Easy Gluten-Free Oat Bread

This gluten-free oat bread is easy to make and offers that soft and doughy texture you miss and crave. It’s loaded with plenty of fiber-rich whole grains and sweetened with honey. It comes together in minutes without a lot of fuss and is beautifully studded with rolled oats for a showstopper bread your family won’t believe is gluten free. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosures.

Oat flour is an incredible gluten-free flour that works well in gluten-free bread and baked goods. It gives baked goods more flavor than a rice-blend flour alone, and it offers a lighter, chewier, and crumblier texture, a hard-to-find combination in the world of gluten-free baking.

Oat flour is a whole grain, making oat bread nutritionally superior to bread made with white rice flour and starches alone.

Oats are a necessary and important part of a gluten-free diet, adding much-needed fiber the gluten-free community needs to keep things flowing, so to speak.

A small number of people in the celiac community cannot tolerate oats due to a phenomenon known as gluten cross-reactivity in which the immune system confuses the protein found in oats (avenin) with the protein found in wheat (gluten). However, most people with celiac disease can tolerate oats without issue.

Oats add a richness to bread that is more in line with the taste of whole wheat bread, whereas bread made with rice flour blends alone tastes more in line with white bread.

When baking with oats, it’s important to look for products that are labeled gluten free because there are detectable levels of gluten in oats and products made with oats.

Oats, while naturally gluten free, are notoriously cross-contaminated with wheat during the growing, harvesting, and manufacturing processes. Therefore, most non-GF oats and oat-containing products contain detectable levels of gluten, making these products unsafe for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance.

In this post, I’ll show you how to make a beautiful gluten-free oat bread that no one will believe is gluten free.

Oat Bread Ingredients

You’ll need a few simple ingredients to make this gluten-free oat bread. Many of these ingredients can be found online or in many grocery stores nationwide:

Oat Flour: You’ll need two cups of gluten-free oat flour (approximately 200 grams). I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free oat flour, but it can be hard to find in stores. You can make gluten-free oat flour by blending two cups of gluten-free rolled oats in the food processor. It will make just the right amount of flour, although you’ll want to measure the blended oat flour before adding it to your recipe. Make sure those oats are labeled gluten free!

Gluten-Free Flour Blend: You’ll also need 1 cup gluten-free 1-to-1 flour (Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Flour Blend works great). I also tested this bread with GF Jules gluten-free flour, and the results were identical; however, the dough looked slightly thicker. Make sure whatever flour blend you use includes xanthan gum. If it doesn’t, add one tsp of it to the flour mixture.

Yeast: Yeast is gluten free and a must for this recipe. You’ll need 1 package of rapid-rise yeast. (Do not confuse yeast with yeast extract.)

Salt: You’ll need 1 ¼ tsp salt.

Rolled Oats: This recipe requires ½ cup of rolled gluten-free rolled oats. Make sure the oats are labeled gluten free. I recommend Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free rolled oats or Trader Joe’s gluten-free rolled oats. You’ll also want to reserve a few extra oats to top the bread batter before baking.

Milk: You’ll need ¾ cup of slightly warmed milk.

Honey: I used a ¼ cup of honey, but if you want the bread slightly sweeter, use 1/3 cup instead.

Coconut Oil: Use ¼ cup melted coconut oil, melted butter, or vegetable oil of your choice.

Eggs: Gather 3 large eggs, at room temperature, for this recipe.

Making Oat Bread

To make the oat bread batter, combine the oat flour, gluten-free flour, yeast, salt, and rolled oats in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Blend the dry ingredients.

Next, combine the warm milk, honey, and melted coconut oil in a large bowl.

Turn the mixer to low and slowly drizzle in the milk mixture until blended. With the mixer on low, add eggs, one at a time, until well blended, then turn the mixer to medium-high and beat the oat bread batter for 3 minutes until the batter becomes smooth. The mixture will be wet and sticky.

Remove the paddle and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula before covering the mixture with a clean towel and allowing the bread to rise for about 40 minutes.

At the 30-minute mark, turn the oven to 350º F to preheat it, and then grease an 8 ½” by 4 ½” bread pan with cooking spray. Scrape the dough gently into the bread pan and smooth the top. Cut a line through the length of the dough to score the top and sprinkle on extra oats.

The scoring is important as the bread will produce a lot of gases in the oven, forcing the bread to expand rapidly. When you score the top of the bread, you tell the bread where to expand, so it doesn’t crack in other spots.

Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes or until the bread is golden brown on top and the internal temperature reaches 200º F. Remember, oat flour contains a lot of moisture, so be sure you give the oats and oat flour ample time to absorb all the wet ingredients. Again, the best way to check for doneness is by looking for an internal temperature of 200º F.

Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out onto a wire rack, and allow the bread to cool completely before slicing.

The bread stays moist for a long time, so you can leave it wrapped in plastic on the counter while you enjoy it over the next few days. You can also refrigerate the bread. If the bread feels stale, pop it into the microwave or toaster. Heat will bring the bread back to life.

How to Enjoy Oat Bread

You can enjoy this gluten-free oat bread in many ways. For starters, it makes great sandwich bread. You can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or a sandwich stuffed with your favorite deli meats and cheeses.

It also tastes amazing for breakfast. You can lightly toast it (if desired) and top it with peanut butter and bananas, smashed avocados, or a little butter and honey

You can also top it with jam or enjoy plain. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

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