, also, carries delicious GF cookies. My husband says that both the “Live Free” and Schar Breads, hamburger rolls and hot dog rolls are excellent. He never says, “No” to the GF cookies that are made by Schar and Aldi’s “Live Free.”
Can I replace the brown rice flour with something else?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Any suggestions for a yeast free version ?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.At long last I can quit looking. I have found my bread recipe. I will never change again. This is delicious and it makes astonishing toast. Thank you so much.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I just saw this recipe on Instagram this past week and must say, this bread is AWESOME!!!! After years of horrible GF bread options, this is life changing! Thank you!!!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have made this bread twice now as the ingredients sounded interesting
Both time I have such a volume of flour when mixed. I use a UK cup size measuring cup from Tesco. When rising it drips over the edge. I am usung a
2 x 1lb loaf tins The first it turned out like rock. This time I am waiting for it to
Come out of the oven although from looking at it. The bread looks so much
Larger than yours. What am I doing wrong. I followed your video.
THANKS CS.
Hi Mrs C Smith! I am using bread pans like this: https://amzn.to/2VRBKVE Are yours the same size? Are you making the flour blend yourself?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I made this tonight and it raised beautifully and I bakedit according to instructions and it read 200 internal temp but as it was coming for 10 minutes in pans they sunk. What did i do or not do?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.When bread sinks in the middle, it’s usually because it’s too moist inside. How did you measure your dry ingredients? You could try a little less water next time! How did it taste? :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.what can i substitue for the cornstarch, i am deathly allergic to corn.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Arrowroot powder :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thank you this looks so delicious
Please log in or create a free account to comment.THANK you for this lovely recipe! It looks delicious. Is there a way of modifying this to make it in a bread maker?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I haven’t tried it in a bread maker, but have heard from quite a few readers who have – they all say it worked perfectly!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi Jilee what is 11/3 cups?
That is 1 and 1/3 cups :-)
Have you ever made this in cupcake tins for rolls?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have made this recipe three times now. It turns out amazing! I really love it. Even my non-GF family lives it. The third time I made it, I was out of honey, so I subbed brown sugar. I needed rolls, so I made 9 rolls and still had enough to make a regular bread loaf. The rolls look fantastic. Baked 375 for 18 minutes. (I don’t know how to share a picture, but trust me, they are perfect)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I just made up a batch of this recipe and am waiting for it to proof. My wife had been glued intolerant for quite some time and generally speaking gluten free bread intolerant for about the same period.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve tried numerous recipes including bread machine recipes as well as oven baked.
After following the instructions religiously, I achieved batter. However, one of the dry ingredients lumped into hundreds of tiny little clumps about the size of a split pea and a little larger.
I can’t tell which powder it was, even spreading it between my thumb and finger.
I’m going to go ahead and bake the bread after it rises and hope for the best. I’m wondering if anyone else ran into the same issue.
My powdered milk was chunky but I passed it through a sieve before adding it to the others and nothing else was “lumped” or clumped before mixing. The dry mix was pretty smooth.
Anyway, I’ve taken a couple of pictures if you’re interested in seeing the batter before I put it in the over.
I’ve never had that problem – especially after the 4 minutes at medium-high speed in the mixer. What kind of mixer did you use?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi, You Beautiful Lady, I just love your site . . . can’t get enough of it . . . can’t help but wonder if you’ve ever heard of “Wheatbelly” by Dr. William Davis . . . also, sometimes I am somewhat uneasy when some of the ingredients used for recipes or cleaning products are less than safe & even contain harmful chemicals . . . i.e. regular store bought soaps or flours . . . thank you for your kind and generous sharing of so much valuable knowledge . . . God Bless You… :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You say “When the dough has risen to about an inch above the top of the pans, place the pans in your preheated oven on the middle rack.” After an hour my dough has barely risen to the top of the pan, if that. I’m rising it in a 100 deg. proofing box. Am I doing something wrong or am I misinterpreting your instructions?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Actually, after 1:15 – 1:25, it has risen about 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the pan, so it’s just taking mine a little longer.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Do you use salted butter or unsalted butter for this gluten free bread recipe?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Unsalted :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.The Bobs red mill egg replacer you have linked has wheat gluten in it. Do you recommend another brand that would go well with this recipe?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Yes, this one is excellent: http://amzn.to/2vmzwAp :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Awesome! Thank you so much!
This bread is amazing! I made it last night and had my first real sandwich in the 4 years since my celiac diagnosis. The store bought stuff can be ok for toast, but not for a tasty proper sandwich. My husband even agreed it is delicious. I’ll be making so many more loaves of this yummy bread in the future, thank you!!!!! Hello sandwich heaven!!!!
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