I made the decision two and a half years ago to have our family go gluten free. I have no issues myself with gluten, but my son Tristan is sensitive to it and was a different child once we took gluten out of his system. One of my hardest transitions going gluten free was bread. I love bread and I struggle staying gluten free because it is my biggest cheat. The thought of giving up French toast, sandwiches, especially grilled cheese made the bread lover inside of me cringe. When we first went gluten free I tried baking bread, but half the time it would rise and then fall or not cook enough in the center. I gave up and simply did not give my son bread. Recently, I decided to try cooking bread again, but this time not in my oven, but my crock pot.
You can make bread in your crock pot? Yes you can and once you figure it out it is not that hard. There is a science to it and I am still learning, but I am in love with cooking bread in my crock pot. Yesterday, I decided to try and make gluten free bread from scratch again and not from a box like I usually do. I had five crock pots thanks to generous neighbors who lent me theirs so I could cook more bread quicker. I made two sandwich breads and three sweet breads. I had successes and failures, but I learned a lot. I feel cooking bread in your crock pot is an awesome idea.
What I learned this go around:
Do not leave your dry ingredients out in a bowl and use the bathroom or your five year old son will “help” you out by dumping water into the bowl making you waste a batch of flours, salt, and soda. In all seriousness though here are a few tips I have to make your crock pot baking a success.
- Make sure you thoroughly grease your bread pans because all of my sweet breads stuck to their pans like a tongue to a frozen pole. I thought I greased my pans enough, but I guess you can never grease a pan enough if you want your bread to come out whole or in chunks and crumbs.
- Different crock pots cook at different temperatures and because of this you will need to watch your cook times the first couple of times you bake your bread in the crock pot. Once you figure out the time simply mix up your ingredients, put it in the crock pot, set your timer and go.
- With the bread recipes I tried yesterday I did end up putting a spoon between the lid rubber seal and the crock pot to create an air hole for the steam to leave. I did this because when I have done this before with breads from scratch they rise to quickly and then fall on me as soon as they cool.
- I always put a buffer between my pan and the bottom of the crock pot. Some crock pot bakers suggest crumpled aluminum foil, but I use canning rings placed on the bottom of the crock pot.
I believe not all bread recipes are meant for the crock pot. I have made this one particular sandwich bread three times now in my crock pot from The Baking Beauties and it always falls on me. I am not a baker so it probably is baker error on my part, but the bread is outstanding. The texture is lovely and the taste is very yummy. I may have to try it with my oven it is that good.
The other sandwich bread recipe I made is from Karina at Gluten-Free Goddess. I love her blog and the recipes she comes up with so I tried her sandwich bread recipe. This particular recipe is made for a bread machine, but it also works well for a crock pot too.
Five Crock Pots, Five Gluten Free Breads, and a Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups of Sorghum Flour
- 1 Cup Tapioca Starch
- 1/2 Cup Gluten-Free Oat Flour
- 1 1/4 Teaspoons Sea Salt
- 2 Teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1 Package Rapid Dry Yeast
- 1 1/4 Cups warm water
- 3 Tablespoons of olive oil I used extra virgin
- 1 Tablespoon honey or agave nectar I used honey
- 1/2 Teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 Eggs beaten
- Spray or grease for your bread pan not the crock pot
- Crock Pot Bread
Instructions
- With the crock pot I have found you do not need to put your dry yeast in your warm water to activate it and make it froth. The crock pot creates a warm and moist environment conducive to your bread rising without any issues.
- Take all your dry ingredients and mix in a separate mixing bowl.
- If you own a stand mixer like I do put all your wet ingredients in your mixers bowl first. I do this because I always seem to have a dry spot at the bottom and center of my bowl where the dough paddle cannot reach.
- Once all the wet ingredients are whipped together add in 1/4 cup of the dry ingredients at a time, stopping your mixer to use a soft spatula to get any dry flour from the sides of your bowl.
- Place crumpled tin foil or canning lids like I do on the bottom of your crock pot.
- Grease your bread pan, I use a regular sized bread pan that fit perfectly in my six quart crock pot.
- Pour your dough into the greased bread pan using your soft spatula to smooth the top and make the top even.
- Place bread pan on top of canning lids inside of your crock pot and cover with the lid.
- Add a spoon between the crock pot and rubber seal of lid to create a hole for steam to leave.
- Turn your crock pot on high and walk away. My bread took me two and three quarter hours to cook, but I recommend the first couple times you check it at the two hour mark to be safe.
- Once cooked take pan with bread out of crock pot, then take bread out of bread pan and place on wire rack to cool.
I recently cracked my crockpot insert when I baked some bread in it and it overflowed. I took my bread out and didn’t want to make it hard to clean so I added what I thought was warm soapy water but it was not warm enough and I heard cracks and pops and sure enough the bottom cracked. I still love the idea and will continue to use my cracked crockpot to cook bread since it is not crack all the way just not good for liquids. I just want to warn anyone if your bread overflows be sure to let the stoneware cool before you try to remove the overflowed bread with water. So now I have to buy a new slowcooker and was wondering if you had a preference in your baking experience with either the Hamilton Beach or Crockpot brand? I have always bought Crockpot brand but hate they stopped making the stoneware insert for my current model so now I have to get a totally new one. I have read reviews that some heat up too much others not enough any opinions with your experience cooking and baking in one?
