Gluten Free Artisan Bread
Bread is a bit of a sore point with a lot of people who can’t have gluten. Gluten is the protein in bread that makes the dough all stretchy and elastic. It gives bread that lovely, light, slightly chewy texture. It makes the bread soft and pliable, so you can fold a piece of bread in half and it doesn’t break and crumble. (Didn’t you love eating folded-over sandwiches as a kid? I did.) But it’s also the thing that causes bloating and discomfort in a lot of people, and does such terrible things to coeliacs!
When we went gluten free, the most difficult thing for us was not having bread. I mean, have you ever tried the gluten free bread from the shop? Yeah, not so exciting. And it’s expensive. And it’s totally useless for sandwiches or for wrapping around a sausage.
I did end up making my own gluten free bread with Cyndi O’Meara’s recipe (originally from the Changing Habits Changing Lives cookbook), which is much nicer than the shop bought bread, and cheaper, and you can grind up the grains in your Thermomix. I still had to force my son to eat it though – he wanted his spelt bread back.
Then recently I bought the cookbook ‘Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ and I learnt to make gluten free artisan bread. Wow. It turned out better than any gluten free bread I’d tasted before. I mean, look at this – it even bends without breaking!!
You can wrap it around a sausage, or make sandwiches with it, and it won’t disintegrate into crumbs! And believe it or not, this photo was taken when the bread was a day old!!! (Sorry about all the exclamation marks, but I just can’t help being excited about this bread!)
When my first loaf came out of the oven, it suddenly seemed like half the neighbourhood were in my kitchen, all wanting a slice of bread… Even when I told them it was gluten free it didn’t scare them off – they loved it! (So, yeah, that first loaf didn’t last long.)
The crust on this bread is thick and crusty and chewy, which I love, and the flavour is slightly sourdough-ish, which I also love, and it turns out looking very rustic, which I love as well… So as you can see, I’m pretty pleased with this bread! (Those of you who are followers of my Quirky Cooking Facebook Page are probably tired of hearing about this bread, but I thought I should share it with the non-facebookers out there.)
The addition of sorghum flour gives it a better texture, and bit of fibre. If you like, you could add more texture with the addition of some seeds – linseeds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds – they’d all be great in this bread.
My inspiration for this recipe is here: Recipe for Gluten Free Crusty Boule (I’ve tweaked it to use ingredients I prefer, and added a Thermomix method.) Before you start, watch this video of me making it, as it will really help you to get the right texture if you need to tweak flours, etc.
This recipe makes four small 500g loaves, or two regular sized loaves in bread tins. The dough can stay in the fridge for up to a week and you can bake another loaf when you need it. So easy!
Note: This is the updated version of the recipe – I used to use xanthan gum but have since changed over to psyllium husk milled into a powder instead. You will find the original recipe in my Quirky Cooking cookbook.
PrintGluten Free Artisan Bread
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons instant yeast (or 2 tsp fresh yeast)
670g lukewarm water
4 Tablespoons psyllium husk
300g brown rice (or use brown rice flour)
220g millet flour, or can use sorghum, amaranth, teff, quinoa, or tigernut flour
380g tapioca starch (or arrowroot)
1 Tablespoon fine sea salt/Himalayan salt (adjust to taste)
4 large eggs
65g olive oil
30g honey
sesame seeds (opt, for top of bread)
Instructions
** If you haven’t made this bread before, I recommend watching this video first!
- Place yeast into a bowl and pour over water. Cover and leave to sit while continuing with recipe.
- Place psyllium husk into Thermomix or blender and mill 1 min/speed 9 or until very fine. Remove to a large mixing bowl.
- Mill brown rice in the Thermomix in two batches 1 min/speed 9 per batch (or use pre-ground rice flour). Mill other grains if needed for second flour (sorghum/millet/etc), removing to mixing bowl as you go.
- Place flours and psyllium husk powder back into Thermomix bowl with tapioca starch and salt, and mix 10 sec/speed 5 until well combined (or combine by hand). Tip dry mixture back into mixing bowl.
- Place yeast in water, eggs, olive oil, and honey into Thermomix and mix 15 sec/speed 4 until combined (or mix in a separate bowl with a wire whisk).
