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Warm and gooey gluten free Nutella bread, filled with everyone's favorite hazelnut spread. Braided for a gorgeous presentation, it's dressed to impress!
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This gorgeous braided gluten free Nutella bread is a true delight for the senses. And since I imagine you're wondering, yes. Nutella is gluten free.
Making this fancy-looking yeast bread, though, isn't actually any harder than making gluten free pinwheel cookies, for example. If you can roll dough into a cylinder, you can make this bread.
The main difference in method (other than a yeasted bread rise, of course!) is that, once the dough is rolled into a cylinder, it's sliced in half right down the middle. Working with cold dough will make that a snap. You must use our gluten free bread flour blend, though.
I have to confess that I'm not even the type to ever eat (or even think of eating) Nutella right from a spoon or anything. I'm not above it, but I just don't crave it.
Even so, this lightly sweet, tender bread, twirled around and around to create perfectly thin layers of Nutella, made a believer out of me.
It's not even a true “braid.” If you're concerned that you aren't great at braiding a small girl's hair, you can't make this bread, worry not! I can't do anything other than a simple braid, and this braid is more of a twist.
There are only 3 grams of instant yeast (1 teaspoon) in the whole loaf. And the final rise is really more of a swelling, and not a doubling rise.
We don't want the dough to rise high high high and lose its shape. Think of this more like a Danish than a loaf of bread.
RELATED GLUTEN FREE BREAD RECIPES:
Gluten Free Chocolate Pull-Apart Bread
Gluten Free Vanilla Swirl BreadGluten Free King Cake for Mardi Gras
Braided Gluten Free Nutella Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups (420 g) Gluten Free Bread Flour, plus more for sprinkling
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon (3 g) instant yeast
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) kosher salt
- ⅔ cup (5 ⅓ fluid ounces) warm milk, (about 95°F)
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- ⅓ cup (100 g) Nutella hazelnut spread, warmed
- Egg wash, for brushing (1 egg + 1 tablespoon water, beaten well)
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, place the flour, cream of tartar, instant yeast and sugar, and use a handheld whisk to combine well. Add the salt and whisk to combine well.
- Add the milk, eggs and butter, and mix on low speed with the dough hook until combined.
- Raise the mixer speed to medium and knead for about 5 minutes. The dough is a lovely, smooth, enriched dough. It climbs up the dough hook during kneading but remains intact and smooth.
- Spray a silicone spatula lightly with cooking oil spray, and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or proofing bucket large enough for the dough to rise to double its size, spray the top of the dough with cooking oil spray, and cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap (or the oiled top to your proofing bucket).
- Place the dough in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours and up to 3 days.
Preparing the dough for shaping.
- On baking day, line a small rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper, and set it aside.
- Turn out the chilled dough onto a lightly floured surface and, using the scrape and fold kneading method and using a very light touch, sprinkle the dough with more flour and knead it lightly, sprinkling with flour when necessary to prevent it from sticking, scrape the dough off the floured surface with a floured bench scraper, then fold it over on itself.
- Repeat scraping and folding until the dough has become smoother. Do not overwork the dough or you will incorporate too much flour and it will not rise properly.
Rolling out and filling the dough.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick, and 12-inches high x 15-inches wide, sprinkling very lightly with more bread flour as necessary to prevent sticking. As you work, shift and move the dough frequently, as shown in my pizza shaping video.
- Before the dough is fully shaped, transfer it to lightly greased piece of unbleached parchment paper.
- You will use the parchment paper to help roll the dough into a cylinder.
- Dust off any excess flour from the surface of the rectangle facing up (this will help the Nutella adhere to the dough), and spread the warmed Nutella in an even layer on the dough, leaving a 3/4-inch border clean around the perimeter. Beginning at a 15-inch side of the dough, and using the parchment paper to assist you, roll the filled dough tightly into a cylinder, like a jelly roll, ending with the seam side down.
- Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to chill for about 10 minutes. This will make the final shaping infinitely easier.
Final shaping and rise.
- Once the dough has finished chilling, remove it from the refrigerator and uncover it.
- With a very sharp knife or pizza wheel, beginning about 1-inch from one end of the roll of dough, slice along the length of the dough all the way through to the end. You will have 2 strands of layered dough. Beginning at the intact end, twist each strand gently so that the cut sides of the dough are facing up.
- Braid the strands gently but securely back and forth over one another until you reach the end. You should have 4 or 5 twists before you reach the end. Cinch the open ends together and tuck them under the bread slightly.
- Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet. Place one hand on each end of the braid, and press the ends gently toward one another to create a slightly wider, shorter braid. This will help the braid rise together and adhere to create a nice loaf.
- Cover the baking sheet with a piece of oiled plastic wrap, and place in warm, draft-free location to rise only until just beginning to swell (about 20 minutes, but it could be more if your rising environment is particularly cold and/or dry). Do not overproof.
Bake.
- As the dough is in its final rise, preheat your oven to 375°F. Once the dough has finished rising, uncover it, brush the surface evenly with the egg wash, and place in the center of the preheated oven.
- Bake for 10 minutes, and turn the oven temperature down to 350°F. Continue to bake until the dough is golden brown all over (about 15 minutes more).
- If you would like the Nutella to remain a bit gooey, remove from the oven when the dough is brown on top, but still gives very slightly when pressed on top.
- Otherwise, bake until the top is firmer to the touch (about 5 additional minutes).
- Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Slice and serve when still slightly warm.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
All I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!! This is the most amazing thing I have ever baked and I consider myself a very good baker both pre and post GF. This is in its own world! My 6 yr old, not GF son who gets to eat all sorts of amazing gluteny goodies told my that this bread “pushed all the other stuff into second place” (thanks Olympics). Since I can’t look at a swirled pastry and not think ‘cinnamon’ I sprinkled brown sugar mixed with cinnamon and a little nutmeg over the whole Nutella spread before rolling. The result is like an oversized chocolate rugela. I even took several pics of my gorgeous masterpiece!!! Nicole, this is one of your very best! Thx:)
Love it, Heather! That’s pretty much a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one. :)
I am allergic to wheat, corn, milk, soy and yeast. I have your book and am drooling. Doesn’t xanthan gum derive from corn? Can I use guar gum instead?Can I use gluten free baking powder instead of yeast? Can I use rice milk? Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Can xylitol be substituted for the sugar?
I just got this out of the oven. I made it dairy-free and used Doves Farm gluten-free brown bread flour (I am in the UK) and left if for an hour and a half to proove. I can’t wait overnight! It is rather messier than yours but as a first attempt at anything like this I am impressed! The picture is taken on my phone camera so doesn’t do it justice…but at the moment all I have since my camera broke! Thank you!
Going to make the dough up Friday so I can bake this Saturday… is it Friday yet? Or Saturday for that matter. Can’t wait to devour it :)
I can’t wait for you to make it, Nicole!
Hi Nicole, can I use plain GF flour?
Valerie, no you cannot. You must make the recipe as written for it to work.
I am sitting here waiting for the delivery of my whey protein isolate from Amazon. It is supposed to come today. I got my Expandex already. I just purchased the Kindle version of your book and I can’t wait to try your recipes.
This looks like the greatest thing on earth, and I am finally giving in and ordering some expandex and whey protein isolate because I HAVE to make it! And PS – I hope a danish really is next!! :)
PB with melted, homemade chocolate would be delicious! Thank you so much for the idea. I am going to try it!
Sounds like a plan, Julia!
Do you have any ideas about replacing the Nutella with a healthier substitute? I am gluten sensitive and highly sensitive to MSG and other toxic chemicals. There are A LOT of chemicals and MSG in Nutella (AKA – skim milk, whey, natural flavors, vanillin). But this bread looks so good! It would be awesome to be able to make it with all healthy ingredients. Thanks!
I can’t have dairy and was thinking about a substitute for Nutella myself. I would aim for replicating the texture and sweetness. My thought was possibly some Justin’s almond-chocolate butter thinned out a bit. Or some natural PB (which is generally fairly runny) mixed with some melted chocolate?
What about artisana coconut bliss with some added oil…
I was wondering about a Nutella replacement also, but this is because 1. I really dislike the taste of Nutella and 2. It is made from hazelnuts and one of my children has a nut allergy. The bread looks so good and I really want to try it but can’t as written (and I’m not one of those that can look in my pantry and magically find a substitute…and I am secretly jealous of those who can. ha ha ha).
There is a chocolate Tahini spread with Greek honey that I have been wanting to try as a replacement for the Nutella in many of Nicole’s recipes, (since we are dairy free also). Since it is a bit pricey I have not broken down yet, but this bread may have pushed me over the edge! It is found in the “ethnic” or world food aisle in my local grocery store(Meijer). I think it would have a similar creamy, rich, chocolatey taste.
That spread sounds really interesting, Sherry.