Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family’s Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What’s not to love?
Paska, a Ukrainian Easter Bread, is a sweetened bread filled with lemon and orange zest, topped with icing and sprinkles.
I remember my Grandma baking loaves and loaves of Paska at Easter when I was a kid. She would actually bake it in large, empty coffee tins, making a giant round loaf, with a huge domed end. My Mom often baked Paska into buns instead of bread, which I liked, because it meant more icing.
When I was diagnosed with celiac disease 8 years ago, one of the first things I did was figure out how to make Gluten Free Easter Bread, and I shared a recipe for it too. But since then, I’ve changed the way I bake – I use different flours, and just do things differently now – and I felt it was time for this recipe to get revised.
I decided to bake these buns in muffin tins, because I knew they would hold their shape this way. I haven’t tried baking them in a 9×13-inch pan yet, but if you do, please let me know how it worked for you. I also think this would make a great loaf of bread, you would just need to increase the baking time.
I thought it would be a few tweaks to existing recipes, and I’d have a great gluten free Easter Bread. Little did I know!
The perfectionist in me came out, and now, five versions later, I’m proud to say I have a great Gluten Free Easter Bread recipe to share with you. This one also got the family’s thumbs up, which should say something, since none of them have to eat gluten free. I hope you enjoy it as well!
Tools to help make this Gluten Free Easter Bread even easier:
Other Easter treats you may like:
- Gluten Free No Bake Chocolate Nests
- Gluten Free Hot Cross Scones
- Gluten Free Lemon Bars
- Gluten Free, Dairy Free Hot Cross Buns from My Gluten-Free Kitchen
- Gluten Free Vegan Raspberry Sweet Rolls from Allergy Free Alaska
Gluten Free Easter Bread
Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family's Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What's not to love?
Ingredients
Easter Bread:
- Zest of 1 medium sized orange (about 2-3 teaspoons)
- Zest of 1 medium sized lemon (about 1 1/2-2 teaspoons)
- Juice of 1/2 an orange
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- Enough milk to make 1 cup (250 ml); see instructions
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) oil
- 1 cup (160 g) brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup (60 g) millet flour
- 1/2 cup (63 g) tapioca starch
- 1/3 cup (67 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (25 g) dry milk powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 ml) rapid rise yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 ml) xanthan gum
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) salt
Frosting:
- 1 cup (125 g) Confectioners' (icing) sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) unsalted butter, softened
- 1-2 Tablespoons (15-30 ml) orange juice
- Sprinkles or shredded coconut for topping (optional)
Instructions
Easter Bread:
- Zest the orange and lemon into a large glass measuring cup. Squeeze the juice from half of each fruit into the measuring cup as well. Add enough milk to make 1 cup (250 ml) total liquid. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds, just to warm it up slightly. Stir. Add the oil and eggs and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to whisk together the brown rice flour, millet flour, tapioca starch, sugar, powdered milk, yeast, xanthan gum, and salt.
- With the mixer running on low, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer up to medium speed, and beat for 2 minutes.
- Grease a muffin tin with butter or oil. Scoop the dough into the prepared pan. I use my large cookie scoop, dipped in water, to do this easily. Divide the dough between the muffin cups, I got between 11 & 12, depending on how big I made the buns.
- Dip your finger in water to smooth the tops of the buns.
- Place the buns in a warm, draft-free area to rise for 30-45 minutes. I like to turn the oven on to the lowest temperature, just so it warms up in the oven, before turning the oven off, and placing the buns inside to rise.
- Bake the buns in a preheated 350 degree F (176 degree C) oven for 18-20 minutes. Because of the higher sugar content, the buns will brown quite a bit when baking. If you notice them browning too much, you can cover the top loosely with foil.
- Once buns are finished baking, remove them from the muffin tin and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Frost them before serving.
Frosting:
- Beat together the Confectioners' sugar, butter, and orange juice until smooth. Spread on top of the buns before topping with sprinkles or shredded coconut. (optional)
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Ginger says
I’ve never had this type of bread before, but my goodness the crumb on that one that’s cut in half is gorgeous! I’ll be trying this over the weekend.
Jeanine says
Thanks, Ginger! Enjoy!
Ginger says
These turned out so beautiful! My family and I really enjoyed them.
Amanda says
Yay! I am so excited to see this recipe and can’t wait to try it! My husbands Italian family ALWAYS has Easter bread and I can’t have any of it 🙁 I will be making this immediately!
Thanks!
Amanda
Jeanine says
Yeah! Problem solved! 🙂 Enjoy, Amanda!
