This recipe solves all your problems of trying to find a delicious, healthy, vegan and gluten-free bread recipe that you can make conveniently in the bread machine. It takes 5 minutes to mix everything together in the loaf pan and then set the machine to start and it does the rest of the work for you. No more waiting around in the kitchen, you can set it when you go out or when you go to bed and have fresh bread in the morning. Easy-peasy dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free bread that has a soft squidgy, bready texture and tastes delicious spread with peanut butter for a wholesome plant-based breakfast!
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Why You Will LOVE This Recipe!
- Convenient! It literally takes 5 minutes of your time.
- Energy saving – instead of having to heat a big oven, the bread machine uses less energy and you can set it to come on at night when energy is generally cheaper.
- Tasty and “bready” – you will love how sturdy, yet soft and squishy this bread is when its fresh and for making great toast!
- Nutritious – using ⅔ wholegrains and no artificial preservatives or fillers, this bread is so much healthier than store-bought vegan gluten-free breads!
- Vegan & gluten-free - perfect if you have food allergies or celiac disease.
Why Another Gluten-Free Vegan Bread Recipe?
I know I have already posted about my original vegan gluten-free bread recipe and that is extremely easy to make as well. However, for that one, you do need to find a time where you can hover around the kitchen and be available at the right times for mixing, rising, kneading, proving, baking. Sometimes, when I have loads of work on, I just don’t have the time to be that attentive. So, I wanted to create a recipe specifically for the bread machine that would give me a healthy vegan and gluten-free bread to use during the week without any effort or time expended on my part!
Just as with regular bread, the bread machine is not going to give you a loaf that’s as good as homemade bread lovingly made in the oven. BUT it is super easy to do and has now become my go-to bread recipe because it is just so convenient! All you need to do is mix the ingredients in the bread machine pan and then turn it on. It’s so simple!
So, when you have the time, I would suggest using my oven-baked vegan gluten-free bread recipe, but on a day to day basis, you may find this bread machine recipe fits into your schedule much more easily! It’s still really delicious, soft, bready bread but with only 5 minutes of your time taken up!
Differences To Be Aware Of When Making Vegan AND Gluten-Free Bread
This recipe was tricky to perfect because we are dealing with a lot trying to get a good loaf without any egg or gluten to provide structure and elasticity. And, to top it off, we are asking a bread machine to deal with this for us!
1. You need to mix the ingredients first.
Unlike making normal bread in the machine, with gluten-free bread-making, you can’t just put all the ingredients in and turn it on and leave it to do its thing. If you do that, you’ll find that some of the lighter flours, like the starches, don’t get mixed in properly and you’ll end up with a crust that has big white splodges of un-mixed in flour.
The way to deal with this problem is to mix it yourself first. It doesn’t need perfect mixing because the bread machine will again mix it during its cycle. So, you don’t need to worry about making sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed. All you need to do is ensure that all the dry ingredients are mixed in with the wet ingredients so that the bread machine can mix it all easily.
You can either mix all the ingredients in a bowl or mix them directly in the bread machine pan (use a silicon spatula not a metal spoon to avoid scratching the non-stick surface). Then you can just put the bread pan in the machine like normal and switch it on.
2. You need to create elasticity with something other than gluten.
Obviously there is no gluten in gluten-free bread. Gluten provides the structure in normal bread to make this highly elastic stretchy texture. Many people use xanthan gum to replicate the effect of gluten. However, xanthan gum doesn’t sit so well with me so I prefer to use psyllium husk mixed with water. Psyllium husk is very high fibre and absorbs the water to make a gel. This gel structure helps to give the support and elasticity that is missing without gluten.
3. You need to replace the egg which usually provides the structure for gluten-free bread
Normal gluten-free bread relies quite heavily on egg for the rising and to help with the structure. Obviously, we don’t want to use egg for vegan bread! So, instead, we have a flax egg made with ground flax seeds and water. This does a good job of replacing the rising properties of the egg but to replace the structural properties that the egg provides, we also need psyllium husk.
It is really important to use both flax seeds AND psyllium husk in this recipe. I have tried to use one or the other and it just doesn’t work. If you use too much of the psyllium husk, it makes it too gummy. If you use too much of the flax seed, it doesn’t get squishy enough. And you want squishy bread, don’t you! So, I find that a combination of the two in this ratio, works best.
