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 of 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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Gluten-Free Oat Bread
Equipment
- 1 Bread Pan 8 ½" by 4 ½"
Ingredients
- 2 cups gluten-free oat flour (200 grams) See notes on how to make your own
- 1 cup gluten-free 1-to-1 flour I used Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Flour Blend – see notes about xanthan gum
- 1 package rapid rise yeast
- 1 ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup gluten-free rolled oats plus extra for sprinkling on top of the bread
- ¾ cup milk warm
- ¼ cup honey see notes for sweeter option
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted – see notes for options
- 3 large eggs room temperature
Instructions
- Combine oat flour, gluten-free flour, yeast, salt, and rolled oats, in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Blend together.
- Mix warm milk, honey, and melted coconut oil in a large bowl.
- Turn mixer to low and slowly drizzle in the milk mixture until blended.
- With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat the mixture for 3 minutes. Remove the paddle attachment and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. The batter will be wet and sticky. Cover it with a towel and let it rise for 40 minutes.
- At the 30-minute mark, turn the oven to 350º F and grease an 8 ½" by 4 ½" bread pan with cooking spray.
- After the dough has risen (it will not rise a ton, but it is noticeable), scrape the batter gently into the bread pan and smooth the top. Cut a line through the length of the dough (i.e., score the top) and sprinkle on the extra oats.
- Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes or until it's golden brown on top and the internal temperature reaches 200º F. Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out onto a wire rack, and allow it to cool completely before slicing.
Cynthia Spors says
This is a great recipe. The bread turns out moist and has a great flavor. My son and husband also liked it. Thank you.
Good For You Gluten Free says
You can use any neutral vegetable oil. Thank you!
Anthony says
This is very tasty! What are the options for oil? I didn’t see any in the notes.
Jane says
This bread is wonderful!! It was such a special treat b/c we did Whole 30 in January and then taking our time reintroducing just one food at a time. Today it was oats and this was our first bread in 6 weeks. What a treat. So easy and delicious. I baked it for 45 mins and it was perfect for us. Served it with ghee and sugar free fruit spread. Yummmm.
Only thing I would do differently next time is push the sprinkled loose oats on top more into the batter since they fell off really easily.
Lori says
This bread was so easy to make and absolutely delicious!! This will be my go to bread recipe from now on!!
Good For You Gluten Free says
Did your flour blend contain xanthan gum?
Shirley Mello says
I made this as stated. It was crumbly and fell apart when I cut it. What caused it to do that? I may try again, but will not use coconut oil. Rather use olive oil.
Sally says
I used oat milk instead of milk and had to increase the cook time to 1 hr. I live at 6500 ft. It came out great!
Good For You Gluten Free says
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say.
Eric says
Can this be adapted for a breadmaking machine?
Josie says
I made this for my wheat-gluten-intolerant husband. To be honest, I usually am not a fan of most gluten-free bakes, even those deemed good by people used to the GF lifestyle… BUT I thought this turned out SO well, and we both liked it a lot! Mine took longer to bake fully. I also thought that leftover slices over the next few days were better reheated for a few seconds in the microwave.