Gluten-Free Cheddar Cheese Quick Bread Recipe (2024)

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I’m so happy to share this Gluten-Free Cheese Bread recipe from the great Carol Fenster with you today! I promised I’d be sharing this recipe later with you when I shared her Gluten-Free Crepesand I’m finally getting to it.

For years, I’ve had plans to convert a favorite standby recipe for cheddar cheese quick bread to gluten free but somehow that recipe has remained in the back of my recipe box, “as is”—i.e., gluten full.

Yes, I still have a recipe box and no, thankfully, I did not throw away all my old favorite recipes because 15 years after going gluten free, I am still converting my old gluten-full recipes to gluten free. It’s one of my favorite things to do but obviously, it does takes time and things can easily be pushed to the back burner.

So needless to say, I was thrilled when Carol sent me a complimentary review copy of her latest cookbook Gluten-Free Cooking for Two: 125 Favorites and I found her recipe for Gluten-Free Cheese Bread inside!

Carol actually calls it Cheddar Bread. As there are only two of us at home, Carol’s recipe for a smaller loaf was a godsend. By the way, that’s a photo of it on the cover of Carol’s cookbook below.

Carol says this savory quick bread complements soups and main-dish salads — a nice way to add a bit of heft to an otherwise light meal. She points out that extra-sharp cheddar produces the most pronounced flavor, but the bread is delicious with mild cheddar as well. As she says, shredded cheese melts right into the bread, while diced cheese produces cheesy pockets.

Everything Carol says is spot on! I’ve made this recipe numerous times since then and in numerous ways—including using other cheeses—and they’ve all resulted in delicious Gluten-Free Cheese Bread.

Sometimes just seeing that I have a small amount of cheddar cheese to use will inspire me to make a loaf! I’ve used more cheese than the recipe has called for when I didn’t want to bother with saving only a tablespoon or two for another use later and that has worked out just fine.

I mean … extra cheese. Who complains about more cheese? Nobody that I know!

Gluten-Free Cheese Bread Recipe

Yield: 6 slices

Gluten-Free Cheese Bread (aka Cheddar Cheese Bread)

Ingredients

½ cup Carol’s Gluten-Free Flour Blend (see recipe in notes; or use your favorite gluten-free flour mix)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp xanthan gum (see notes)
½ tsp onion powder
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tbsp unsalted butter, buttery spread, or coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
½ cup (2 ounces) coarsely shredded or diced cheddar cheese or Daiya cheddar-style shreds
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese or soy Parmesan, divided evenly
Milk (dairy or dairy-free), if needed (see notes)

Instructions

Place a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375F. Generously grease a mini 3 ¼ x 5 3/4 -inch nonstick loaf pan (gray, not black).
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour blend, sugar, baking powder, xanthan gum, and onion powder until well blended.
Add the egg and butter and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well blended, about 30 seconds.
Gently stir in the cheddar and 1 tablespoon of the Parmesan. The dough will be somewhat stiff. (Shirley here: If you’re using a more absorbent flour mix like my flour mix, which predominantly features rice flour and cornstarch, you may need to add milk at this point to make the mixture spreadable. See specifics in notes.)
Spread the batter evenly in the pan and smooth the top with a wet spatula. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon Parmesan on top.
Bake, rotating the pan halfway through baking until the top is browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. If necessary, cover with foil after 15 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning. Shirley here: This is important. If you’re using a more absorbent flour mix such as one which predominantly features rice flour and cornstarch like my flour mix, baking time can be far less, only about 20 to 25 minutes in my experience.)
Cool the bread about 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Remove the bread from the pan and cool for up to 20 minutes on the rack. Serve slightly warm.

Notes

Makes 4 slices (one 3 ¼ x 5 3/4-inch loaf).

Carol’s Gluten-Free Flour Blend

1 ½ cups brown rice flour (or sorghum flour)
1 ½ cups potato starch
1 cup tapioca flour

Whisk together until thoroughly blended. Store, tightly covered, in a dark, dry place for up to 3 months.

Shirley’s Notes:

Add additional milk (dairy or non-dairy) if needed to make dough spreadable if using another flour blend (e.g., my Two-Ingredient Gluten-Free Flour Mix) that is more absorbent. Start with ¼ cup and increase by a tablespoon until you have the right consistency for pouring/spreading into loaf pan.

I omitted the xanthan gum and saw no difference in my results at all. However, note that the Two-Ingredient Gluten-Free Flour Mix that I use may be better at binding ingredients than other flour mixes.

I don’t use a mixer. I simply mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon.

I also cool this bread far less time for us—because we’re always ready to eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven---and have never had an issue with it falling apart.

When I’ve made this recipe dairy free, in addition to using non-dairy cheese options in place of the cheddar cheese, I’ve used nutritional yeast in place of the Parmesan.

Text and image from GLUTEN-FREE COOKING FOR TWO by Carol Fenster and Tom Hirschfeld. Copyright © 2017 by Carol Fenster and Tom Hirschfeld. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

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Originally published June 12, 2018; updated March 31, 2024.