4. Gluten-free bread needs to be cooled fully before slicing
It is an annoying fact about gluten-free bread that the structure firms up while cooling. So, if you are too eager to try a bit, you could end up ruining your lovely loaf by slicing into it too soon. Try to leave it to cool for an hour or more so that it does not collapse.
Notes on Gluten-Free Flours
As you probably already know, you can’t just switch out white bread flour for one gluten-free flour because gluten-free flours do not work in the same way as bread flour. So, you need to have a combination of gluten-free flours to work together to provide all the different aspects of regular wheat bread flour that give it that nice squidgy bready texture.
Which are the best gluten-free flours?
The different types of gluten-free flours can be categorised into wholegrains and starches.
Wholegrains, as the name suggests, contain more of the whole grain. This means they have more nutrients and more fibre from the outer husk. But they are heavier and can make gluten-free bread too dense if used on their own.
The starches are refined flours and tend to be very fine and bright white. Ideally you wouldn’t use these because they’re not very nutritious as most of the nutrients have been refined out of the flour. However, the starch gives a lighter texture so I find it best to sacrifice some nutrients for a softer, lighter loaf.
I work on the ratio of ⅔ wholegrains to ⅓ starches and that seems to give the right balance of healthy ingredients and a light soft texture.
Chef's Tips On Gluten-Free Flours
You can either follow the recipe exactly using the flours I suggest or you can experiment with your own mixtures, as long as you stick to the ratio of ⅔ wholegrains to ⅓ starches. I would also add the following notes about the wholegrain flours that you use:
Wholegrains
- Brown rice flour – gives sturdiness. Note that white rice flour has less bran and therefore less protein and fibre so does not provide as much structure to the bread (or nutrients).
- Sorghum flour – high in protein and gives a lovely bready flavour. Sometimes called “Jowar” which is the Indian name for sorghum.
- Oat flour (from gf oats) - also good for adding flavour and can be made by whizzing up your regular oats in a food processor. You can substitute some of the sorghum flour for oat flour but I would stay below 100g as it does not provide as much structure.
- Teff flour - quite heavy and can make the loaf dense so use this flour sparingly, 30g or less.
- Buckwheat flour - has quite a strong earthy flavour that can be off-putting. Use this sparingly (60g or less) so that the flavour is not overpowering. (Despite having the word “wheat” in the name, buckwheat is in fact not part of the wheat family and is definitely gluten-free!).
- Maize (Masa Harina) flour – lovely flavour but can make the bread brittle so do not use more than the 30g suggested in the recipe.
- Millet flour - a good all-rounder which is similar in properties to rice flour, giving softness and lightness. If you can’t find this flour in the shops, you can make it by whizzing up millet in the food processor. You can add more of this flour if you like, by substituting some of the brown rice or sorghum flour for more millet flour.
- Quinoa flour - can make the loaf quite sweet so, again, use this flour sparingly, no more than 10g.
Starches
- Potato starch
- Tapioca starch
- Arrowroot
- Cornstarch
There are not so many differences between the starches. Potato starch can soak up more moisture than the others so you may need to adjust the water content if you include potato starch.
Bread Machine Advice
Since this recipe has been created for a bread machine, I thought I'd give some advice on which machine to use and which setting is best.
What Is The Best Bread Machine To Use?
Having always been a Panasonic bread machine owner, I replaced my old bread maker this year with the newer model of the same machine I had before. It is used almost every day in my household for regular wholemeal bread for my family and weekly for my own gluten-free bread so it is very well used!
After researching all the other brands, I realised this bread machine really ticks all the boxes for me. It has a good gluten-free setting, it’s small enough to fit on a shelf in my back kitchen (pantry), it’s not overly complicated, it’s easy to wash up, and it consistently delivers good loaves. It is also so easy to use, I could almost do it in my sleep now!
If you are thinking of investing in a bread machine, I highly recommend getting this model (paid affiliate link). Although it is quite expensive, it is an investment that has paid for itself many times over and, not only that, but provides better quality bread for me and my family which is more nutritious than the others available in the shops. So, it is a win-win in my eyes!
What Setting Do You Use On the Bread Machine?
