Whole Grain Gluten-Free Vegan Bread

I still remember the first time when I was baking this whole grain gluten-free vegan bread, I kept going back to turn on the oven light and peak through the window of the oven door. I was so curious about how this bread would turn out. Would it shrink down to just 1 inch high? Would it be too soft on the inside and too dry on the outside? Would it be too crumbly or too hard to cut? However, I got a loaf of soft and spongy bread with excellent chewy texture, so I bookmarked the recipe and repeated many times later.

If you have ever made gluten-free bread, you’re probably familiar with ending up with a one inch high, dense bread. The lack of gluten in gluten-free (GF) bread dough makes the mixing, kneading, and rising very different than in wheat dough. Because the GF dough is very soft with a cake batter like consistency, kneading is almost impossible. When working with GF bread dough, just mix the wet and dry ingredients together until they are just combined. Because the major leaveners used to lighten the GF dough are gases from the yeast, baking soda, and baking powder; over mixing will make the GF dough loose the many air bubbles that were created by those leaverners. Once they have reacted, they do not create new bubbles. These air bubbles are vital in making a loaf of soft, tall, spongy gluten-free bread.

Over the years, I have made countless gluten-free bread and more recently I found a perfect gluten-free vegan sandwich bread recipe here.  Those awesome pictures on Cara’s site really convinced me to give it a try, but with some modification on the flour mix. I made a few changes such as using 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose baking flour instead of millet flour, corn starch instead of arrowroot powder, ground flax seeds instead of ground chia seeds. I also added 1 tablespoon of ground hemp seeds to increase the protein content in this bread. After baking at 350 °F for 1 hour, I was thrilled to pull this gorgeous golden loaf of bread out of the oven. My kitchen was filled with the smell of freshly baked homey quality bread.

This homemade whole grain gluten-free vegan bread is wonderfully crispy and toasty on the outside, tender and moist on the inside. Toast a slice in your toaster or in your frying pan, then spread butter, homemade jam (check out my recent post  cranberry raspberry sauce), or peanut butter on top; and you won’t be able to stop after one slice.

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Whole Grain Gluten-Free Vegan Bread

Prep Time

25 mins

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

1 hr 25 mins

 

Tools Two mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons, rubber spatula, plastic wrap, 9 inch × 5 inch loaf pan, wire cooling rack.

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

Dry

• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-purpose baking flour
• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free oat flour
• ¼ cup brown rice flour
• ¾ cup tapioca starch
• ¾ cup corn starch
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt

Wet

• 2¼ tsp active dry yeast
• 5 tbs ground flax seeds
• 1 tbs ground hemp seeds
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 cup Silk organic original soy milk use other dairy-free milk if desired
• 3 tbs canola oil
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl combine the warmed soy milk and water. Add yeast, flax seeds, hemp seeds, and sugar. Stir the mixture briefly and let it stand at room temperature until creamy (approximately 10 minutes). This step will allow the yeast to proof and the flax seeds to expand. Add oil and vinegar.
2. Preheat oven at 200 °F. Lightly spray a loaf pan with oil.
3. In another mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a rubber spatula until just combined. The bread dough should be very sticky at this point.
4. Scoop the bread dough into the prepared loaf pan. Press down the dough with greased palm and then tap the loaf pan on the counter gently to ensure there are no gaps and air pocket in the batter. Spray the top of the dough with oil and cover the loaf pan with a piece of oiled plastic wrap.
5. Turn off the oven. Place the loaf pan into the oven and let the dough rise for 40 minutes. At the end of rise process, the dough should rise past the top of the pan.
6. Remove the plastic wrap. Keep the loaf pan on the middle rack in the oven while the oven is preheated to 350 °F. Bake for 60 minutes.
7. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 3 minutes until it can be removed from the pan easily. Cool completely on a wire cooling rack before slicing.