6-Ingredient Buckwheat Bread

Many of my clients cannot tolerate gluten or yeast, so it has been my quest for some time to find a simple homemade gluten-free, yeast-free bread alternative.  After doing a Google search, I came across this buckwheat bread recipe and made it myself.  It tasted fine, but was on the dry side.  Also, the bread was dense.  I did the math, and a very small slice was ~130 calories, which may be appropriate for someone with high-calorie needs like an athlete or growing child/teen, but I wanted an alternative that was more moist and not quite as calorie-dense, so I embarked on a recipe experiment.  Instead of adding 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) of olive oil that the original recipe called for, I cut back to 1 Tablespoon oil and replaced the other remaining 3 Tablespoons oil with canned pumpkin in one loaf and unsweetened applesauce in the other loaf.  I was pleasantly surprised, and am excited to share my concoction with you!

6-Ingredient Buckwheat Bread

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup water
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup + 3 additional Tablespoons of gluten free buckwheat flour
• ​1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce, pre-cooked sweet potato (peeled), or 100% pure canned pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease bread loaf pan(s) with some olive oil (spread with your fingers).
3. In a mixing bowl, add the water and olive oil and stir.
4. Add buckwheat flour, applesauce (or sweet potato or canned pumpkin), baking soda, and salt.  Mix well with a spoon until evenly combined.
5. Let the dough sit for several minutes to thicken.
6. Spoon dough into pre-greased bread loaf pan(s) and bake in the center rack of oven for 30-35 minutes.  I baked two mini-loaves at the same time, so 35 minutes was perfect - you may need less time if baking only one mini-loaf, or more time if using a larger-sized bread loaf pan (if you are doing this, you may want to double the recipe to ensure you have enough dough to fill the pan).
7. After baking, insert toothpick in middle of the loaf to ensure toothpick comes out clean.  If there is dough residue on the toothpick, bake for several more minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
8. Invert bread out of the pan and cool on a cooling rack.  After cooling, store in an air-tight container or resealable plastic food storage bag and keep in the fridge - because this bread does not contain sugar, yeast, or preservatives, it may go rancid quickly if not stored at a cool temperature.  Do not refrigerate bread in metal loaf pan.

With the variation above, each slice is about 80 calories (1/8th of entire loaf) - about 50 calories less per slice than the original recipe.  The texture of this bread is soft and spongy with a crusty crust.  The applesauce version came out with a subtle sweet flavor and a darker color (see bread in bread pan in photo below), whereas the pumpkin version (see bread slices on plate below) came out with a slight orange hue and was plain tasting by itself, so you would want to top this variation with something.  If using sweet potato instead of pumpkin, the bread may come out slightly sweet like the applesauce version.  This is a perfect bread to toast and top with your favorite nut butter and apple butter for a quick breakfast, drizzle with some olive oil to be served with dinner, or spread with some honey or maple syrup for a no-frills dessert.  Enjoy!  ​😋
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