Whole wheat bread in the breadmaker is easy. It’s effortless. It turns out every time.
Gluten free baking is so much harder. There are a million different variables. And even after reading countless blogs and baking books, I still understand barely a fraction of it all.
But look! A successful loaf that doesn’t involve bean flours.
[Background info: My only really successful gluten free loaves have all included bean flours. However, my GI tract likes bean flour about as much as it likes wheat. Less, in fact. Hence the mission to find a breadmaker recipe for bean free, wheat/gluten free bread.]
Ready for the recipe?
Ok.
Gluten Free Breadmaker Bread
Ingredients (in the exact order that I put them in the bread maker):
- 1 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp brown rice flour
- 3/4 cup sorghum flour
- 3/4 cup oat flour (certified GF)
- 1/3 cup tapioca starch
- 2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) yeast
Directions:
Add ingredients to breadmaker in order listed above. Don’t bother beating the egg, don’t bother pre-mixing the flours. Just dump them in, one after the other.
Set your breadmaker to the “dough setting” (for my machine this was 1 hr 30 minutes).
Once it finishes, either set it to “express bake” (for 2 lb loaf) or set it to “bake”.
I’m not sure how various machines differ, but for mine, the first portion of the dough setting was mixing and the second portion was letting it rise. Most machines have a dough setting, so this step shouldn’t be a problem.
The next step consisted of mixing it again for a few minutes and then baking it for 1 hour. If your machine doesn’t have an option like this, find a way to mix the dough once more (even if it’s just by hand for a few minutes) and then bake for an hour in the breadmaker.
If your machine has a gluten free setting, I’d try that (mine doesn’t). If your machine lets you set the timing, follow the amounts I’ve indicated above.
My fingers and toes were crossed the entire time.
And here it is – fresh out of the breadmaker.
I let it cool for a few hours (while being tortured by the delicious aroma). And then turned the breadmaker pan over, to catch a lovely fluffy loaf in my hands.
It came out super easy. And was really the softest gluten free loaf I’d ever felt. The top practically bounced under the pressure of my fingers.
But of course none of that matters if the taste sucks or if the inside is mushy or if the top caves in after a few minutes or…you know…all the problems with wheat-less bread.
Taste – yum.
Texture – really really soft (dare I say too soft?).
Use – to be determined.
Rise – decent.
Ease – medium.
Price – less than store bought.
Allow me to elaborate…
The taste is great. The flavor is definitely good, not just for gluten free bread standards, but for any bread standards. I’m very happy with it. No bitterness, no weird flour flavors, just the taste of normal bread.
The texture and use are intertwined. Because of how fluffy it is, it’s on the more delicate side of bread. It works well when toasted, which is how I’ve mostly been eating it. As (untoasted) sandwich bread, it has been hit and miss. With PB&J it held up fine, but with stuff like lettuce, tomato, and (non-spread) fillings, it sorta fell apart. I ended up eating the sando with a fork and knife (not a terrible solution) because it’s almost too spongy (or cake-like for lack of a better description) when it isn’t toasted.
The rise is hard for me to assess because I really only have vegan wheat loaves to compare it to. I used egg, xanthan gum, and baking soda in this recipe though, which should all assist in helping it not end up like a dense brick (which it definitely wasn’t). It seemed like it could be a little taller, but that’s me being picky.
This loaf is by no means as easy as wheat bread – it involves multiple ingredients (as opposed to the 6 in my whole wheat loaves) – but at least I didn’t have to bother with premixing the wet and dry portions or any of that crap. I’m a lazy baker. I use a breadmaker for a reason. I’m not trying to beat eggs or knead anything by hand! Luckily this loaf turned out perfect without me having to do anything beyond dumping in each ingredient, one by one.
I didn’t calculate the price, but it has to be less than the store bought stuff. One of the main points of this venture is to figure out a way to make my own GF loaves without breaking the bank (and ditching preservatives, naturally). To do this I stuck to the fewest number of flours as possible (and I avoided the really pricey ones). The flours I chose are some of the most inexpensive gluten free options and are available at almost every health food/grocery store.
