The Best Gluten Free Crusty French Bread

This is absolutely the best gluten-free French bread. It’s crusty. It’s squishy. And it’s so good you can serve it to anyone in your home — those that eat gluten and those that don’t. I serve it to guests often and they are surprised I can eat it. When we explain it’s gluten-free they just don’t believe it. This bread is a keeper.

It goes well with my Chicken & Bean Soup or Hearty Chili with Vegetables. Additionally, you could serve it on pasta night with my Amazing Spaghetti with Vegetables, with a salad for a light dinner.

If you have never made gluten-free bread before, it is ok! We are going to walk through it step by step and help you know what to expect.

One of the first things you are going to need is a kitchen scale. A kitchen scale is a vital piece of equipment in gluten-free baking — we just can’t measure with cups and get the desired texture. You will also need three bowls for measuring. Additionally, we will use either a mixer or a large bowl for kneading the dough.

To get started with gluten-free crusty French bread, you will need a few special ingredients. These will come from your gluten-free pantry items. The most unusual is psyllium husk. This is an essential ingredient. Our bread will not work without it. The best version I have found is on Amazon. This psyllium husk is light in color and has a good flavor. We will mix it with water to form a gel. Unbelievably this will replace gluten and build a strong structure for our bread.

Our first bowl will be yeast, water, and sugar. By letting the yeast sit while we gather the other ingredients we can prove that it’s active and ready to use — it will get all frothy as it sits.

The second bowl will be the psyllium husk and water mix. As it sits the two will form a gel essential to the bread.

Our third and largest bowl will be the remaining dry ingredients. If you are making the dough by hand, you can use this largest bowl to combine all the ingredients together.

When you first add all the ingredients to the bowl of your mixer, it will appear separated, dry, and look nothing like bread dough. Please be patient. After a few minutes, the dough will come together and start to collect into a large ball as you can see in the first photo. Keep on kneading.

Unlike bread with gluten, for gluten-free bread, it’s important to keep kneading past this point. You want to knead until the flours absorb all the liquid. You will know this has happened when the ball starts to relax and the dough spreads in a mixer, shown in the second photo.

If making the dough by hand, add all of the ingredients to a large bowl. Knead with your hands or a dough whisk. The dough will be very dry at first. Keep working the dough in the bowl until most of it comes together into one ball. Then transfer it to the counter and keep kneading. You will know it is done when it is very uniform in texture and starts sticking to the counter a little bit.

Please note — the recipe indicates adding the apple cider vinegar very last directly to the mixer after the dough has had a few minutes to come together. If you add the vinegar too early, the vinegar will react with the psyllium husk and turn the dough purple. No one wants purple dough, so be sure to wait to add the vinegar.

Prepare a cookie sheet or French bread pan with parchment paper. You will want to fold it in half and then open it a bit. We are going to use parchment paper to keep the loaves from joining together in the oven as gluten-free bread loves to spread sideways. Using the French bread pan will minimize the spread and make the loaf slightly more round.

To shape the bread divide it into two equal portions. Using a little brown rice flour on the counter, flatten it out into a rough rectangle. Roll the rectangle up into a log. Then squish the ends and the bottom seam so they are no longer open. Roll the log a few times on the counter to smooth it out. Place the dough onto the prepared pan. Next roll the second half of the dough in the same way.

Place the two loaves side by side, making sure to leave the parchment high between the loaves so that they will stay separated during baking. I often spritz my bread with a little water before covering it to rise. It helps keep the tops soft.

Next, cover and let the bread rise for 40-60 minutes. Depending on the temperature in your room adjust the time for the rise — if it’s warm, use the shorter time. If it’s a cold winter day let it rise a bit longer. Now the dough won’t double, but it will get larger in size. About 30 minutes into the rise start warming the oven — don’t forget to add a metal pan on the bottom rack for our steam bath.

Just before putting the bread in the oven, slash four or five deep cuts that overlap into the top of the bread. The scoring should be between 1/4 to 1/2 inches deep. Add your loaves to the hot oven and be sure not to forget to add about a half inch of water to the hot pan on the lower rack.

Bake that beautiful bread for about 40 minutes, turning halfway. Let it sit on a cooling rack after it comes out of the oven for at least 15 minutes. It’s best if you let it cool all the way, but warm fresh bread is such an indulgence it is hard to wait.

If you don’t finish all the bread in one sitting, slice it as desired and freeze. To eat later, warm the slices up in a microwave. If the slices seem firm, warm them a little more. It is usually about 30 seconds per slice in my microwave at home.