Heather says
Ooooh! YAY! Thanks for this recipe! I”ll be making this for Easter as well. I believe I made your original recipe awhile back, it was great! I am loving the idea of making mini Paska breads 🙂 Thanks so much, Jeanine!
Jeanine says
You’re welcome, Heather! Happy Easter!
Tiffany says
What could be used as a substitute for dry milk powder?
Jeanine says
You can use dairy-free powdered milk (like this: http://amzn.to/1Sbcqgo ) or you can substitute with almond flour (which would be my preference).
Brigitte says
Would you prefer almond flour over coconut milk powder? Thanks for the help!
Jennifer D'Agostino says
Thoughts on using a Bundt pan for this?
Rachel M. says
Personally, I think it would work because Jeanine made it muffin pans. The recipe is great either way. 🙂
Brigitte says
Yay, thank you for this! My next task is to adapt this to make it vegan-friendly. Wish me luck!
Marge says
Would it work to substitute 1/4 cup instant pudding mix for the dry milk powder and reduce the granulated sugar a bit?
Jeanette Gitzel says
Made these today. Easy recipe to follow, crumb, taste and smell were great, will add a touch more salt next time but a great recipe thanks!
Kara says
Worked great! thanks so much! I changed the brown flour to a GF chapati flour mix and millet to sweet sorghum but otherwise kept the same. I made it in the coffee tin and was even able to get it out in one piece!
Jeanine says
So glad to hear that, Kara! Thanks for sharing the substitutions that worked for you! And Woot! Woot! Way to follow tradition the whole way and use a coffee tin! I’m beyond impressed!
Linda says
Hi Jeanine,
Sadly, I used Robin Hood All-Purpose gluten-free flour, instead of the flour blend in your recipe. BIG mistake! In part, I may have over-baked them a bit (though it less than your recommended time), but the muffins were very crumbly and dry. Not at all bread-like.
Just wanted to mention the TYPE of gf flour aspect to everyone as a precaution. One ingredient in Robin Hood gf flour is pea flour, which may be the main culprit(?). I once used pea flour in another recipe with the same drying results. The baked item would basically dry out the tongue on contact! 🙁
Karla says
Thanks so much for the recipe! I made a few modifications: almond flour instead of the dry milk powder, sweet sorghum flour instead of millet and I also used almond milk instead of normal milk. They had a really nice taste and texture.
Shelly Hyde says
Thank you for this recipe! It was delicious! The texture and flavor were excellent! Even my non-gf family members were impressed. It was the closest to my little Ukrainian baba’s recipe, but a lot easier!
I did make some substitutions and I’m mentioning them in case it helps someone else:
I had a lot of Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour on hand, so I used that instead of the brown rice, millet and tapioca flours and xantham gum. Per your recommendation on another comment, I subbed almond flour for the dry milk powder. I baked it in a 1.5L round, Corelle pan for about 40 minutes. It was really wonderful!
Jeanine says
Thanks, Shelly! And thank you so much for sharing your substitutions too – that will help others in the future, I’m sure!
Andrea says
Thank you! I will need to make those same substitutions! I appreciate you sharing.
Deyra says
Thank you for this! I am about to bake a bunch of it, and don’t have the flour blends on hand! Thaaank you!
Lori says
OMG!!!!!! Thank you! The first batch flopped. But the second batch was amazing! Tomorrow I’m going to try anise flavor.
Nastya says
Hi, I want to make these for Pascha this year but due to covid, I am not able to find a lot of these flours, yeast or xanthum gum in my store. I also can’t use dried milk powder but I see above that I could substitute almond flour for that. I have all of the flours, plus almond and coconut flours. I was going to sub baking powder for the yeast but I was wondering if you had any recs for these flour/yeast/xanthum gum substitutions given that you have experience with this recipe. Should I still add the same amounts? Any advice would help. Thank you!
Grace says
Just baked 12 Paska muffins. So thrilled. My husband grew up Mennonite and just loves Paska. He was diagnosed 15 months ago so last Easter was disappointing for him not to have Paska. Thank you so much.
Nancy Suite says
Hi there! I am about to make this recipe and was looking for the dry milk powder. The store only had non-fat dry milk powder. Is that what you used? Or did you use whole dry milk powder. Thank you in advance.
Cara says
This turned out great! I had a recipe I was using previously with gelatin in it – this turned out better. I also used 2 cups GF flour blend and omitted the powdered milk and it turned out wonderful! My daughter is very happy and doesn’t have to feel left out this Easter 😊
Donna Pierangeli says
Is ,water ok to use as a sub for dry milk powder? I read on my gf website its ok.