An Easy Gluten-Free Blueberry Bread Recipe for Home

Everyone is baking banana bread in self-isolation, so I thought I would make a Blueberry Bread instead.

Of course, I did make a banana bread a week ago, which was almost a fail. I used an extra banana when I didn’t need it, and the bread ended up a lot denser than it should have been, but still tasted great.

In hind site, I probably should of added some baking powder and baking soda to create some air and reduce the density of the bread. For next time should I make the same mistake again.

Why blueberry bread? Honestly, I was just craving the good old days when Aussie Supermarket chain Woolworths used to make the most delicious blueberry muffins. And not the type of muffins, where when you break it open you find one blueberry. These muffins were choc full of blueberries and I loved the texture and taste of eating them.

I wanted to mimic that with my blueberry bread, though I knew the only way I could get that many blueberries into my bread without spending a too much money (because blueberries are $5 a punnet at the moment) was to use tinned. But you know, I was okay with that, because I actually also used the blueberry juice from the tin to colour some icing sugar, and drizzled this all over the blueberry bread.

It was a winner over the Easter long weekend, though this bread can really made any time of the year. So although Easter is over, well we still have Greek Easter this weekend, ignore the Easter style decorations on this blueberry bread and make it whenever you feel like rocking the traditional banana bread recipe, to turn it into something of your own creation.

For this recipe, you do have a few choices. You can either get yourself a packet cake mixture for a gluten-free banana bread, but instead of adding in banana, you add blueberries instead.

Or if you already have a fabulous banana bread recipe you use regularly, just swap the banana ingredient for blueberries and you’re good to go.

Do be mindful of using tinned blueberries though, as they are moisture rich from being soaked in the tinned juices. So strain as much as possible, or it may make the bread very wet, taking longer to cook.

Here’s what you’ll need if you are making from scratch and don’t already have a banana bread recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1/2 cup of self-raising flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of baking soda
• 1 tin of blueberries (or you can use maybe two punnets instead if you prefer)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• Tablespoon of cinnamon
• 125g of soft butter (do not melt, must be soft and easy to blend though)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base and side of an 11 x 21cm x 6cm deep (base) loaf pan.
• Strain the tinned blueberries and keep the juice aside, as you can use this for icing if you want.
• Combine flours, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.
• Whisk butter and eggs together then mix with the dry ingredients.
• I opted to just add my eggs and butter straight in, only as I find that pre-whisking doesn’t seem to make a difference for the recipe. Entirely up to you.
• Add the blueberries and fold through the recipe. They will colour the batter to a deep blue purple tone (yummy).
• Spoon into the loaf tin and bake for 55 minutes
• Once the bread is ready, let it cool for at least ten minutes and serve.

If you are wanted to add a little extra blueberry taste to the bread, then here’s where you’ll need 1 cup of icing sugar and then two teaspoons of the blueberry juice from the tin.

In a small bowl, all you need to do is mix the two teaspoons of the blueberry juice into the icing sugar and mix and mix and mix, until all nicely blended. Then with a large tablespoon, spoon up some of the icing mixture and then haphazardly drizzle all over the bread.

No technique needed, the messier the better, as it will add to the whole look of the bread. AS the juice is derived from the blueberries, you will also find the juice tastes exactly like freshly squeezed blueberries – yum.

I did decorate mine for Easter, as it was made Easter Sunday. But of course, you can leave out the whole icing part and decorating part, as the bread itself tastes super delicious with the blueberries all through it and is super yummy as a weekend delight for yourself, or to make when friends and family come over. After the self-isolation period as ended of course.