Sandwiches are a staple of our diet. When John first started a gluten free diet we searched through grocery store after grocery store hunting the elusive frozen rice bread that our internet searches indicated should be there. We finally found some and, upon trying it, promptly spit it out. It was horrible! John kept eating it though, because what else is one to do when you don’t know how to cook and your girlfriend is away at grad school.
By the time we married the following year, we had a bread machine and Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Bread Mix. Thus started the four year saga of baking gluten-free bread that was either dense, wet, full of air holes, or incredibly misshapen. At last count we’ve been through three different recipes plus innumerable variations of each when I just couldn’t keep my hands off the recipe (which would be at least 95% of the time). But do not be disheartened – Finally, after four years, I have worked out a recipe that consistently turns out really good sandwich bread. The loaves are definitely of a gluten-free stature (i.e., not that tall), but it’s Good Bread.
Really Good Sandwich Bread
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 ½ c. water (105 degrees or a little less than hot)
2 ½ cups "Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix Recipe"
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1tsp. salt
2 eggs (or 6 Tbsp. water and 2 Tbsp. ground flax seed)
1 ½ Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1. Start by combining the yeast and sugar in a small bowl (I use the smallest in my set of three nested mixing bowls). Add the water while gently stirring the yeast and sugar. Let this mixture sit while you mix the rest of the ingredients – bubbles and foam should form if the yeast is happy.
2. Combine the flour mix, xanthan gum and salt in the largest mixing bowl and stir well.
3. In a third bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and vinegar until the eggs are a bit frothy.
4. By this point the yeast mixture should be foamy, so you can pour the two liquid mixtures into the flour mixture. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed and then dump into your bread machine. Cook on the 80 minute setting – the stirring paddle is not necessary.
I tried this recipe but I added rosemary to the flour mix and it came out delicious. One more way to add flavor to already really good sandwich bread. =)
Ok, I’ve tried this recipe several times now. My son has wheat and egg allergies, so this has been a life changing find. We can have sandwich bread in our house again after more than a year of going without! Thank you for this recipe…awesome! Better than the whole wheat bread I used to buy in the store, and a close second at least to my all time childhood favorite, white Merita bread! I have made it with the rice flour/potato starch/corn starch mix that someone suggested…very good, but I like the combo of rice flour, corn starch, soy flour and potato starch (could not find masa harina) the best. It has wonderful texture, exactly like regular bread. Exactly. What I don’t understand is why commercially prepared GF breads haven’t discovered this combo…it’s really great! Of note, I made with flaxseed meal instead of egg, and also used the oven method. AWESOME!
@ Annette – Arrowhead Mills makes gluten free soy flour.
What a great website!
On Christmas day, when I made regular bread for all of us gluten eaters, I made a loaf of your bread for my friend. She was speechless; she just couldn’t believe that it was gluten-free. I’ve been making her a loaf a week ever since. Even we gluten eaters loved the bread.
I am so glad that I read all of your comments. The tips were wonderful and very helpful.
Mary Frances, your hints about leaving the bread in the oven while rising and then bake from there after it had risen was great. And your hint about letting it cool in the oven with the door open, so as not to allow the bread to go through extreme temperature changes was genius. I have not had a fallen loaf of bread yet. The loaves come out as high as the pan and look picture perfect.
Jodi, your flour mixture is the best. It is inexpensive and easy to find. The best hint that you gave is to let the mixer beat the bread for 4-5 minutes for the best volume and you are right as rain! No small loaves for me.
One last comment, someone mentioned a Gluten Substitute (by OrgraN) that you could use to have more elasticity in the bread. I tried this product and this is what I found:
The directions on how to use the product are not specific. It says: “Simply add 1 part GfG (product) to 5 parts of gluten free flour…” It gives examples that put you in the ball park of what you need. I finally figured out that I needed to add between 1/3 to 1/2 Cup of product to my recipe. It also doesn’t mention that you should add a little more water to the batter. I added about 1/8 Cup (+/-) water. The dough was very thick and sticky, but it came out great. The slices had more elasticity and held together very well. I also didn’t need to mix the bread as long – maybe 3-4 minutes top.