I use the gluten-free bread setting, which is number 14 on my on my Panasonic Breadmaker YR 2550 (paid affiliate link). The cycle is as follows:
- Mix: 20-25 minutes
- Rise: 35-40 minutes
- Bake: 50-55 minutes
It is important to use a gluten-free setting because:
- Gluten-free bread does not need as long for kneading as regular bread needs. (Regular bread needs a lot of kneading and resting to develop the gluten which of course is not present in our bread!); and
- It can collapse in the middle if allowed to prove for too long. Since it does not have the network of gluten strands holding the structure firm, gluten-free bread can be a little more fragile and so if it proves for too long, it can rise too much and then collapse.
If your machine does not have a gluten-free setting, try to find a setting that has the shortest cycle or find a custom setting that is most similar to the gluten-free cycle set out above.
Main Ingredients For This Bread
- Gluten-Free Flours – The recipe contains my favourite mix that gives the best loaf in my opinion but there are of course so many variables, not least your own personal taste! So, use the table above to learn about the different flours and then experiment within the constraints identified in the gluten-free flours section above!
- Psyllium Husk – this comes in powder form and in flakes. I use 2 tablespoon of psyllium husk flakes but if you use powder, it will be considerably less than 2 tablespoon for the same weight so please look at the weight if you use powder instead.
- Ground Flax Seeds – also known as linseeds, these keep best in a dark environment so when you are buying them, try to choose a brand that sells them in an opaque packet. I use Linwoods Organic Milled Flax Seeds and keep them in the fridge door.
- Yeast - I use instant yeast (Dove's Farm brand) because you can sprinkle it in with the rest of the ingredients and it doesn't require any extra effort. Check the instructions on the packet because some types of dried yeast (active dry yeast) needs to be activated first (by mixing with a little sugar and water and leaving for a couple of minutes).
- Oil – I use olive oil because that’s what I usually have to hand when I’m weighing out the ingredients. You can use any oil you like. It helps with preserving and adding moistness and softness.
- Sugar – feel free to use any type of sugar you want to use. It is a very small amount and is mainly there to feed the yeast and give it a little boost. It also helps with giving a lovely golden crust. You can swap to maple syrup or cut it out entirely if you really don’t want any sugar but, for me, 1 teaspoon in a whole loaf is not an amount to start worrying about.
- Salt – this is actually really important otherwise you will have very bland bread! I find changes to the salt content make a huge difference not only to the flavour but also the texture so adjust the salt level with caution!
- Water - for the liquid in this recipe, I use water rather than any kind of dairy-free milk, because then I can set the bread machine to come on at a later time and not worry about any ingredients going off while they wait at room temperature. Use warm water for best results, so that your yeast stays nice and warm and starts working immediately.
Please see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for full list of ingredients and their quantities.
How To Make This Recipe
First mix the flax seeds and psyllium husk with the water in a large jug or bowl. Leave to thicken for 5 minutes.
Next, measure out all the ingredients into the bread pan (or a bowl). Then stir them well to combine all the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to make one dough.
Put the bread pan into the bread machine and set to a gluten-free loaf cycle.
Leave to cool on a wire rack before slicing.
This is a summary only. Please see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this page for full instructions.
Storage
Like all homemade breads, this vegan gf bread does not keep for a long time at room temperature. Store-bought bread lasts for a long time due to all the added preservatives they contain). It only really keeps fresh for one day. So, it is best to use it as fresh bread for sandwiches on the first day, and then either:
- keep it in a bag in the fridge (3-4 days); or
- slice it up when still fresh and put it in a bag in the freezer (up to 1 month) to use as and when you need it for toast.
To freshen up your bread from the fridge, just pop a slice into the microwave for 10-15 seconds and it will be lovely and soft.
To use straight from the freezer, just take out a slice whenever you need it and quickly defrost for 20 seconds in the microwave before putting it in the toaster (or toast straight from the freezer if you’re in a hurry).
FAQs
Ideally you would use the gluten-free setting because it is shorter so you have less risk of the bread collapsing due to over-proofing in a regular bread cycle. If you don’t have a gluten-free setting, choose the shortest cycle you can find.
There are a few possibilities.