- Pour liquid mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry mixture and combine with a wooden spoon until well incorporated. There is no need to knead! Dough will be like a wet, sticky, scone dough, not like a regular bread dough. Within about 5-10 minutes the psyllium husk powder will soak up the liquid and dough will become firmer. If it’s still very wet after this time, you may need to add a little more psyillium husk powder. If it becomes dry, you’ll need to add a bit more water. See the video above for desired texture.
- Cover bowl with a tea towel and allow dough to rest at room temperature until it rises and dough is full of air bubbles, approximately 2 hours or so. You can use it immediately after this initial rise, but the flavour is nicer if you refrigerate it in a lidded container overnight first. You can use the dough over the next 7 days, although bear in mind, the flavour gets stronger each day.
- When you’re ready to make bread, wet your hands, and take out a quarter of the dough for a round, rustic loaf, or half the dough for a loaf baked in a loaf tin. For a rustic, round loaf: shape into a ball, gently pressing into shape and smoothing with a little water, then place onto a lined baking tray. To bake in a loaf tin: use half the dough per tin, shape into loaves and place into lined tins. Smooth with wet hands, forming a dome on the top of the dough and not flattening it across the tin. Return any unused dough to container in fridge.
- Wet your hands and pat the top of the loaf to moisten, then sprinkle over some sesame seeds (if desired). Slash the tops with 1/2 cm deep parrallel cuts, using a very sharp knife, or a serrated bread knife. (This isn’t just for looks, it seems to bake better inside if you do this.)
- Allow the loaf to rest, covered with a tea towel. It will need to rest for about an hour and a half, or even 2 hours. (If it hasn’t been refrigerated and you’re using it straight away, it will only need about 40 minutes to rest.) It will rise a little in this time, but it won’t quite double in size like regular bread dough does.
- Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 230 degrees C (450 degrees F), with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. (If you don’t have a baking stone, a Dutch oven/cast-iron pan/heavy pizza tray will do.) Place an empty grill tray or baking pan on the rack underneath.
- Once oven is ready, open oven door and quickly slide the loaf tin or tray directly onto the hot stone, or place round loaf on baking paper into hot Dutch oven/cast iron pan/heavy tray. Quickly pour a cup of hot tap water into the hot grill tray or baking pan underneath bread, and immediately shut the oven door.
- Bake for about 40 minutes for a small loaf, to 1 hour or so for a loaf in a bread tin. Bread should be golden brown all over once done (turn out of tin to check), and bottom of loaf should sound hollow when knocked on with knuckles.
- Allow bread to cool on a rack before slicing. Once sliced, loaves can be frozen, or you can leave bread out on benchtop in airtight container/bag for up to 2 days.
absolutely fantastic. So impressed with the outcome of this bread. THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing
Hi Jo,
I attempted to make this bread (first time at making bread :-/) and it has turned out really runny. It the bucket the key to making it go thick?
Any thoughts?
KR
Michelle
Did you use xanthum gum? You can’t substitute that or it will be runny.
I’ve attempted this recipe and LOVE the taste and texture. I replaced sorghum flour with buckwheat because it’s what I had on hand. My loaves or rounds are quite spread out and flat. Any tips for getting more height? Mine are lovely, topped with jam and things but a little difficult to make a sandwich because they are quite narrow when sliced ???? Thanks for taking the time. Xx
Hi Tamara. I would recommend trying millet flour instead of buckwheat and maybe baking it in a bread tin…This might give you the height you are after. Good luck and let us know how you go:-).
Did this recipe just get updated yesterday? I was making the bread and in between the steps of resting and waiting, the recipe changed! Xanthan gum disappeared from the ingredients and psyllium husks got added! ????????♀️
HI Jeanelle. Yes, we have updated the recipe. Apologies if that was unexpected. There is Note above the recipe saying:
This is the updated version of the recipe – I used to use xanthan gum but have since changed over to psyllium husk milled into a powder instead. Both methods are just fine:-).
Hi Jo, Any tips for making this bread with no yeast? We LIVE off it but cant source yeast atm 🙁
Hi Katherine. I’m afraid you need yeast for this recipe to work:-/. Good luck
Hello! Going to try this tomorrow…do you prefer sorghum or millet, or have you tried a mix of both? Also, I have both psyllium husk and the powder. Have you ever tried using the ground powder? I’ve read that you just halve the amount- ie 4 tablespoons of husk will be 2 of the powder. I have a blender, not a Thermomix.