I can recommend this product whole heartedly and without reservation. It does a nice job and the added cost is only about $1.50 more to the bread, which is still way cheaper than commercial non-gluten bread.
However, I can say that using your recipe with Jodi’s flour mixture and the extra beating, you really can do without the product if you would rather keep the cost of the bread down to a bare minimum.
Thanks for all of your help.
I am looking forward to trying the sandwich bread recipe, am wondering how long to bake in oven?
Thanks for making the infomration available!
After 8 years any many disappointing loaves of g.f. bread, I can say that I think this ‘really good sandwich bread’ has given me some hope. As I read the comments and some said beat the batter for 3 or 4 min. the light bulb went on in my head. I did use 3 eggs and beat the batter before pouring it into regular oven pans and could tell that something was right about it. No gooey middle after baking – very, very light texture that didn’t crumble at all. How exciting. Only snag is bland flavor which can be fixed. Next I’ll try a little more salt and sugar or add garlic, basil… I found cinn. and sugar as well as prune butter the best stuff to put on so far and rubbing on garlic with some cheese melted good too. To one batch I made three 7″ loaves. One slice is about a half slice of real bread. Next time I’ll use little bigger pans and make 2. Not worried about wet inside. I think they baked 375 for 20-25min. I’ll be taking the recipe and samples to our next celiac meeting. So many sad breads out there!!! and adults and children are stuck with them – and NOT cheap!! Many thanks for all the experimenting and sharing.
This bread is awesome! I’m newly diagnosed with wheat gluten allergies and have only tried a couple of bread mixes before and this a million times better. I added 4 Tbs. of powdered milk for more protein and my bread machine doesnt have an 80 minute cycle either. I used the lowest setting, which let it rise for 90 minutes, then baked it on the lowest possible setting, which was about 50 minutes and it turned out perfect! Thanks to whoever originally posted this recipe, I couldnt be more grateful!!
Help! I don’t have a bread machine. What’s the oven method?
I made this yesterday. And we love love love this bread. This will be my everyday recipe for now on. Thank you very much. I’ll be making this for now on. Can’t wait to try your other recipes. Thanks!
Super work. You have got a recent regular reader. Please maintain the great writings and I look forward to more of your gripping updates.
Just tried this recipe over the weeken and let me tell you it was great. Bakes like regular bread, texture like regular bread, freezes like regular bread must be regular bread – NOT. Like the others I have tried many recipes and none of them can compare to this one. Thank you
My sister and I suffered also with the GF breads in the stores. Then one day at the Whole Foods store in Kansas City, KS my sister found a GF bread from Udi’s out of Denver Colorado. My sister froze and then sent me 2 loaves, one white and one multi grain. They arrived on my birthday and I immediately made a sandwhich, called my sister and thanked her for the best birthday gift ever! They make muffins also.
This was my first attempt at making gluten free bread, and it came perfect! I used millet and buckwheat flour, which is what I usually use for pancakes, but there was a slight bitter aftertaste. I’m wondering what flour combinations others use? I don’t care for bean flours, nor do I like the gritty texture of rice flour. Any other suggestions without watering down the nutrition too much?
I made this bread in a bread machine. I followed it to the letter, however, this bread came out dense, dry and crumbling (like dry corn bread). The instructions in the back of the manual for gf bread suggested dough cyle and then the bake cycle because they didn’t have an 80 minute cycle. Does anyone have an idea where I went wrong?
I made this bread for my gluten-free wife and daughter yesterday. They loved it!!
I love this bread too but the crust gets hard and my 7 year old doesnt like that ( I prefer it). So I just want to tell you all that I found a recipe that is similar to this bread but has a SOFT OUTSIDE and stays SOFT and doesn’t crumble. I made this other bread 6 days ago and it still is soft sitting on my counter in a zip lock bread (it’s almost gone). I am so happy with this bread because I can make my daughter a sandwich in her lunch!!!!
here is the link http://glutenfreebay.blogspot.com/2007/02/gluten-free-bread-that-just-might-make.html
Also there is a link in the comments, its also posted here
http://www.recipezaar.com/217139
I still love this bread but the other is for someone that likes a softer bread.
