Gluten Free Bread that Tastes Good

Really Good Gluten Free Bread It sounds like a contradiction in terms. Good and gluten free bread doesn’t it? I haven’t eaten much bread in the past two years since I found out I have Celiac. Why spend $6.00 for a loaf of bread that tastes awful? Why spend my time making homemade bread with a dozen exotic flours for it to taste like cardboard?

But I really wanted garlic bread. And a grilled cheese sandwich. So I decided to try making bread at home. I like to bake. This could work.

My recipe requirements were only that it could not contain any flours that I did not already have in my kitchen. It is really frustrating to buy a box of flour for a recipe that I end up not liking anyway.

I found a bread recipe that looked promising here.

Of course, I don’t have a bread maker or all of the flours listed in this blogger’s all purpose flour. So I started making substitutions.



This is the recipe that I am using now, and I love it!

1 package (or 2 ¼ t) active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/3 c. water (105 degrees or a little less than hot)
2 ½ cups Jules Nearly Normal Flour Mix
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 ½ Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. white or rice wine vinegar

1. Combine yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Combine the flour mix, xanthan gum and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix well.

3. In a third bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and vinegar until the eggs are a bit frothy.

4. Check the yeast. By now, it should look a bit frothy on top. This is an indication your yeast is working well.

5. Pour both liquid mixtures into the flour mixture. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed. It’s important not to undermix the dough. I put my in my mixer and turn it on for at least three minutes.

6. At this point the dough will resemble a thick cake or brownie batter. It will not form into a loose ball like dough using gluten.

7. Pour dough into an oiled 2 cup bread pan and smooth the top.

8. Cover bread dough with plastic wrap and allow to rise until it just reaches the top of the bread pan.

9. Bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes. The top of the bread will be a golden brown and will sound hollow when tapped.

10. Allow bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

11. When fully cooled slice with a serrated bread knife.

Gluten free bread is much more tempermental than it’s gluten containing counterparts. Even the best bakers will occasionally have loaves that turn out hard or fall. Since gluten is what gives bread structure making gluten free bread often has some issues with shrinking or collapsing after coming out of the oven.
If your bread is collapsing and has large air pockets in it, this is a sign you are using too much liquid. Cut back on the liquid in the recipe until you have a more stable loaf with small even air pockets throughout. You can see in my picture above that I have some rather large air pockets and I may need to cut back slightly on my liquids.

Most gluten free cooks like to vary recipes. If you do this, take it one step at a time. It’s generally not a good idea to cut back on liquid, change the type of vinegar, use a different sized loaf pan and substitute guar gum for xantham gum all in the same recipe. If your loaf does not come out as you had hoped you have no idea what you need to change to get back on track.