If you’ve been eating gluten-free for any length of time, you know that storebought gluten-free bread is…well, not like “real” bread. Because xanthan gum is needed to substitute for the “missing” gluten, even the best GF bread has a tendency to have a texture reminiscent of rubber. The problem, in my opinion, is the apparent belief that we have to have yeast bread.
While I want a whole grain gluten free bread, I don’t necessarily need a yeast bread replacement; I just need something that will hold fillings for a sandwich or toppings for toast. It just needs to be some sort of bread-type product, not necessarily classic “sandwich bread.”
And, frankly, I’d prefer something more along the lines (texture-wise) of the soft cookies I can buy than the tough, chewy bread. So I figured I’d experiment to figure out my own, using a quick bread, rather than a yeast bread.
The Plan
My thought was to start out with a basic substitution for a wheat-in-the-original recipe, to make sure I get something that’s not hard as a brick, and tweak it from there. Much to my surprise and delight, the very first attempt was quite good!
It’s still not quite what I was aiming for (and it has large quantities of the more expensive ingredients, which I’d like to cut back on for sustainability’s sake), but it’s quite functional for certain purposes, just as it is. So, while I still hope to do some tweaking, I thought I’d share it in the meantime.
This bread is pretty dense, but it’s quite soft and moist. It’s fairly flexible, so it didn’t crumble apart or crack too much as a sandwich. But it’s rather sweet. So it worked great for toast, with peanut butter or with butter and jelly, but it was a bit weird for the egg sandwich I ate on it.
Whole Grain Gluten Free Bread Recipe: Basic Rice Quick Bread
Basic Rice Quick Bread (GF)
Ingredients
- 3 c. brown rice flour Mine was fresh-milled. If you're using storebought, which has already settled, you might need a tad less.
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1-1/2 c. milk I used sour milk.
- 1/2 c. honey
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 and grease a loaf pan well.
- Mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add wet ingredients and stir until combined. Pour into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 45 minutes to an hour. (Mine took 45 minutes.) Cool for a few minutes, then remove from the pan to finish cooling.
Notes
Originally published 3 Oct 2012. Updated 14 Jan 2021.
Never heard of rice quick bread…recipe sounds great….thanks for sharing.
Um….you’re a genius! I love how you approached the problem of yucky GF bread by just taking a whole different approach! Love it!
We have been dairy free for about 11 years for my oldest child and have recently started looking into the GFCF diet to help combat some spectrum issues. Thanks for sharing what you are learning. It is amazing how ingredients can change the consistency of food.
Ooh. Dairy-free is a hard one!
You are my HERO!! I’ve been GF for 4 months now and I’m a bit turned off by the store bought GF breads available. Too much processed stuff in them still and too many ingredients in general! This is AMAZING and I can’t wait to try it!!
Oh, I know – the processed-ness is awful! I remember when I first went GF thinking, “Okay, so I can be unhealthy by eating white starches or I can be unhealthy by eating gluten. Not much of a choice!” (I was eating almost all whole grains before that, and I still miss them, having not fully managed to find good substitutes yet.)
A quick tip: Crunchmaster’s Multi-Grain crackers are the best ones I’ve found yet for texture/taste/wholesomeness. (Not the Multi-SEED crackers, which are a little weird.) Everything else I’ve tried thus far has a really weird texture, consistency, or taste, or lots of white starch. Glutino has good texture, but they’re mostly white – and the Multigrain variety has…poppy seeds, I think?…which make them taste REALLY weird, and REALLY not work for putting peanut butter or cheese on.
I am SO excited for this recipe, it is super simple! yay!
Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂
Thanks for linking back to the Gluten Free Fridays post!
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Thank you, Cindy! If you make any tweaks, I’d love to hear about them! 🙂
Hello:
I was wondering what you meant when you said you used “sour milk”? I have never heard of this before, do you mean butter milk?
Thanks,
Marilyn
Hi, Marilyn,
It’s literally soured milk. Storebought milk (pasteurized) doesn’t sour; it just rots. Traditional raw milk sours. Buttermilk will work as a substitute, or you can “sour” it yourself. Add 1 Tbsp. lemon juice or vinegar to a cup of milk and let it sit for 15 minutes before you use it. (All of these are more acidic than regular “sweet” milk, so they interact differently with the other ingredients.)