This bread is made with actual rice—not rice flour—and costs less than $2 to make.
In many ways, switching to a gluten-free diet was easier than I thought. I can usually make gluten-free versions of my favorite foods with simple swaps like chickpea pasta, corn tortillas, tamari or gluten-free salad dressings. But sandwiches … sandwiches are tricky. Gluten-free bread has come a long way, but recipes tend to rely on a complicated mix of flours and binders like xanthan gum and psyllium husk to mimic the elasticity of a gluten network. I have 12 types of starches and flours in my pantry, and still haven’t found a recipe I love.
Those flours are spendy, and GF bread isn’t exactly kind on the wallet. So I was thrilled when I stumbled across a blender rice bread recipe. For starters, making bread in a blender sounds easy. I love no-knead bread, and I can clean my blender by putting soapy water in the jar and blitzing it. But the real selling point came when I realized the recipe calls for actual grains of rice, not rice flour.
But would it work? I’d already successfully tackled several GF hacks from TikTok videos, but I’d also tried ones that were a complete fail. It felt worth the risk, so I dove in with fingers crossed.
Wait, you can make bread in a blender?
Blender bread is new to me, but it’s not new. You can use a blender to create no-knead, batter-based breads with all kinds of ingredients, like flour, oats, lentils or, in this case, rice. I’ve seen several versions of blender rice bread floating around on social media, so it was difficult to pinpoint the original creator. The earliest recipes I could find are from chef George Lee (@chez_jorge), who posted a TikTok video in 2021, right around the same time that Chef Steps posted its recipe.
I experimented with several versions until I developed a recipe that really delivered. The first attempt produced a short loaf that tasted great, but didn’t really hit the sandwich vibe. The second attempt had too much batter and overflowed as it baked (oops!). The third attempt was my Goldilocks, creating a loaf that was the exact height of my 1-pound loaf pan.
Do you have to soak rice overnight for blender bread?
The key to this recipe is soaking the grains overnight. I tried really, really hard to find a way around that, but I couldn’t find a shortcut that worked.
Quick-soaking (similar to quick-soaking beans) the rice led to a horrible, sticky mess. Soaking the rice in hot water for 30 minutes turned the batter thick and and the bread unpleasantly porridge-like. I had mild success soaking the rice for only two hours, but the bread’s texture was significantly improved with a longer soak. So is it annoying to have to plan ahead and soak rice overnight? Yes. But will it make your bread better? Also, yes.
Is blender rice bread worth it?
All my experimenting was absolutely worth it. This blender rice bread recipe produces a reliable loaf with a crisp exterior and a fluffy texture. It’s slightly reminiscent of mochi, but it’s nowhere near as gummy as some gluten-free breads I’ve tried. It captures rice’s naturally sweet flavor, while the oil and salt add enough savoriness that I found myself eating slices out of hand. And, most importantly, it makes an incredible sandwich. Even my non-GF eaters agreed it was the perfect sandwich bread. Goal, accomplished!
Whether you’re on a gluten-free diet or not, this recipe really feels worth it considering the cost. When I tallied up the price of all the ingredients, it came out to $1.78 per loaf—$0.76 for the yeast, $0.86 for the rice and $0.16 for the oil, salt and sugar. That’s cheaper than a standard loaf of wheat bread, and some gluten-free loaves go for $7 at the store. And none of them taste as good as this.
How to Make Blender Rice Bread
This recipe requires only five minutes of hands-on time (plus an overnight soak for the rice, up to an hour for the batter to rise, and another 30 minutes for the bread to bake). I scaled it to fit in my 1-pound loaf pan, but you can adjust the recipe accordingly if you’re using other loaf pan sizes.
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