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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
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.
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To learn and read more about my blog covering other gluten-free flours used in gluten-free baking, click on this link
Psyllium husk powder (or xanthan gum)
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.
KID'S PROJECT IDEA
Gluten-Free Brown Soda Bread
Equipment
- 1 Pastry Scraper optional
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
- 1½ 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
- Sprinkle some flour over the bread.
- Brush the top with buttermilk.
- Liberally sprinkle the top with oat flakes.
- Score the bread 5cm apart with a dough scraper or a knife. These scores will help make slicing easier once baked.
Baking
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
- Bake the bread for 25 mins on the middle shelf.
- 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.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving.
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.
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