Gluten Free Bread Recipe - Easy Soft Gluten Free Sandwich Bread (2024)

My Gluten Free Bread Recipe makes the perfect soft, tall gluten-free sandwiches.

This recipe is super easy. It uses no weird ingredients and doesn't require any mixing of different flours and starches together. I simply use a high-quality gluten-free all-purpose flour mix as the base, as well as yeast. Instead of paying $6-7+ for a loaf of dry gluten-free bread at my local grocery store, I can make this bread for around $1.50 a loaf or less. That's some serious savings when added up over time, especially if several people in your house are gluten-free.

Plus, there's just something fulfilling about making a loaf of bread.

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What Can I Make With Homemade Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread?

• Sandwiches. (The obvious choice here.) Make your traditional lunchmeat sandwiches, PB&J's, egg and cheese sandwiches, or your favorite sandwich recipe.
• Toast it. Eat with butter and cinnamon sugar, cream cheese, or jams/jellies. You can also toast it or use a panini press for a hot sandwich. (My favorite way to use this bread is making toasted sandwiches, especially after the bread has been frozen and thawed.)
• French toast or French toast sticks. French toast would work best with fresh bread that has been sitting out at room temperature for 1-2 days, not frozen and thawed bread.
• Grilled Cheese.

• Homemade Croutons. I haven't tried this bread in my croutons recipe yet, but I will let you know as soon as I have.
• Breadcrumbs. Though I haven't tried it, I think this bread would be wonderful sprinkled over baked mac-and-cheese. If trying this bread as breadcrumbs: I recommend sticking to recipes that involve baking time with the breadcrumbs on top, so that they will become crispy. I'm not sure how the bread would hold up in something like a meatball since that would introduce a lot of moisture.

What Kind of Loaf Pan Should I Use to Bake Gluten Free Bread?

Gluten-free bread loaves are typically a little bit smaller and don't rise as tall as wheat bread. To ensure that your bread turns out to be an optimal size, I recommend using a 9x5 or 9x4 size loaf pan. Any larger than these sizes (especially in length) and your bread could turn out short, which would be hard to make a sandwich with.

I use the loaf pan from Rachel Ray's Nonstick Bakeware Set. It's a 9x5. The bread comes out of this pan with no problems, all I have to do is turn the pan on its side and wiggle the bread out. (I don't even watch Rachel Ray, I just like these pans.)

This small Pullman pan is a 9x4, perfect for making taller breads.

How to Make My Gluten Free Bread Recipe:

Making the Bread Batter:

• Prepare a 9x5 loaf pan by greasing the bottom and halfway up the sides with butter or cooking spray.
• Using the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a large bowl, combine GF flour, yeast, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. I use a handheld electric mixer.
• Add in eggs, vegetable oil, honey, and warm water. Mix on low until just combined.
• Turn speed to medium and mix for 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl every so often. This helps air bubbles get into the dough, making for a soft crumb. The batter should be a little thicker than a cake batter consistency.
• Pour the bread batter into the prepared loaf pan. Use a silicone spatula to smooth the top of the bread until even.

Rising:

• Cover the loaf pan in plastic wrap. Tip: You can spray the underside of the plastic wrap with cooking spray to prevent sticking.
• Set the loaf pan in a warm place to rise for 45-60 minutes. I place mine right by the oven, underneath some lights that I know tend to give off a little heat.

Baking:

• Around the 40-minute mark, preheat the oven to 350 F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
• Remove plastic wrap and bake the bread for a total of 40-45 minutes, until the bread's internal temperature reads 205 degrees. I just stuck a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the bread, nothing fancy. Around the halfway mark once the bread is golden, tent a piece of foil loosely around the top of the bread to stop it from browning.

Cooling & Slicing:

• Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool for about 5 minutes in the pan before removing it to a wire cooling rack.

• Cool the bread completely, about 3 hours, before slicing with a bread knife. Serve. Important: Read more about the storage of the bread below.

You can slice the bread at any thickness you prefer. I like to keep my slices relatively thick, about 1-inch. I got 16 1-inch slices from one loaf.

How to Store my Gluten Free Bread Recipe:

Storage of gluten-free bread is super important. Gluten-free bread loaves dry out/become stale much faster than wheat loaves because of the lack of gluten. Gluten adds structure to bread and helps to keep them moist and tender.

Since gluten-free bread dries out fast, I recommend making one loaf at a time. Or, a max of two if you have a medium-to-large family. Only make what you can eat within a few days. Since baking bread is already a process anyway, I recommend planning to eat the homemade gluten-free bread in a certain order. This helps optimize the freshness of the bread.

First of all, never store homemade gluten-free bread in the refrigerator. The slices will become dry and may even become crumbly.

I recommend two different orders of methods for storing this bread:

Method One - Room temperature and Rolling With It:

• On Day 1/Baking Day: Plan a meal where you can eat the bread after it has completely cooled (about 5-6 hours from when you started mixing the ingredients). It would be a shame to not eat the bread on the first day because this is when it is at its optimal softness and texture. Only slice what you and your family are going to eat on this day, and leave the rest of the bread as a loaf. Store the remainder of the unsliced loaf in a bread box or airtight container at room temperature. The first day is the best day for cold sandwiches.

• On Day 2: The bread will be firmer and a little drier than on Day 1, especially the outer piece that air may have touched. Cold sandwiches will still work, but today toasted sandwiches/grilled cheese/etc. are the most optimal way to use this bread. Tip: I do not use a toaster - I don't even own one. I prefer to use a frying pan or panini press. Be sure to slather butter on the outside of the bread when toasting, as this re-introduces moisture to the crumb, making any dryness undetectable. If you have more than half of a loaf left, you may want to cut and freeze some slices.
• On Day 3: The bread will likely be much firmer than on Day 2. This is the best day for French toast/French toast sticks. A toasted sandwich should still also be good. Plan to eat most of the bread on this day. If you have any left on Day 4, you could try French toast again. If you do have bread left on day 4, I recommend to next time freeze slices on Day 1 while the bread is fresh to prevent any waste.

Method Two - Freeze & Eat As You Please:

• On Day 1/Baking Day: Plan a meal where you can eat the bread after it has completely cooled (about 5-6 hours from when you started mixing the ingredients). It would be a shame to not eat the bread on the first day because this is when it is at its optimal softness and texture. The first day is the best day for cold sandwiches. Slice all of the bread, and freeze what you don't plan to use today in a gallon bag. I freeze it by the slice so I can just grab two when I want them. I recommend not stacking the bread on top of one another, but stacking them a little bit off of one another. This prevents them from freezing together and needing to be pulled apart.

• On a day when you want a slice(s) of bread: Remove it from the freezer and allow it to thaw at room temperature on a plate for 30-45 minutes. Frozen and thawed homemade bread has a slightly different texture than when fresh. Like the store-bought kind, it is a little bit drier and crumbly. I find that the best way to use frozen and thawed homemade bread is by toasting it. I make toasted sandwiches instead of cold. I always slather butter on the outside of my bread when toasting to re-introduce moisture into the bread, helping it become tender. Cold sandwiches still taste good and better than store-bought, but the bread sometimes tends to crumble in a few spots as you eat the sandwich. That problem is eliminated when toasted in a frying pan with butter. Tip: I do not use a toaster - I don't even own one. I prefer to use a frying pan or panini press.

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