This bread is what happens when you find oats on sale and you just can’t pass them up.
One container can turn into a mountain of lovely oat flour or some amazing oatmeal bread like this recipe today. Oat flour is quickly becoming one of my favorite flours to bake with and I’ll share some reasons why in a bit, but first, just look at that slice…
Why Oats and Oat Flour
Back in 2013, when I was first learning about gluten free baking, brown and white rice flour was the standard go-to flours. Not that there weren’t others and not that I didn’t use others, but these flours just made their way into just about every recipe and particularly my flour blend.
There are several reasons why, but rice flours are some of the most readily available and tend to be easy to work with. Rice flours typically bake up a nice loaf of bread and are often less expensive than other flours. So there are a lot of reasons why they are on the high end of the popularity chart for gluten free flours.
Fast forward a few years and rice flours have taken a back seat to more nutritious, more substantial flours.
Search for more Rice Flour Free recipes here: Rice Flour Free
As the name gives it away, this hearty bread is made from one kind of flour – oat flour!
Oats are high in protein and fiber, making them one of the best flours to bake breads with. Besides the nutrients, here are some other reasons why oats are an excellent choice for baking…
Oats are easy to make into oat flour
All you need is a blender or food processor and viola, you have oat flour. Grind it longer for more fine flour and shorter for a coarser blend. I don’t normally grind my own flour, but oat flour, I do.
Toasted oats bring out the flavor
Toasting the oats beforehand is not necessary to make oat flour, but it sure does bring out the deep, robust flavor of the oats. It’s a lot like toasting nuts – if you’ve ever had a toasted walnut, they have that darker and more intense flavor than an untoasted walnut.
Oats produce a nicely balanced bread
I mentioned that oats are high in protein and fiber, but just how high and what does that mean for bread baking? Well, oat flour contains about 17% protein and 10% fiber. Compare that to brown rice flour that has 7.5% protein and 5% fiber and almond flour with 21% protein and 10.7% fiber.
Both of these are key factors in how much water the flour will absorb during mixing. The oat flour with a higher protein and fiber count will absorb more water than the rice flour, but the almond flour will absorb more than the oat flour. Oat flour is an excellent choice for yeast breads as it it a nice balance.
Gluten free oatmeal bread loaf after rising
And now for the some of the best oatmeal bread you’ve ever tasted…
Hearty Gluten Free Oatmeal Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. gluten free oats
- 175 grams tapioca starch about 1 1/3 cup
- 1 ½ tsp. salt
- 1 ¼ cups milk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
- 1 Tbsp. white sugar
- 1/3 cup water warmed
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 3 large eggs
Instructions
Prepare the oats
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread oats on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Set aside to cool.
Prepare the batter
- In a food processor, combine the toasted oats, tapioca starch and salt. Pulse for about 4 minutes until mixture results in flour.
- Transfer flour mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer.
- In a small saucepan, add the milk and vegetable oil. While stirring constantly, heat to a rolling boil.
- Immediately pour mixture into the bowl with the flour and mix on medium speed until fully combined.
- Let mixture sit for 20 minutes to cool.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar and water. Stir to combine and let sit for 10 minutes to proof.
- Into the cooled batter in the stand mixer bowl, add the honey and yeast mixture and mix just until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Add the eggs and mix on low-medium speed for 1 minute.
- Prepare an 8 x 4.5 inch baking pan by spraying with cooking spray and dusting with gluten free flour.
- Using a rubber spatula, scrape batter down and scoop into prepared pan.
- Let rise for 35 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 F and bake for 50 - 55 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let the bread cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
- Remove the bread from the pan and lay it on its side on the wire rack for 15 minutes to finish cooling. Flip to the other side to cool for another 15 minutes. Turn the bread upright for another 30 minutes of cooling time.
- Slice and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Make sure ingredients are room temperature.
- Note: tapioca starch is also called tapioca flour - they are the same thing.
- Use a food processor to grind oats into a flour - it will take about 4 minutes to completely grind.
- Let the batter rise just to the top of the pan.
- Cool the bread as instructed.
Nutrition
suzan
Hello,
thanks for your inspiring recipes …. my question is :
I am new to gluten free journey, l have only potato starch, corn starch, oats flour, chickpeas flour, brown rice flour and white rice flour…. allergic to xanthan gum and I can’t get the tapioca flour where l do live,, so every recipe l am trying to use is calling for one of these two missing ingredients that l can’t use, so cam ypu help me to make my own GF flour blend that will not be crumbly and easily cracked?
thanks
Christine
Hi Suzan,
Thanks for asking.
So in the flours and starches you listed, you could try making my gluten free bread flour mix, here: https://zestforbaking.com/how-to-make-gluten-free-bread-flour-mix
You’ll have to sub the tapioca flour. In this bread flour mix, I use 5 cups total of starch. Try using 3 of cornstarch and 2 of potato starch.
In this oatmeal bread recipe, you could replace the tapioca starch with cornstarch and potato starch – just measure to make sure they are 175g.
