Gluten free oat bread
Gluten free or wheat free (see notes) vegan option, egg free, xanthan gum free*This recipe uses Australian tablespoons which are 20ml as opposed to the more common 15ml. Use ml measurement or use 4 teaspoons (which are 5ml each) instead of 1 X 15ml tablespoon.
Equipment
- 1 X USA Pan Small Pullman pan (10cm X 10cm X 22cm or 9 x 4 x 4 inches)
Ingredients
- 450 g oat flour freshly ground from wheat free/gluten free rolled oats (see notes)
- 150 g tapioca flour/starch
- 25-40 g psyllium husk powder (see notes)
- 30-40 g gluten free baking powder (see notes)
- 8-12 g fine salt (see notes)
- 300 g plain thick Greek yoghurt or coconut yoghurt
- 20 ml (1 tablespoon)* oil of choice I used olive oil
- 20 ml (1 tablespoon)* liquid sweetener of choice I used maple syrup
- 400 g water (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Grease and line a USA pan Pullman pan in size small. Allow the baking paper to drape over the long edges of the pan to use as handles later. I pin the baking paper in place with bulldog clips so that it doesn’t slip around as I add the bread dough later.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the yoghurt, oil and maple syrup and stir it to disperse. Start whisking vigorously as you add the water. The dough firms up quickly and everything needs to be combined before it does (as the dough is firm and sticky, which makes it very annoying to combine by hand if there is dry flour left). Adding more water will make for a loaf that is too wet, so we need to use it sparingly (particularly on your first bake, see the hydration notes in the body of the post for more information).
- Once the dough has been thoroughly combined, it should be sticky and hold its shape in the bowl. If you were to pick up a chunk and drop it back into the bowl, it should pretty much retain the shape it was in. With that said, the dough should be not excessively stiff or have any dry bits in the bowl or the dough. Oat flour is quite tricky to hydrate as it absorbs a lot of water but doesn’t need much for a hydrated loaf. Getting the hydration perfect for your flour might need a bit of trial and error.
- When your dough is mixed through and you have achieved the right consistency, scoop all of the dough into your prepared bread pan using a spatula. Wet your hands and use them to moisten and flatten the top of the bread, squishing it down to ensure it is evenly distributed in the bread tin. If you used them to secure the baking paper, remove the bulldog clips.
- Place the bread into the oven for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown and domed on the top. How domed will depend on how much liquid and how much baking powder you use.
- After about 5 minutes, carefully lift the bread from the baking tin and onto a wire cooling rack. Allow to mostly cool before slicing. If the bread crumb balls up as you slice it, it needs to cool more before you continue. The crumb sets as the loaf cools, so it needs time to completely set.
- The bread keeps relatively well on the bench for a day or two, but in warm weather I would recommend keeping it in an airtight container in the fridge. Personally, I prefer to slice it and freeze it, then toast the bread straight from frozen.
Notes
- Oats are not considered gluten free in Australia. Red Tractor brand makes wheat free oats which are oats that have been grown and packaged in wheat free conditions. Oats are considered gluten free in other countries, so do what works for you.
- You need to use rolled oats here, not quick oats or any other sort of oat product.
- I grind my oat flour myself in a NutriBullet. I generally let it process for one cycle, open the lid for 2-3 minutes to allow any steam to escape, then process for another cycle.
- A lovely reader informed me that commercial oat flour has a different absorbency level to homemade oat flour because rolled oats are steamed, which gelatinises the starches (like a scald). I have not tested this recipe with store bought oat flour - I will at some point, but for now I recommend making your own oat flour for success.
- You can use anywhere from 25-40g psyllium husk powder in this bread. 25g makes the bread slightly easier to mix up as it takes a little longer to absorb all the liquid. However, 40g makes the loaf a lot easier to slice once baked. It also adds extra fibre to the bread.
- You can use 30-40g baking powder. 40g makes for a slightly taller loaf, but I personally can start to taste a little hint of baking powder at 40g. Experiment and see what works for you.
- The more baking powder you use, the less salt you should use (if you don't like things too salty). I personally love a salty loaf and think it works well here, but drop the salt back a little if you know you don't like it too salty.
- You can use plain coconut yoghurt in place of Greek yoghurt for a dairy free/vegan version. I find that the plant based version doesn't get quite as brown and doesn't get quite as tall. However, it often tends to have a slightly better crumb (probably due to the added starches or gums in the yoghurt). I use Nakula in Australia because it is made from coconut cream and doesn't use any gums.
- Please please please read the hydration notes in the body of the post before starting this recipe. Oat flour works so differently to gluten free flours and you need to be prepared to do a bit of experimenting to achieve your perfect loaf. Unfortunately every bag of oats will have a different absorbency and you need to be flexible about adding more or less water as necessary.
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