The 6 Best Gluten-Free Breads

Sure, the gluten’s out, but what else is in there?

Too often, the “gluten-free” claim is stretched out thin in hopes of covering undesirable ingredients with a big fat certification seal, which is why our list of the 6 best gluten-free breads is all about the fine print.

Obviously, taste and texture are very much in the equation, but if you’re already ditching the gluten for health (and/or comfort) reasons, why simply trade in for cheap ingredients?

In this breakdown of our favorite gluten-free bread brands—Eban’s taking the cake (bad idiom?) for our top pick—we will show you how to sleuth for the tastiest and most nutritious bread without falling victim to the corner-cutters.

Best Overall: Eban’s Bakehouse Oat Bread

• Description

  Hailed by grateful parents for its success with gluten-free kids, the classically bread-like taste and texture of Eban’s Bakehouse Oat Bread makes for a very small departure from standard bread

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Best Value: Mestemacher Original Flaxseed Bread

• Description

  A German staple of no small nutritional value (3 g protein/4 g fiber per slice), this gluten-free rye bread has been a favored fixture of the table for more than a century – even if it does come in weirdly square loaves.

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The Best Gluten-Free Bread

	Best Overall	Gluten-Free	Keto/Paleo
Product	Eban’s Bakehouse	Lakanto	Base Culture
Key Points	Preservative free; made with oat, brown rice, and tapioca flour; soft and bread-like taste and texture; not low in carbs	No added sugar and 2g net carbs per serving; made with resistant tapioca starch, pea and buckwheat flour, and vegetable fibers	4g of net carbs per slice; made with flaxseed meal, eggs, cassava flour, and psyllium husks powder; no sugar alcohols or alternative sweeteners (just honey)
Price*	$11.24/loaf Shop Now	$9.99/12oz  Shop Now	$8.99/loaf Shop Now

Best for: Anyone who wants the nutritional advantage of a preservative- and gluten-free bread while keeping the taste and texture of classic white bread.

Particularly well-reviewed among kids—er, parents of kids—for its deceptively “I-promise-I’m-not-health-food” appearance and taste, Eban’s Bakehouse Oat Bread wins our list for hitting the perfect balance of quality and practicality.

Each soft, pre-sliced loaf is made with a mixture of oat, brown rice, and tapioca flour; organic cane sugar; sea salt; olive oil; and other clean ingredients, with zero preservatives to be found.

The sugar stays to a reasonable 2 grams (added) per slice, and the combination of flours stays mostly within the medium range as far as glycemic index and load go.

That said, Eban’s certainly isn’t the most low-carb bread on the gluten-free spectrum, providing about as much carbohydrate content (13g total per slice) as a regular slice of bread. 

This issue and the bump in price comprise our only two gripes, but if you’re not campaigning against carbs or unwilling to fork over a bit extra for the good stuff, Eban’s Bakehouse Oat Bread is the best tasting gluten free bread in our book.

Best for: Carb cutters and diabetics especially will benefit from this gluten-free and very low carb bread mix.

It took decades, as members of the Lakanto team explained to us during our review process, but they’ve pretty much perfected their monk fruit and erythritol sweetener blend, which is on full display in this All-Purpose Bread Mix.

Like the rest of their products, the use of monk fruit and erythritol keeps net carbs down to 2 grams per serving. 

There are twelve servings in this mix, meaning the entire loaf contains about as much carbs as two slices of regular bread.

Otherwise, this bread mix is made with resistant tapioca starch, pea and buckwheat flour, and vegetable fibers, which make a huge impact on the fiber content (21 grams per serving), offsetting the carbs almost completely.

Though the loaf is a bit smaller, the light and cornbread-like taste creates a neutral foundation on which you can add the embellishments of your choosing: herbs, cheese, etc.

When it comes to both low-carb and gluten-free bread, Lakanto All-Purpose Bread Mix is leading the field in taste, texture, and nutritional value.

Best for: Keto and/or paleo folks looking for the closest alternative to “real bread” as possible without compromising on nutritional value.

Weighing in at 4 grams of net carbs (8 g total, 4 g fiber) per slice, Base Culture Keto Bread will sneak under the wire for all but the strictest of keto followers.

Forming the foundation of this surprisingly soft, certified gluten-free bread are:

• Water
• Eggs
• golden flaxseed meal
• cassava flour
• psyllium husks powder

The rest of the ingredients—while not organic—are clean, including almond butter, honey, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, and baking soda.

The keto diner especially will breathe a sigh of relief at the lack of sugar alcohols and other manufactured sweeteners; Base Culture simply relies on a bit of honey while officially keeping the added sugars at 0 grams.