Hope this helps!
Christine
dave
I have gf oat flour. So instead of grinding oats, how much oat flour in mix.
Christine
Hi Dave,
It’s the same amount, so 2 cups + 2 Tbsp. oat flour.
Christine
Annette
I love this bread. I like it better when I don’t toast the oats. I get a really soft loaf. It reminds me of the soft white bread I can no longer eat. I have just made it adding cinnamon, mixed spice and raisins to make a fruit bread – YUM – could easily be addictive.
My daughter has a dairy intolerance. Can this bread be made with almond milk instead of dairy?
Christine
Hi Annette,
So glad you all are enjoying it!
I think you should have no problem making it dairy free – the taste might be slightly different, but probably only a slight difference.
Hope that helps!
Christine
Cheryl
Hi Annette, do you note how much spice and raisins you added? I’d love to try this with these additions. Thanks.
Millie
This bread sounds delicious!!! I have an egg allergy. Can I use ground flax seeds instead?
Christine
Hi Millie,
Yes, subbing flax seed should work well for the eggs – it might not be as tall, but it won’t affect the taste.
~Christine
Rosemary
I used flax eggs instead of regular eggs and it was a dense, chewy brick did not rise at all. Then I subbed out baking soda and vinegar for the eggs. It still was flat, dense and a brick. : (
Christine
Hi Rosemary,
Oh no – were the flax eggs the only change you made the first time around? Tapioca starch was measured by weight?
I hate to hear this.
~Christine
Seekeh
Thanks for the recipe! I made several changes to suit my diet.. I substituted tapioca flour with arrow root powder because I ve it with me for so long I needed to consume it. I substituted milk with coconut milk, vegetable oil with ghee, white sugar with molasses. Turned out well. I love it. Will make it again!
Christine
Hi Seekeh,
Great to hear!
Thank for the feedback!
Christine
Sven Bauer
I made this once and it tasted great. The problem I had was that the dough fell on me while baking. Is there something I should be doing?
Thanks,
Sven
Christine
Hi Sven,
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. So if the bread fell while baking, it could be a couple things… it might have needed to bake a little longer or the oven temperature may be off? Usually if it sinks, it’s due to those things. Also, did you use the same size pan as indicated in the recipe?
Let me know if that helps.
~Christine
Carole
This bread looks good, but due to a sensitivity to yeast and xanthum gum, can I substitute them with something else? Also, could you do this in a bread machine?
Christine
Hi Carole,
Thanks for asking! So there’s no xanthan gum in the recipe, so that part should be ok. But the yeast is essential for the nice rise. I haven’t tested it without yeast, so I’m not sure what the result will be. Same goes for a bread machine (just haven’t tested it).
But let me know if you try it!
Christine
Margo
Hi I tried making this recipe as written only sub was almond milk for dairy. I baked it for an extra 30 min and after it cooled it was oatmeal glue in the center completely underbaked. Any suggestions?
Christine
Hi Margo,
Hm, I’m sorry that happened. The first thing I always turn to is my oven temp. – Was it at 350 with an oven thermometer? Did it look like my pictures (especially the before baking one)?
~Christine
Katrina
Is there a way to adapt this recipe to a bread machine? I was recently given one and haven’t tried to use it yet, but would love to make an oatmeal bread like this. Thanks!
Christine
Hi Katrina,
That would be tricky – there are some steps here where you’re waiting for the batter to cool before adding other ingredients (honey and yeast for example). I haven’t tested it in a bead machine, so I just can’t say for certain how the results would be.
If you try it, please let me know though!
~Christine
Mushka Fisch
Thank you so much for posting this recipe, it was easily the best bread I’ve tasted since I’ve had to go gluten free. I made a couple substitutions. I used maple syrup instead of sugar, potato starch instead of tapioca starch, and almond milk instead of milk. it reminded me of the bread my mother used to make when I was a kid and it did not taste gluten-free at all. Again thank you so much
Christine
Thank you so much for the feedback Mushka!
Happy to hear you enjoy it 🙂
~Christine
Martha
Love the taste of that bread.
The bread sink a bit being in the oven
I did everything right. It looks like the picture in the pan before putting in oven. Size of pan do we measure inside the pan??if yes the pan was ok.
My oven temperature usually is good cause all the other recipie i do is cook perfect what can be the problem
I did not use a thermometer .
Thank you
Christine
Hi Martha,
Glad you enjoyed it – so a little sinking is ok. In my final bread, it does sink a bit too. It’s just the nature of the oats. Was the bread baking all the way through? If not, it may need 5-10 more minutes of baking time.
~Christine
Nikki
I love this bread – it tastes so good! I’ve made it 3 times. The first time I used cornstarch and it was perfect. The next two times I used tapioca starch and the dough got super thick while I was mixing in the boiling water. I think the boiling water thickened the starch (I looked it up and tapioca starch has a lower thickening temperature than corn or potato starch). I couldn’t even use my hand mixer it was so thick. I saved it by mixing everything else in by hand, but it still had clumps in it (like gravy clumps). Next time I will either use a different starch or let my water cool a bit before I add it to the flour mixture.
