After going through an elimination diet and receiving a diagnosis of SIBO, my doctor recommended a low grain, gluten-free diet. There are a bunch of other foods I now limit, like nightshades (tomatoes, so sad!), soy, yeast, and dairy. Maybe someday I can fully incorporate those foods back into my life, but in the meantime, I’ll continue to experiment in the kitchen for alternatives that still taste good.
Enter The Best Gluten Free Bread Ever. That may be a bold statement, but once you try this gluten free bread, your mind will be blown. Dare I say it’s BETTER than ‘real’ bread?? When searching for recipes, all I could find were sweet breads like pumpkin, banana, etc. Don’t get me wrong- I love me some pumpkin loaf, but I wanted a more savory option.
I adapted a recipe I found at Fork & Beans, testing it with a number of different gluten free flours. In this version I added coconut flour mainly because I ran out of garbanzo bean flour, and it still turned out tasty!
Start by grinding up the cashews. They are pretty soft, but if your food processor or blender isn’t very strong, you can always soak nuts in water for a few hours before grinding. You could also buy cashew meal if you don’t want the extra work! Next, grind up the chia seeds. I used my coffee bean grinder and they were powder in about 5 seconds flat.
Add all dry ingredients to the mixer, and slowly add in the almond milk, water, and then finally the vinegar.
Grease your baking pan. I prefer Trader Joe’s coconut oil spray- keeps it from sticking, and it’s reasonably priced.
The dough should look thick like this.
Make sure you let the dough rest before it goes in the oven. This allows the vinegar to do its job! Now is a good time to pre heat your oven. By the time it’s ready, your bread should be, too.
Pop in the oven for about an hour. Test with a toothpick in the center. If it comes out clean, it’s done. Make sure you let the loaf cool before slicing, or else it will look like this.
Enjoy with a slice of butter, or maybe make some avocado toast!
Coconut flour leads to a nice, smooth texture, but the bread gets gooey if you let it sit on the counter for too many days. If you miraculously have leftovers, slice it up and put in the freezer so it doesn’t get that weird gummy consistency.
- ¾ cup cashews*
- ¾ cup almond meal
- ¾ cup garbanzo bean flour
- ¾ cup coconut flour**
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup almond milk***
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Grind up whole cashews until it becomes powder, then do the same with the chia seeds.
- Add all dry ingredients to mixer; stir to combine.
- Pour wet ingredients on top; stir to combine.
- Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Let sit 10 minutes. This allows the vinegar to interact with the baking soda and create carbon dioxide, which allows the bread to rise.
- Bake bread for about an hour.
- Once cooled, slice up and serve! Goes great with mashed avocado on top.
- Store leftovers in the freezer.
**Coconut flour can be removed if you double the garbanzo bean flour.
***Use any dairy free milk you like. I also had success with almond coconut milk.