As for the user experience, you’ll want to keep this bread in the fridge and finish within a few days (unless you’re freezing it), as this and many other gluten-free options won’t stay fresh for as long as most of us are used to.

Though the slices are a bit smaller in size than non-gluten-free bread, the difference is more minor than most cases.

Finally, more than 2k reviews attest to the familiar bread-like taste and texture.

If you’re on keto and mourning the loss of the majestic institution that is sandwich-making, Base Culture Keto Bread is our recommendation.

Best for: Avid label-scanners with high standards looking for a tasty gluten-free bread made with super high-quality ingredients.

We’ll be so bold as to say in the case of Happy Campers Gluten Free Bread that it basically doesn’t get any better on the ingredient quality front.

Here’s what we mean, referring to the ingredients in their Classy Slice loaf:

Filtered Water, Flour Mix* (Whole Grain Millet*, Whole Grain Sorghum*, Whole Grain Buckwheat*, Whole Grain Quinoa*, Whole Grain Amaranth*), Tapioca Flour*, High Oleic Expeller Pressed Sunflower Oil*, Sustainable Palm Oil*, Prebiotic from Tapioca Starch*, Pea Protein*, Apple Cider Vinegar*, Psyllium Husk*, Acacia*, Yeast, Xanthan Gum, Salt, Rowan Berry Fruit Extract* (*Organic)

As attested to by the founders’ story, we can tell this was very much a culmination of frequent trial and error, but with no compromises made along the way.

Simply put, an all-organic and gluten-free bread that steers clear of the top nine allergens is going to be very hard to beat.

However, in the carbs department, each slice is going to run you about 13-14 grams (net) in the case of Classy Slice, which is only a gram or two below the average for regular bread.

The taste and texture are consistently well reviewed, but we noticed the bread often comes with a few too many holes in each slice.

Overall, if it’s a clean conscience you’re striving for, a Classy Slice from Happy Campers Gluten Free Bread is about as sustainable, organic, and clean as it gets.

Best for: Gluten- and/or grain-free folks looking to transcend the sandwich slice for a fancier selection.

Yes, we realize that the baguette, while a treasured piece of culinary history, is not exactly a nutritious food by most metrics.

And while we won’t claim this grain-free iteration from Against the Grain is radically turning that around, we love to see the grain-free and gluten-free bread world expanding as a means of including people with different preferences.

That said, Against the Grain keeps it fairly clean with this baguette—here is the ingredient list:

Tapioca starch, milk, eggs, mozzarella cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, vegetable rennet), non-GMO canola oil, salt. 

The only significant faux pas here—softened slightly by the non-GMO status—is the canola oil, which we aren’t big fans of for the chemical and heat treatments it undergoes, among other issues.

Otherwise, this frozen baguette is among the most well-reviewed we’ve seen on Amazon, where a procession of grateful, grain-free gourmands share a looping testimony of crispness, flavor, and “you can’t tell the difference!”

Grains or no grains, as long as you’re keeping the baguette where it belongs within the context of your normal eating patterns—an occasional indulgence—this take by Against the Grain extends a welcoming hand to those who would be sitting on the sidelines.

Best for: Rye bread fans looking to skip the gluten and/or up the nutritional value of their go-to sliced loaf. 

Really, Mestemacher may have earned more than one superlative (best flaxseed gluten-free bread, at least) for its several advantages over most gluten-free breads, including, to name a few:

• USDA Organic-certified ingredients
• Zero preservatives
• Nutritional benefits of flaxseed

Speaking of flaxseed, here’s the ingredient list: organic whole kernel rye, water, organic wholemeal rye flour, organic flax seed, sea salt, and yeast.

This classic German rye bread enjoyed throughout Europe also provides a solid 4 grams of fiber per slice. Rest assured, you earn every gram with a bit of extra chewing, but Mestemacher nails the classic rye bread taste.

You also get 3 grams of protein per slice, and they keep the sugar to an average 2 grams.

And though they are the most affordable high-quality bread on our list of favorites, we will disclaim that you have to buy a dozen loaves ($59.95 for 12) to hit this price point. Still—definitely a great value for the quality. 

The almost perfectly cubical loaves might throw you at first glance, but despite the funky shape, Mestemacher is always a solid pick for affordable, nutritious gluten-free bread with 150 years of tradition to back it up.

Gluten-Free Bread FAQ

Final Thoughts

• Don’t just stop at gluten-free and call it good. Added sugar and preservatives are still a thing.
• PSA: Organic and/or grain-free bread (that’s also gluten free) is out there. 
• Remember that many, not all, gluten-free options need to be kept in the refrigerator.