1. The dough may be too wet so you might need to adjust the water content down a little for your environment.
2. Or it might be that the cycle is too long. If you do not use a gluten-free setting, then it is likely that it will be left to prove (rise) too long. Without any gluten giving it structural support, gluten-free breads are a little more fragile and if left for too long, they can rise too much and then collapse.
3. Did you cut into it before it had fully cooled. This affects the structural integrity of the loaf which continues to firm up while cooling down.
See the discussion above for full details of each gluten-free bread flour. I like to use a mixture of 2 parts wholegrain to 1 part starch so that I have a relatively healthy bread (from the wholegrain) but with a light texture (from the starches). I tend to use brown rice flour and sorghum to make up the majority of the wholegrain portion and then include smaller amounts of oat flour, teff flour, maize, quinoa flour or millet flour for flavour. For the starch portion, I like to use half arrowroot and half tapioca but these are also interchangeable with cornstarch and potato starch.
📖 Recipe 📖
Vegan Gluten-Free Bread Machine Loaf
Equipment
- 1 Bread Machine
Ingredients
Flax Slurry
- 2 tablespoon ground flax seeds
- 18 g psyllium husk (2 tablespoon powder or 3 tablespoon flakes)
- 500 g water
Wholegrain Flours (300g)
- 120 g brown rice flour
- 120 g sorghum flour
- 30 g millet flour, (or teff flour)
- 30 g masa harina corn flour, (or buckwheat flour)
Starches (150g)
- 75 g arrowroot powder
- 75 g tapioca starch, (or potato starch)
Other Ingredients
- 1½ teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1½ teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- First, whisk the flax seeds and psyllium husk with the water in a jug. Once well mixed, leave to stand for 5 minutes* until it gets to a gel-like consistency.2 tablespoon ground flax seeds, 18 g psyllium husk (2 tablespoon powder or 3 tablespoon flakes), 500 g water
- Once the flax mixture is gel-like, measure out all of the ingredients (adding the flax mixture on top) into a bowl or directly into the bread pan and mix together to pull all of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. It does not have to be perfectly mixed with each ingredient distributed evenly throughout, as the bread machine will do that for you. It just has to be mixed well enough so that all of the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet ingredients.120 g brown rice flour, 120 g sorghum flour, 30 g millet flour, 30 g masa harina corn flour, 75 g arrowroot powder, 75 g tapioca starch, 1½ teaspoon Himalayan pink salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1½ teaspoon instant yeast, 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Then put the dough in the bread pan and place the bread pan into the bread machine. Set the machine to the gluten-free cycle (or the shortest cycle it has) and leave it to make your bread!
- Once ready, turn the bread out onto a wire rack to cool thoroughly before slicing into it**.
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a ⭐ star rating ⭐ on the recipe card!
More Recipes
If you like this vegan gluten-free bread machine loaf recipe, you may like these other delicious gluten-free vegan recipes too:
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Mark Gretton says
Camilla, thank you ever so much for this, it is lovely! I couldn’t get sorghum flour so mixed and matched brown rice, buckwheat, oat and quinoa following your guidance and it’s worked beautifully, actually looks and feels like ‘proper bread’ as well as tasting good. I’ve only been using a breadmaker for a few weeks and though I have got comfortable making a lovely wholewheat vegan loaf quickly, I hadn’t done well with GF (which my girlfriend eats) until now. I’m really pleased, thanks again from two happy vegans!
Camilla Sanderson says
Oh wow this comment makes me so happy! 😊 I’m so glad you and your girlfriend like it! Thank you for letting me know! 💚
Kelly Ann Reed says
Help! I used Bob's red mill 1:1 for the flour mix in place of both lists. My bread is gummy😩 and I am so sad. Can I fix it?
Camilla Sanderson says
Hi Kelly Ann. I'm sorry to hear this! Unfortunately this bread recipe will not work with a flour blend like the Bob's Red Mill 1:1 flour mix. As I mentioned in the blogpost, it is important to follow the ratios in the recipe and the exact flours I use. I have offered alternative flours to substitute for particular flours in the list but it isn't possible to simply swap all of the flours for a blend. I'm so sorry you didn't realise this and I will try to make it even clearer in the recipe card for future reference. In this situation, I don't think there is anything to be done to save it but I would still use the bread as toast since the texture matters less once it is toasted. You could also whizz it up with some extra flour and use it as breadcrumbs perhaps?
