Gluten Free Easy Buckwheat Bread

This Buckwheat bread is not only gluten free, but also grain, dairy, nut, starches, yeast, gums, added oils and sugar free. The list of ingredients is short and has products which can be found in every household pantry. Buckwheat flour is the only flour used in this recipe. Oil, usually present in bread recipes, is substituted with pure apple puree/sauce without added sugar. The process of batter preparation and bread baking is fast and simple. Depending on baking regime, the loaf can be baked in 40 or 60 minutes, and the whole process takes 60-80 minutes.

Apple puree or sauce could be replaced by the fresh apple pieces, or vegetable puree. In my experiments I have baked beetroot bread, as well as the loaf based on vegetable puree, made from vegetables used to make chicken stock (carrots,cauliflower, onion, leek). On the photo below from left to right: vegetable puree bread, fresh apple bread, apple puree bread, beetroot puree bread.

These bread loaves were baked in baking pans of different sizes different – 3 of them in the pan 20cm x 10cm and one in 21cm x 11cm Measured on the top of the pan). I have also baked apple puree bread in mini loaves baking tray. The portion of the batter listed in this recipe gives 4 mini loaves.

Buckwheat bread is easy to bake, it has dense, but soft texture, when cut it does not give a lot of crumbs. If consumed just as bread, you might find it a touch on a dry side, though it is perfect for sandwiches.

My favourite among all listed breads is the one with apple puree in the batter. Apple products used in the recipe are easy to buy now in any supermarket. I used 2 brands of apple puree – SPC and Aldi brand. Blended commercial cooked apple pie filling (no sugar added) can be used as an apple component in this recipe as well.

Ingredients:

• 150g apple puree (fresh apple pieces, cooked vegetables puree, beetroot puree)
• 2 large eggs
• 130g buckwheat flour
• 10g flaxseed meal (roughly grounded flax seeds)
• 1/2 tea spoon cumin or garlic powder (2g)
• 6g baking powder
• 4g sea salt
• sesame seeds (optional)
• unsalted butter or coconut oil to grease baking tin

Note: Buckwheat flour can vary in its liquid absorption capacity. The batter have to be thick, close to the consistency of a runny porridge. I baked this bread with 130g and 140g buckwheat flour, using Lotus brand and Ceres brand. Both quantities worked well, but I have found 130g quantity of buckwheat flour to give just enough thickness of the batter, while 140g make the batter too thick to raise well.

Photos below show the images of ingredients for vegetable puree bread with garlic powder and white sesame seeds on top of the loaf, and bread with fresh apple pieces with cumin powder and black sesame seeds.

The pan showed on the photo above was used to bake apple puree bread.

Preparation:

• prepare apple or vegetable puree or use commercial one, alternatively peel, core and dice green apples
• whisk eggs with apple puree

• or process apple pieces with eggs in food processor

• mix all dry ingredients: buckwheat flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, salt, garlic powder or cumin powder

• add dry ingredients to wet ingredients
• mix them well
• transfer the batter to a greased baking tin

apple puree batter

vegetable puree and fresh apple pieces batter

beetroot puree batter

• bake in preheated to 170C oven – 60 min no fan , fan-forced 40-45 min for a bread loaves, or 30 min for mini loaves

• rest bread loaves on a wire rack, either in switched off oven, or at the room temperature

There was practically no difference in the texture of the bread when different types of puree were used, either from apples or vegetables. Very little difference was in the taste of all those breads. However, the choice between fresh apple and apple puree/sauce was simple for me. It was much more practical to use commercial pure apple puree in terms of both ingredient and batter preparation.

Apple puree bread, on the right, had more fine texture and cracked less during baking. To minimise the cracks in bread crust use no fan baking regime, the batter will raise slower and will split less in the process.

For those of you who tries to avoid rice flour, which is present in baking powder, and uses baking soda, I have baked the recipe with apple puree, cumin powder with no-fan baking regime for 60 min. The colour of the bread was much darker as the result, but everything else was just the same. The quantity of baking soda is less than baking powder.