I tried this recipe today. While I wasn’t crazy about the taste of it alone, I really liked it as a sandwich bread. This is really the first bread I have liked since I went gluten free a month ago. Spent the last 6+ years not knowing why my joints hurt so bad. Docs said I had psoriatic arthritis. Gluten free has freed me from that pain.
THANK YOU!!!! I’ve never made bread before, but once my hubby got diagnosed with celiac, i knew i had to because the store bought kinds are GROSS. This bread is DELISH!!
I used a bread machine on a basic, 3 hour setting. I mixed the egg/oil/vinegar in a bowl, poured into maker. I blended the dry ingredients, then dumped that into the maker, and finally i poured the yeast/sugar mix on top (I did mix the yeast and water together first to give it time to foam up, also, i used the quickrise rapid yeast)
My hubby ATE IT UP!!! Thank you so, SO much for sharing!
One question-will this bread be ok left in the pantry instead of refrigerating? I think he’ll go through about a loaf a week, but didn’t know if it would go bad if kept room temp.
Hello. I was recently found to be allergic to gluten. Since I’m a bread junkie, I found this website and recipe and decided to give it a whirl. My end result was extremely strange. After 40 minutes in the oven I had to yank the bread as it had risen to about 8 inches tall!!! It was like the elephant man of bread! Due to the weight, the bread collapsed in on one side. I don’t know what went wrong? Here is EXACTLY what I did.
1. I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour.
2. I was afraid that my water wasn’t warm enough to activate the yeast, so I microwaved the mixture of yeast, sugar, and water for about 40 seconds and then let it sit. It developed a layer of foam so I assume that it was “proofed.”
3. I didn’t use cider vinegar, but distilled white vinegar from corn.
4. I used 3 eggs.
5. I mixed all ingredients with a hand mixer on high for about a minute or two.
6. I followed a recommendation from one of the comments and used my oven to let the dough rise. The lowest temp that my oven has is 170 degrees. After 20 minutes the dough had risen to the level of the top of the pan so I turned it up to 375 and set my timer for 1 hr.
Like I said, when I checked on my bread after 40 minutes it had risen up SUPER high and toppled over the the left. I grabbed it of the oven and after a minute I noticed that one side was caving in due to the weight and how it had toppled over. I sliced off the top and sort of managed to salvage it (sort of).
It looks nothing like the pictures here. It’s super fluffy, VERY tall, and has as bubbly consistency. The taste is alright…maybe a bit sour and/or yeasty? What could I have done wrong???
Will be trying this without xanthan gum which has msg effect, (it’s proccessing frees glutamate acid)
Anyone trying this bread avoiding msg?
Will the bread turn out ok if I use Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour instead of the flour mix recommended? Also, is this right for the oven directions: Let bread rise till it reaches top of pan in warm oven and then turn oven to 375 for 60 min, then let sit in oven 10 min w/oven off. Also, how full do I fill the bread pans? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Shawna. I used Bob’s Red Mill instead of the recommended flour. I tried it AGAIN this weekend and it did not turn out well again. I don’t like the flavor, and the loaf rose really, REALLY tall in the oven (I even cut the yeast by half) and then it totally caved in.
You do have the oven directions correct, although I would recommend checking on the rising of the bread in the warm over every 15 minutes and then checking periodically while you are baking. I had to pull mine out of the oven after 45 minutes.
I posted earlier as well about the problems I’ve been having with this bread. If anybody has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise I’m going to bail on this recipe as it is not working for me.
All I can say is thanks sooo much Mary Frances and Jodi for this recipe as well as all variations!!!
***Elke
I can imagine that you are frustrated but please don’t bail on this recipe…I would actually suggest following the exact recipe (including flour mix) before trying any substitutions and then experiment from there. FYI different flours have different results, and varying flavors, also vinegars. I also noted that you mixed for only 1-2 mins? The suggested time given was more like 4-5 mins. Not sure about the yeast…I always use a thermometer to check the temp of my water.