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Wholesome and incredibly similar to gluten bread, this no-knead gluten-free brown soda bread is packed with various fibre-rich flours.

If you are in a hurry to make bread, this speedy gluten-free bread recipe couldn’t be any easier to whip up in just over an hour. These nourishing slices are perfect for warm dishes such as comforting soups or to make hearty sandwiches. Perfect for busy families!

As a bonus, the brown soda bread keeps for 2 days, slightly longer than its white soda bread partner, plus it is suitable to toast and subsequently, freeze if there are any leftover slices.

Is Gluten-Free Brown Soda Bread healthy?

There is no question that this bread has plenty of fibre using gluten-free flours such as brown rice flour, oat flour and buckwheat flour. Amazingly, there is NO yeast, eggs or butter in this recipe. Great for those who are intolerant to these ingredients. In my experience, a few slices of this bread satisfied my satiety in one sitting, a good indicator that the bread is loaded with fibre.

Where is the yeast?

How can bread rise without yeast? Bicarbonate of Soda (also known as Baking Soda) does the magic here.

About the Gluten-Free Flours used:
Brown Rice Flour

A bowl of gluten-free brown rice flour

Brown rice flour is a gluten-free whole-grain flour that is rich in antioxidants. Research has shown that eating brown rice regularly helps reduce the risk of developing heart disease, plus keeping cholesterol and high blood pressure in check.

Oat Flour

Oat flour is made from finely ground gluten-free oats. It is a good source of beta-glucan, a soluble fibre that reduces blood sugar and helps you feel full, encouraging good bacteria growth.

Buckwheat Flour

Buckwheat flour is ground from the seeds of a flowering plant from the rhubarb family.

Highly nutritional, also rich in antioxidants and has excellent good fibre content which helps lower cholesterol. Additionally, buckwheat flour is a very good source of selenium and zinc.

Gluten-Free Bread Flour Blend

Adding either a store-bought or my homemade bread flour blend will give this gluten-free brown soda bread an extra boost and stability for the best results.

* *

To learn and read more about my blog covering other gluten-free flours used in gluten-free baking, click on this link

A photo done on adobe about a guide to gluten-free flours & starches 

Psyllium husk powder (or xanthan gum)

two bowls of xanthan gum and psyllium husk used for binding gluten-free flour in recipes

Psyllium husk powder is a game changer when it comes to gluten-free breadmaking. It is a form of soluble fibre made from the husks of the Plantago ovata plant’s seeds. When added to bread recipes, it imitates gluten and provides elasticity, binding and volume.

Substituting xanthan gum as a binder in this recipe is fine, but you’ll need to halve the amount needed.

Psyllium husk powder is more really available at health stores and pharmacies, therefore, you may find this binder easier to purchase than xanthan gum in some countries.

​Shaping the dough

After several trial runs with this recipe, I decided that the best shape to get an even bake and easy-to-slice loaf was to shape it into a levelled rectangle or oblong loaf. Bearing in mind that it is more traditional to mould soda bread into a round shape, I changed the shape of this brown bread for practical purposes. Of course, go ahead if you prefer the original shape with the cross shape slashed on the top as in my gluten-free soda bread.

Baking

This is a straightforward recipe that comes together in minutes as there is no yeast to activate, no rising, no proving, no kneading etc…it’s a super-fast bread to make! However, the only effort you’ll need to make is to ensure it bakes for a total of 45 minutes with a quick flip-over halfway through to ensure the loaf gets fully baked.

The soda bread is ready when it sounds hollow after tapping the base at the end of baking. I still double-check the centre for doneness by poking a wooden skewer in the middle. If any sticky dough is attached to the skewer, it needs 5 minutes or so of further baking.

A visual image of steps during the baking of gluten-free brown soda bread

KID'S PROJECT IDEA

This is a fun cooking project to organise with kids as there are very few steps to contend with and quick results for them to see their labour of love.
An adobe photo of french onion soup
If you have a heavy-duty food processor, like a Thermomix, you could grind your own gluten-free flours using gluten-free oats for oat flour or brown rice for brown rice flour.

Gluten-Free Brown Soda Bread

by Sandra - Fun Without Gluten
Wholesome and incredibly like gluten bread, this no-knead brown soda bread is packed with a variety of fibre-rich flours.
If you are in a hurry to make bread, this speedy brown soda bread recipe couldn’t be any easier to whip up in just over an hour. These nourishing slices are perfect for warm dishes such as comforting soups or to make hearty sandwiches.
5 from 3 votes
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Resting time 5 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course baking, bread, Snack
Cuisine General, Irish
Servings 1 medium loaf

Equipment

Ingredients
  

  • 100 g brown rice flour
  • 100 g gluten-free oat flour
  • 50 g buckwheat flour
  • 225 g store-bought or homemade gluten-free bread flour 
  • 2 tsp psyllium husk powder or halve the quantity if using xanthan gum
  • tsp bicarbonate of soda or baking soda
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 425 ml buttermilk or regular full-fat milk and a squeeze of lemon
  • 50 ml cold fizzy/soda water

Extra

  • 1 tbsp buttermilk, to glaze
  • 2 tbsp gluten-free oat flakes, to sprinkle

Instructions
 

Preparing the dough

  • Gather and measure all the ingredients listed.
    The ingredients needed to make gluten-free brown soda bread
  • If using milk and lemon in place of buttermilk, mix them together in a jug, cover and leave to react for 10 mins.
  • Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, EXCEPT the buttermilk and fizzy water.
  • Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk and half of the fizzy water.
    Adding buttermilk to the dry ingredients to make gluten-free brown soda bread
  • Gradually bring the dry ingredients into the centre and mix well with a wooden spoon, adding the remaining fizzy water.
  • Once a soft dough has formed, leave it for 5 mins for the dry ingredients to absorb the liquid.
    Mixing all the ingredients into a soft dough for the gluten-free brown soda

Shaping the dough

  • Line a large baking tray with a sheet of baking paper and dust some flour over the paper.
  • Using either a dough scraper or floured hands, tip the dough from the bowl onto the lined baking tray and form it into a bread loaf shape as shown in the photo in step 3.
    Shaping the dough into a loaf
  • Sprinkle some flour over the bread.
    The shaped loaf after forming it with the pastry scraper
  • Brush the top with buttermilk.
    Brushing the buttermilk glaze over the top of the unbaked gluten-free brown soda bread
  • Liberally sprinkle the top with oat flakes.
    Sprinkling the oat flakes over the top of the gluten-free brown soda bread
  • Score the bread 5cm apart with a dough scraper or a knife. These scores will help make slicing easier once baked.
    Scoring the gluten-free brown soda bread into 5cm slices

Baking

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
  • Bake the bread for 25 mins on the middle shelf.
    The unbaked gluten-free brown soda bread
  • Flip the bread over and bake for a further 20 to 25 mins. To test if the bread is fully baked, tap the base of the bread and if it sounds hollow, the bread is ready.
    The bottom of the baked gluten-free brown soda bread
  • Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving.
    The baked gluten-free brown soda bread

Notes

  • Store covered with a clean tea towel in a large sealable container.
  • Keeps for 2 days. After 2 days, bread slices are doable to toast.
  • Suitable to freeze.
  • Toast or reheat in a moderate oven directly from frozen.
Keyword gluten-free breadmaking, gluten-free high-fibre, gluten-free soda bread
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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