Kelly says
You most likely made it very clear and I missed it. I am adhd and terrible with directions. This is my 12th bread recipe amd they keep failing. Not your fault! Thanks for the feedback.
Camilla Sanderson says
Oh no that is so frustrating to have so many failed attempts. Gluten-free bread is really tricky to get right - this recipe, and the non-bread-machine recipe, are probably the longest blog posts on my whole website because there are so many details to explain! I hope you try making it again with the correct flours. If you use the ingredients written in the recipe and just make sure to stir it all together before turning the bread machine on, you should get a delicious loaf of bread out of it! I really hope you do! x
LINDA KAY PAGE says
Your bread looks amazing. Is there any substitute for the flax ? Or can i leave it out ? Thanks for your time. Linda
Camilla Sanderson says
Hi Linda. Thanks for your message. The flax mixture does the job that an egg would normally do in gluten-free bread. It adds springiness to the texture and helps with binding. Like egg, the liquid in the "flax egg" also adds steam during cooking. So for these reasons, it isn't wise to leave it out completely. However, if you don't want to use flax, you could try substituting with an equal amount of an egg substitute like Just Egg or with more psyllium husk or with chia seeds. These are all standard substitutes for ground flax seeds but I haven't tried these substitutions in this recipe so I can't be sure whether they would work. Do let me know though if you have success with any of them! Camilla x
Mary says
What size loaf does this make? My bread maker is for a 2lb loaf. Do I need to adjust the recipe? Also will this work with oat milk or soymilk instead of water?
Camilla Sanderson says
Hi Mary. Great question! This recipe is roughly a 500g / 1lb loaf. You could try doubling the recipe for a 2lb loaf but I’m not sure whether that will work well because I’ve never tried that. Likewise, I’m sure it’s fine to substitute the water for oat milk or soy milk but, again, I’ve never tried doing that so I can’t say for sure. You could try it and see what happens? Please do let me know though!
Camilla
LJ says
Do you know if I could just use potato starch without the tapioca? Also could I use oat flour instead of sorghum?
Thanks
Camilla Sanderson says
Hi there. I think it would be ok to use just potato starch without the tapioca but because potato starch sucks up moisture a bit more, it might be a little bit dry so might not rise as well. It shouldn’t make too much difference though. As for the sorghum, you could substitute some of the sorghum for oat flour but I wouldn’t do more than about half. The sorghum flour behaves differently to oat flour and it would affect the dough’s structure. It would also affect the flavour as the sorghum flour is what gives the “bready” flavour. So it is an option but won’t give as good a result as just using sorghum.
Michelle says
Hello - I cannot do sorghum flour, tapioca or potato starch, can I add more grams of the other wholegrain flours (millet, brown rice, buckwheat) and just use arrowroot powder for the starch? Thank you in advance for the help!
Camilla Sanderson says
Hi, so sorry for the delayed reply! If you can't take sorghum flour, then I would increase the amount of brown rice flour by half the sorghum amount and then increase the other wholegrain flours (millet and buckwheat - or the other options given) equally for the rest of the sorghum amount.
As for the tapioca and potato starch, you could try to use just the arrowroot powder. I haven't tried that before so I can't guarantee that it won't be slightly gummy due to the lack of variety of starches but it is less of an issue than the wholegrains which need more variety.
I hope that makes sense! Let me know how it goes! Camilla x
Tom Litzinger says
Dear Camilla,
My wife and I adopted to a whole food, plant-based diet a few months ago. I have been struggling to get good loaves of bread after I switched to whole grain flours without eggs, starches, or Xanthan gum. I had lots of failed loaves until I found your recipe using the blend of psyllium husks and flax seed meal. I can now consistently bake loaves with good structure and shape. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
I am going to share my story with an online whole food, plant-based group that my wife is part of. I would like to include a reference to your recipe and include a link to it. Please let me know.
Tom Litzinger
Camilla Sanderson says
Hello Tom. I’m so thrilled you have found my recipe to be so useful in your new diet. Yes, please do share a link to my recipe Wherever you like on social media. It is super helpful for getting more people to find it. Thank you!! Camilla