Hearty and “wheaty” tasting, this gluten free brown bread recipe is sure to be a family favorite. It couldn’t be easier, and you don’t need a bread machine!
A good, hearty gluten free bread with a thick but soft crust is way harder to find than it should be. By the way, who are these children who don’t eat crusts?
I’m pretty sure that my kid would eat your kid’s crusts. Especially if they came from this bread. Hearty and “wheat-y” with just the right amount of molasses and whole grain teff, this gluten free bread is sure to be a fast favorite.
Batter-Style Gluten Free Breads
When my son first started eating gluten free in 2004, we mail-ordered gluten free bread from Canada. That wasn’t because it was so good we couldn’t help ourselves. It was just all there was.
Five years later, in 2009, I stumbled upon a recipe that was known as “Tom’s Bread” on the Internet. I think I first found it in an online chat room, although I simply can’t recall where that would have been. That was back in the days when the “gluten free listserv” was the best (and nearly only) source of gluten free product information out there.
Tom’s Bread is a batter-style bread that I believe Tom himself maintains was the product of divine intervention. It relies heavily on garbanzo bean flour, a flour I now find truly repulsive unless it’s in, say, hummus. But it also was prescient in its use of equal amounts of cornstarch and tapioca flour.
And Tom’s bread was a batter-style gluten free bread. A couple years later, I would go on to develop the recipe for Gluten Free White Sandwich Bread that was published in my first cookbook. It relies upon a rice flour blend (no bean flour!), but it’s also a batter-style gluten free bread. That recipe, from the second edition of my very first cookbook, is still a family favorite.
These bread doughs are made in a mixer and resemble cookie dough. The dough is very, very wet, and can’t be shaped in the way conventional bread doughs are shaped. Until I wrote Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread, that was the only sort of gluten free bread recipe I had ever heard of.
Even though I am still asked about it from time to time, I maintain that bread machines are a waste of money. They vary a ton from brand to brand, and one recipe will work well in one machine and not in another. Plus, the machines are crazy expensive and make an odd-shaped loaf.
These batter-style bread recipes still work. And this hearty gluten free brown bread recipe, a batter-style bread, is no exception. They have only one rise, and they tend to rise quickly because the dough is super wet. High hydration means that yeast grows readily.
In fact, most recipes for gluten free bread that you’ll find elsewhere on the Internet (and in cookbooks that aren’t, well, mine), are in this style. I hadn’t made one of these recipes in years—and then I started working on the second edition of my very first cookbook.
They don’t have the yeasty taste that you get from a slow refrigerator rise, and they don’t have the same chew. But they make a lovely sandwich. And they’re a great starting place if you’re hesitant to make yeast bread (gluten free or otherwise). And this gluten free brown bread recipe even has some real depth of flavor because of the addition of oat flour, whole grain teff and molasses. If you’re looking for some tips and tricks on baking gluten free bread, have a look at my Top Ten Secrets To Baking The Best Gluten Free Bread.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Except where I’ve specifically indicated that I’ve tried the substitution, these pearls are just my best educated guesses about how to satisfy other dietary needs beyond just being gluten free. My recipes are only reliably gluten free, by design, and not free of everything. So take this information in the spirit in which it’s offered—and do your own experimentation!
Dairy-Free: It’s easy to make this recipe dairy free. Just replace the butter in the recipe with either butter-flavored Spectrum nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening or Earth Balance buttery sticks. And use any unflavored, unsweetened nondairy milk (as long as it isn’t nonfat). Done!
Egg-Free: There are two egg whites in this recipe, but I’ve also successfully made it with one whole egg. That leads me to believe that you could make it with one “chia egg” instead. A chia egg is 1 tablespoon chia flour mixed with 1 tablespoon lukewarm water and allowed to sit until it gels.
Oat-Free: That’s always a tough one. Maybe try replacing the oat flour with sorghum?
Whole Grain Teff: This recipe calls for whole grain teff, not teff flour. I have wondered whether it would work with teff flour, though. And whether whole grain teff could be replaced with, say, chia seeds. I bet it could!
Click Play ▶️ Below And Watch Me Make This Easy Gluten Free Bread
Then it’s your turn!
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
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Hi I’m abit confused my naturopath has told me that oats contain gluten but your calling them gluten free rolled oats?? So do oats contain gluten or not? Thankyou
Hi, Maria, certified gluten free oats are gluten free. I have a whole post on whether oats are gluten free. Please see that!
Hi Nicole! I bought your book Gluten free on a shoestring bakes bread. I made the sourdough starter and then mother but I accidentally used pectin with dextrose in it! Have I completely ruined the mother and the soft sourdough pretzels that are currently rising ? 😔 I really hope not.
I’m afraid I’m not terribly optimistic, Agneta, since anything other than pure powdered pectin introduces a ton of other ingredients into the mixture. If your wild yeast starter grew, though, hopefully you can get away with it but I would definitely get the proper ingredients for the future!