Hi Diana,
Sorry to hear about your crock pot that is no good and thanks for the tip! The crock pot I have is the red Crock Pot one and I am not a brand snob so not sure I have a preference. My hubby got our red one around Christmas on a Black Friday deal for $20. It has worked great for us and we are happy with it. I have baked a lot of bread in my model without too much trouble at all. Hope this helps or others chime in that see your post. <3 Amee
I made the Basic sandwich bread by Annalisa Roberts in classic baking. The bread baked nicely in just 2 1/2 hours. I used a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan. The bread did fall in the middle. It was the first time making that recipe. I had all the ingredients for it an didn’t have gluten free oats so I didn’t use your recipe. My gf breads always seem to fall even in the bread machine. I like the shape of the loaf before it fell. I will definetly try this again. I was wondering if you ever tried starting at low and then changing the setting to high after the first 30 minutes. I read that having the bread rise too fast can cause it to fall. I am going to try that next time but I also read too much liquid in the recipe and make it fall so I will also be reducing the liquid.
Hi Diana,
Sorry to hear the bread fell, but that is because it rose too fast. You might have to crack the lid to let some air flow in. I have never tried your trick, but it might just work. 🙂 Amee
Just curious, I took a quick look but did not see anything about a calorie count. I just tried this and it was good, but curious as to how I would count it for this healthy life style program I am looking into.
Thanks
Hi Lisa,
I am not sure about the calorie count as I found this recipe via https://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/02/delicious-gluten-free-bread.html?m=1 as I gave credit to in my post. Maybe Karina would have a better idea. Sorry wish I could help more, but I am not sure. Thanks. Amee
Thank you for sharing. Bread is the biggest reason for not going Gluten Free here; my boys and husband live on PB&J. I am going to look for the supplies and try a batch.
Hi Cariann,
Hope it works for you!
Amee
Hello! I was wondering if I could sub almond or mulit-purpose (or some other kind of GF flour) for the Oat flour. That is the only one I don’t have. Or (and this could be a dumb question lol) but is Oat flour just oats ground up that you made on your own?
Hi Jenna,
Yes you can use other gf flours, but the texture, cooking time, and how the bread cooks might be different. As for your other question first it is NOT a dumb question because I never knew oat flour was oat ground up. So if you have any on hand just use your blender or food processor and make your own. 🙂
Happy Baking,
Amee
Perfect! Thank you so much. I’ll just make my own! You saved me a lot of time of searching for oat flour 🙂
I finally got a chance to try and make this and come to find out, I do not have a bread pan that will fit in my crockpot. 🙁 I believe I have the same one as the one you have on the far left. What size bread pan did you use? I’m wondering if I should cut the recipe in half or if it’ll all fit in one of the store bought small aluminum bread pans?
If it is the oval one I used a regular sized aluminum bread pan, but I have also used an oval Corningwear dish too. You might have to experiment on the pan size you use. Hope this helps!
Happy New Year!
Amee
Hi, can you sub the sorghum flour or oat for coconut? I’m into this new coconut kick!!
Thanks!
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I have not used coconut that much as I recently found the flour myself a few months ago. I know with coconut you need to usually add more eggs, but the only way to know is to try it. I experiment a lot and yes it is costly, but how will you ever know. Sorghum flour is very similar consistency to wheat flour which is why I like it because you can sub it in a 1 to 1 ratio when converting a gluten recipe to gluten free. If you do try it let me know which recipe you did and if it worked. Oh and how it tasted!
Hugs,
Amee
thanks for getting back to me. I am going to try it soon. I have a 1 yr old so i just need to find the time! lol….but when i do i will let you know..take care!
lisa
Just found this on Pinterest and I’m so excited! My daughter just started having to follow a GF diet and I cannot find a bread that is good. Having never made bread, how do you know when it is done, especially in the crock pot?
Hi Julie,
You should be able to tap it and it will sound hallow. You can also make a boxed version in my other crock pot post in the crock pot too and also oven and that is how I know it is done. Going GF is not so bad and actually if you like to bake coconut and almond flour are very nice too. Oh and Sorghum flour is very good too it is a great flour because you can sub it 1 to 1 for regular gluten flour in most recipes.
Glad you found me via Pinterest! 🙂 Amee
Do you find that making your bread is more economical than buying premade breads like Udi bread?
Hi Aris,
I think for my situation it does save me money over a brand like Udis, especially if I do not make bread from a box of premixed ingredients. I buy a lot of my flour in bulk from Bob’s Red Mill because it is cheaper that way. Also nothing against Udis, but their bread pieces are small and I can use only two pieces of my bread to make each of my children sandwiches because I cut each piece in half and give them a sandwhich roughly the size of the one slice of Udis bread. My bread is more like regular bread and you can make double batches and freeze those too. It really depends on the family and for me yes I believe it saves me money. Thanks Amee
Thank you so much for responding. My husband has celiac and loves bread. He often complains about how small the Udi bread slices are and how little you get for the price. So I’m strongly considering trying my hand at making own. I’ve never made bread before but the info you’ve provided seems doable.
Hi Aris,
You can do it! It might take a few tries, but once you get a system you will never buy bread again. 🙂 Amee
I am very excited to find this recipe. My husband has a gluten sensitivity. Can you please clarify how much sea salt? I am also new to crockpot baking and cant even guess. Thanks!!
Hi Beth,
Oh boy it is a teaspoon thank you I fixed it in the post. My little boy is sensitive as well so my recipes will be friendly to your hubby’s gut. :). Amee