diff --git a/core/modules/serialization/src/Normalizer/EntityReferenceFieldItemNormalizer.php b/core/modules/serialization/src/Normalizer/EntityReferenceFieldItemNormalizer.php
index 4706bf403d..558c639d1a 100644
--- a/core/modules/serialization/src/Normalizer/EntityReferenceFieldItemNormalizer.php
+++ b/core/modules/serialization/src/Normalizer/EntityReferenceFieldItemNormalizer.php
@@ -3,11 +3,12 @@
 namespace Drupal\serialization\Normalizer;
 
 use Drupal\Core\Field\Plugin\Field\FieldType\EntityReferenceItem;
+use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Exception\InvalidArgumentException;
 
 /**
  * Adds the file URI to embedded file entities.
  */
-class EntityReferenceFieldItemNormalizer extends ComplexDataNormalizer {
+class EntityReferenceFieldItemNormalizer extends FieldItemNormalizer {
 
   /**
    * The interface or class that this Normalizer supports.
@@ -39,4 +40,11 @@ public function normalize($field_item, $format = NULL, array $context = []) {
     return $values;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * {@inheritdoc}
+   */
+  protected function constructValue($data, $context) {
+    return \Drupal::entityManager()->loadEntityByUuid($data['target_type'], $data['target_uuid']);
+  }
+
 }