I cant wait to try this out. I love playing with recipies and trying new things.
Im pretty new to all this GF stuff and am just feeling my way thru
I think Id like to try making these in a large muffing tin, too, at some point for use as a hamburger bun. My family loves hamburgers and I am far to ‘thrifty’ to pay $1.00 + each for them! I may have to play around with it a bit and I have one of those tins that makes muffing tops so I may try that first.
My stand mixer does not have a paddle attachment, nor is one available for my model (Sunbeam). Would this recipe work using regular beaters?
That’s always a tough one, Dorothy. I’m reluctant to say to use the beaters, as they’ll add a lot more air to the dough/batter. Maybe just try making it by hand, and mixing it very, very well (and quickly)?
Could flax( ground or unground) be used in place of whole grain teff.
I really don’t recommend using flax, Lois, as it has a very, very strong taste that would easily overwhelm. That’s the same reason I don’t recommend it as an egg substitute.
Hi Nicole
Thank you for your amazing recipes and for working our amazing gf recipes and food. I am from South Sfrica. We do not get refs here, can you suggest a substitute please? I will have to use a bread machine as I do not have an oven. Hope the it comes out just as well.
Much appreciation
I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean by “refs,” Vanessa, but I’ve provided a ton of ingredient and substitution information in the post itself—including my perspective on bread machines. That’s all the advice I have!
Hi Nicole,
Where can I get ‘better batter’ and ‘teff’ from in the UK? I’ve never heard of it but guess it must be readily available somewhere,
Thanks Simon
Hi Nicole, are you able to help with my previous questions?, thanks Simon
Teff is a whole grain. Just do a quick google search and you’ll find out all about it! Better Batter is a flour blend available in the U.S. that I highly recommend, but please click through to the flour page that is linked to in the recipe, Simon, and you’ll find everything you need to know about how to build your own flour blend that is just like Better Batter—or one of my other favorite blends.
I’m excited to try this, and I was also chuckling at your “beginnings” because they were exactly ours: daughter diagnosed in 2003, desperate to find anything that resembled bread, scouring the “listserv” for the Tom’s recipe….it’s like you were living with us! ;-) Thanks for making being GF look simple these days — we know it wasn’t always that way! Wishing you continued success!
Oh my gosh, Caroline, you remember Tom’s bread?! I was so excited about that, and I’m afraid now it would turn my stomach. :(
Could I substitute coconut milk or rice milk? I can’t have cow or goat milk.
Please see the post, Judy! I review substitutions there.
I made this bread to day I followed your recipe as stated and waited til it had gone cold to slice .I have to say it’s the best brown bread that’s gluten free that I have ever made it’s really delicious ,I am sure I will be making it again . I didn’t have oat flour just oats so I used my food processor to bring it down .Thank you for the recipe
I never buy oat flour, Desley! I’m too cheap for that. I always spin oats in the food processor. :) So glad you loved the bread!
I followed the recipe to the letter, weighing everything and your recipe for Better Batter flour. It raised and baked beautifully. Fell almost immediately when I put it on the cooling rack. It tasted so good! I just wished I could get GF bread to stop falling when it comes out of the oven. It tastes so much better than anything I’ve bought.
That’s usually due to a too-hot oven, Millie. The outside rises and bakes very quickly before the inside has a chance to provide enough support. So when it comes out of the oven, it falls as it cools. You need an oven thermometer!
I made it today and it turned out great. The loaf looks and tastes wonderful. And so EASY! I used teff flour because that’s what I had on hand.
Hi, Debbie,
I had a feeling ground teff would work, too. Thanks for letting us know! And I’m so glad it worked out so well. 🙂
Could I use an equal amount of teff flour in place of whole teff?
Is there a substitute for the oat flour? Thanks.
Please see the section on ingredients and substitutions in the post, Elle!
Could I make this is in a bread machine?
As I state in the post, Deb, I don’t recommend use of a bread machine. They all work quite differently, from brand to brand, and they make an odd-shaped loaf.
Will this recipe work in bread machine on the gf setting?
As I state in the post, Barbara, I don’t recommend use of a bread machine. They all work quite differently, from brand to brand, and they make an odd-shaped loaf.
What is it about the KAF GF flour blend that makes it inappropriate for bread recipes? That’s the blend I have on hand, and I normally have good luck when using it for things, but don’t want to use it on this bread recipe if it doesn’t work well for bread. I’m pretty new to GF, so I don’t know enough to weigh why Better Batter would work well for bread but the KAF stuff wouldn’t. Help?
Hi, Lene,
I’m not entirely sure about all the science behind it, but it won’t work for GF yeast bread, I’m afraid. If you’d like to know more, try contacting Better Batter directly at contact@betterbatter.org.
xoxo Nicole