For the future…
Ideally, I’ll get the flour combo down to 3, but we will see. If this blend works on repeat (I want to do a few more trials with it), I may make a big batch (with the same ratios but in a much larger amount) to keep on hand. That way I can just scoop as needed to make bread (or whatever baked goods) with fewer measuring cups.
I’m also hopeful that I’ll be able to try either a vegan or xanthan gum free version next (with either chia seeds or egg replacer). Maybe even both?
For now, I’ll just be happy with this bread. It tastes good and it doesn’t upset my stomach. That’s enough to deserve celebrating in my eyes.
You make me want to buy a bread maker. Toddler can’t eat wheat, but she LOVES toast. We spend so much money on gluten free bread. Love Udi’s but not a fan of the price tag.
i agree. and now i want a bread maker. Because i don’t have enough kitchen gadgets already. 😉
I am so excited to try this! I have a pretty good bean-free GF bread machine “recipe” that I loosely follow and it usually turns out a decent loaf; but it involves several flours which is a pain when it comes to making the bread. (I am totally lazy and hate measuring out a million things for one loaf of bread.) Thanks!
i felt the same way. we have so many freakin kitchen appliances its kinda insane. but udis (or the WF brand) gluten free bread costs so much!
im the same way lo – the fact that i had to use multiple different measuring cups was a major deterrent. but now that i know i can just throw it all in there and be done w it, im more okay with the measuring part. i do think i can get the flours down to 3 kinds though…we will see…
Your pictures of the bread make it look wonderful! I wonder if this would work without a bread machine? I don’t mind kneading by hand, but I know that some gluten free breads–even yeasted ones–are not really “kneadable” because they are so sticky and looser than traditional wheat doughs…
Courtney
I wonder how this recipe would be like just down the old fashion way. I don’t have a breadmaker……..
This looks fabulous, tempting to get a bread maker now!
hard to say (im not very knowledgeable about bread baking without the breadmaker), because yes, youre right about the texture of the “dough”. its more like a batter, as most GF ones are, which makes it impossible to knead. you would have to use a stand mixer with prolonged periods of mixing and then resting, but i have NO clue about the timing of that.
if youre familiar w gluten free baking, im sure youll find it turns out bakig the old fashioned way. but if this is your first foray in GF bread making, i have to give you a heads up about the “dough”/ its not kneadable because its really loose and sticky (almost like a batter). i mentioned above that i think a hand mixer would be a good sub for the mixing & kneading & resting that a breadmaker does, but i dont know about the length of timing for it. i just know mine did on and off kneading for 1.5 hours (im guessing the first 30 minutes are kneading and the next hour is rising), followed by baking for an hour. sadly, i cant help in offering a temp for a normal oven because i use the breadmaker.
Thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to give it a go.
My husband has recently gone Low FodMap / GF after years of suffering and he’s really missing bread. Like you, the bean flours are a big no no for him. He’s in agony with them. I’m going to dust off the bread maker right now.
good luck suzanne – your husbands a lucky man to have your baking 🙂
right now i use a breadmaker to make my bread (not gluten free) but i bake it in my oven. do you think i could do the same thing with this gluten free recipe?
i do, but i dont know the baking time/temps 🙁
Loved it! Used Potato starch instead of Tapioca and it worked well. Making more today as we couldn’t resist it freshly made! Thank you soooo much as I have been looking to replace my family’s wheat bread on our journey toward being a GF house (I am GF).
awesome! great to know potato starch works too. thanks for the feedback paula!
I have now made this recipe twice and my whole family loves it. It is so easy to just throw all the ingredients in and have a perfect loaf of bread come out! I swapped buckwheat flour for the sorghum just because that was what I had.
hello Elise, as you mentioned did you try with chia seeds to substitute egg and also to substitute the xanthan gum?
I did and it didn’t turn out as well. Not really sandwich bread material.
thanks for your feedback. I love your recipes but I am always struggling with egg substitutes…the recipes never are the same if I use chia or fennel seeds….
i have the same problem 🙁 sometimes vegan and GF baking is super hard.