Christine
Hi Nikki,
Interesting! Well I’m glad it worked out for you – I’ve not had any problems with tapioca starch but it definitely could even be the difference in brands. Thanks so much for the feedback!
~Christine
Melissa
I found this recipe while looking for an oatmeal flour bread that had simple, basic ingredients. I chose this recipe and can’t wait to try it. However, is there any way you can make a note somewhere that tapioca starch and tapioca flour are the same thing? I didn’t know this until after I bypassed tapioca flour in my local store thinking it wasn’t the right product. I found out later after I got home that they are the same.
This might be helpful for folks like me who didn’t know.
Christine
Thank you for mentioning that Melissa – excellent tip and I will add it.
~Christine
Ti
Hi Christine, I found your website while I was searching for more gluten free bread. I must say, I was charmed by the number of different recipes on bread I saw, so I requested for your free 15 bread recipes pdf. I am going to try out the loaf on here but first I was wondering if quick yeast is the same as quick active yeast?
Christine
Hi Ti!
Thanks, glad to meet you!
So quick yeast is different than active dry yeast. BUT, I will say, I’ve used them interchangeably before to test and the quick yeast works surprisingly well – just watch the rise time as it will rise a lot faster than active dry yeast.
Hope that helps!
Christine
Ann Herbert
How do I tell if the bread is completely cooked after 50 minutes? Can I insert a cake tester or toothpick or knife and see if it comes out clean? Or do I lightly touch the top to see if it springs back? I cooked the bread for 50 minutes. It was nicely brown on the outside, it pulled away from the pan, and the knife came out clean. After it cooled and I sliced it, it was gooey in the middle. Yes, I use an oven thermometer so the oven temp was correct. Also, you indicate a 8 x 4.5 inch pan. Does it make a difference if the pan is metal or glass? What is the third dimension for the pan? I have a Pyrex loan pan that is 8.5 x 4.5 x2.5. Is this pan, at 2.5 inches high, correct? Finally, yeast. You should indicate if you can use regular yeast or bread machine yeast and that the water to proof the yeast should be 100 degrees to 110 degrees as indicated on the package or jar of yeast. Despite the fact that the bread was gooey in the middle, both ends of the bread were delicious!!
Christine
Hi Ann,
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it! So for the baking time – great question and one that I may need to expand on more in a post but you can also check by temperature. Though it sounds like it just needed the full 55 minutes. Your pan size was correct – I used a metal pan so I will update that and the water temp! And then yes indicating the type of yeast is super important – active dry yeast is the same as regular yeast.
Glad you enjoyed it though!
~Christine
Cheryl
Hi Christine,
I’d like to add some whole oats to the mix. Would you recommend making any adjustments for wet or dry ingredients to accommodate the additional bulk? Thanks.
I was originally told to eliminate all gluten, dairy, and sugar from my diet. For everyone who’s been asking about substituting non-dairy milk for cow’s milk, I’ve had good success using cashew milk, almond milk, and oat milk. The key is to get a product that doesn’t add a strong flavor and isn’t fat-free. Those three non-dairy milk products each have 4% fat. I substitute maple syrup for honey and molasses by weight. There’s virtually no difference between the 3 sweeteners except for how the body metabolizes them. Since this recipe only calls for 1 Tbsp of sugar, I’ll use it for its browning properties. Just a few things I’ve learned along my early journey that might be helpful to others who aren’t obsessive researchers.
Christine
Hi Cheryl,
So I have not tested it with adding whole oats so I really hesitate in suggesting something since it could ruin the bread 🙁 But, maybe start with just a Tablespoon and then add a teaspoon more milk. I’m really estimating here since I have not tried it – but that should be a good start.
~Christine
Elizabeth
Thank you, Cheryl! I’ve been looking for a good gluten-free recipe for a friend of mine that has so many food allergies; I appreciate the helpful tips! This one seems like it might be the winner with a few adjustments.
Elizabeth
Hello Christine,
Thank you for the recipe! I have been looking for a suitable bread to make for a friend that has many allergies, and this seems like it may be the one. It’s a delight to find someone so comfortable and confident with gluten-free recipes.
I do have a question. Would it be possible for me to substitute rice flour for the tapioca starch? I saw on another site that that was a possible substitution, along with the advice that rice flour is stickier and has a stronger thickening capacity than tapioca starch. The site recommended using 1/2 ratio.
Christine
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you 🙂
So I wouldn’t advise subbing ice flour for the tapioca starch – just because they are completely different in terms of fiber and protein content (see this chart https://zestforbaking.com/guide-to-gluten-free-flour-substitutes) BUT potato starch or even arrowroot starch would work. This bread needs the starchy content to turn out delicious.
Hope that helps!
~Christine