Hi Jane, both sorghum or millet work great in this recipe. I usually use husks and not the psyllium powder but it should not make a huge difference if using powder instead of husks. Good luck:-)
Hi Jo
How important is the honey in this? My daughter has fructose malabsorbsion.
Hi Allison. I think you could experiment and omit the honey altogether. Let us know how you go:-).Good luck
Hi Jo
Have you tried an egg free substitute version?
Hi Danielle. I am sorry but not yet ;-). Have been very busy with writing my new book so unfortunately not much time for recipe testing but hopefully can get around to it eventually.
This recipe is the best ! Always works and tastes great . I just add nutritional yeast flakes ( 2 tbs) for more flavour . This is the only Gluten free loaf bread that is soft and tasty in my experience, and I’ve tried a lot of recipes . Definitely use white sorghum for taste and I also use arrowroot instead of tapioca and it’s fine . I keep to the old recipe and use xanth gum
Cool! Glad you’re finding this recipe to be so versatile! 🙂
My batch was so runny but I am cooking it anyway. Fingers crossed. If it doesn’t work I’ll try again. About to look into your sour dough starter.
Hi There, I’m using millet flour and my loafs are not as light and fluffy as yours. I’m wondering if I increase the water amount this will help. My loaf is coming our really dense. Lovely toasted but no any good for sandwiches. It’s really heavy. Any advice would be great ????
Hi Megan! The addition of brown rice flour in this recipe is really important to making the bread lighter, (millet flour is a denser flour), which might be a reason they don’t look the same! Hopefully this helps! 🙂
Hi Jo,
Incredible recipe! For some reason however there’s something in the recipe that makes my husband unwell (gastrointestinal issues) and we’re just trying to work out what it is so we can substitute it. Would you have any ideas what a common allergen could be in this recipe?
Thanks so much for your help in advance.
Liz.
Hi Liz. Oh my, I am so sorry to hear that! We are all so different so different foods may cause different issues for people. It could possibly be the eggs, yeast or even psyllium? Good luck and all the best.
Hi Jo, could you substitute any of the flours for almond flour?
You may be able to substitute the millet flour for almond flour, however if you’re looking for a low carb bread recipe then I would suggest the grain free bread formula on the blog! Hope this helps!
I love love this recipe. For a recently new convert to excluding gluten for health benefits – this is by far the best I’ve found. My kiddos love it, but they need to be on a low carb diet and was wondering if anyone knows the carb content for this or any ways to substitute and reduce the carbs?
I would go online and use a nutrition calculator to figure out the carb content for this recipe, however if you want a low carb bread recipe then the grain free bread formula on the blog would be perfect! Hope this helps!
Brilliant, thanks so much Jo!
I made gf artisan bread today and it is the best gf recipe ever! Thank you for the recipe, it’s really easy to make too. Only thing I’ll say is the millet made it a bit bitter so I’d be interested to try it with all rice flour next time.
How much xantham gum to replace 4 tablespoons of psyllium husks?
Just halve the amount when using xanthan gum!
Has anyone tried it with white rice instead of brown rice?
I have so much white rice to use up.
Yes i have! I think it works fine!
Hello I was wondering if the measurements are the same for US metric measurements . I made as US measurements but the dough was extremely loose too loose even after adding more pysillium as mentioned in your recipe . I could not hold in my hand as one blob I had to scoop it into the bread tin. Please advise .
Hi Carolyn, no our measurements here in Australia are not quite the same. For example, and Australian (metric) Tablespoons is 3 teaspoons, so if you’re using an imperial Tablespoon you will be using the equivalent of 1 1/2 Tbsp yeast rather than 2 Tbsp… So you should use an online baking calculator to adjust the measurements to imperial for the best results. Just be aware that gluten-free baking is also not the same as gluten baking – the gluten-free mixture will be wetter and more like a thick batter, whereas regular gluten breads are a pliable dough. This is why you need to use a lined loaf tin, scoop the mixture into the tin (can use a spoon or wet hands) and then wet the surface and smooth with your hands, molding it into a dome shape. It’s also very important to have a very hot oven and a hot pizza/baking stone on the rack, as well as the steam, so that the burst of heat and steam helps the bread to rise. Watch the video for tips as I show in the video how to do this.