Finally, it is here, on the site,
My basic whole grain, tender and sour gluten free sourdough bread recipe.
I know you’ve been waiting so long for this to be here, and for that I am sorry.
See, life has a way of putting obstacles in the pathway to posting for me.
This week my “new” office manager resigned. She wanted to experience the world of a naturopathic physician before she made the commitment to 4+ years of education and $200,000 worth of student loans.
She wanted to see how amazing the medicine truly is for patients, and what she saw confirmed that for her.
But learning about the back of house realities of having a busy practice, learning the ins and outs of insurance billing, marketing and patient retention and seeing it all clearly?
Well, she has observed, learned and decided to pursue organic gardening instead.
The insurance aspect truly spooked her.
After all, in what other industry do you have to accept agreements for payment with multiple companies for the same service (at vastly different rates of reimbursement) without having the ability to negotiate the amount, take minimum of 5-7% of your income to actually do that billing and wait 30-60 days for payment?
And if those same companies had questions or concerns with the medical diagnosis code you picked based on the visit with the patient, they have the right to request all your chart notes before paying a dime.
She had quite an education, and she didn’t like the realities.
So I am once again running my practice single-handedly till I find a new office goddess.
But with one exception.
I no longer accept insurance payments for my services.
I will happily provide the superbill for my patients to send to their insurance companies for reimbursement but no longer provide the service.
I ran the numbers and they just don’t work out in my favor.Now I have the ability to go beyond my office walls to help other people using video conferencing and telephone consults. My contracts with the various insurance companies prohibited that before.
So wish me luck. I’ll write soon how to go about scheduling with me if you wish.
And bake!
Recipe: Basic Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Recipe
Summary: You will need a scale to measure the flours accurately for this recipe. I bought mine at Fred Meyers but this one is very similar, the large flat surface works easily to allow a bowl of flours to be weighed without mess. – Gather your oven proof pot (cast iron is preferable) with lid * see more information at the end of the post about pots and a bowl slightly smaller for forming.
Ingredients:
Using a scale for accuracy measure into a bowl for your mixer:
- 150 grams potato starch
- 150 grams tapioca flour
- 140 grams sorghum flour
- 35 grams sweet rice flour
- 30 grams sugar
- 10 grams salt
- 20 grams xanthan gum
- 10 grams guar gum
Instructions
- Add 1500 grams of cultured sourdough starter (hooch stirred in) and 1/2 cup of water.
- I sometimes use a bit more water when I want a tender thread but you have to monitor the loaf more to make sure it comes out well. At 1/2 cup, it always does.
- Beat together for 5 minutes on high in a stand mixer to create the bubble structure for the bread.
- You will be able to see the bread change from a mass of soft dough to one with a bit of bounce.
- The dough will create a effect of strands on the bowl sides then gather on the beater. In this picture, I picked up a bit of the dough and rolled it into a soft ball.
- Forming Boule:
- Place 1/2 bread dough on a square of parchment paper using a spatula to smooth and shape the dough into a ball.
- Repeat with the second half of the dough or follow the below instructions to create 2 baguettes.
- Lift the paper holding the ball and place it into the bowl a bit smaller than your pot to rise. Nestle the second ball along side.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place into oven with oven light on but no heat.
- Let rise for 4 hours or till doubled. If you want to be able to walk away for a bit longer, just pop the bread in the fridge instead. It can rise there as long as 12 hours.
- Bring the bread to room temp while preheating your pot and oven.
- Remove the dough balls from the bowl using the paper as a lifting aid.
- Cut slashes 1 inch into each loaf using your sharpest knife, a razor blade or if you own one a lame.
- Be decorative, these are the areas of lighter white that you see on artisan loaves.
- I typically slash two parallel lines on either side of the ball, turn the loaf 90 degrees and slash two more parallel lines to form a square on the top of the loaf. These slashes will allow for oven rise, the extra lift that happens as the bread is put into a hot oven.
- Baking:
- Put your pot into the oven and preheat both to 450 degrees.
- When the oven is fully preheated, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Watch out, this is where it is easy to burn you!
- Remove the lid, then lift the bread dough into the pot, using the paper as a lifting aid.
- Sprinkle with coarse sea salt if desired, replace the cover.
- Put the pot into the oven and set your timer for 35 minutes.
- Grab an instant read thermometer and a cuppa tea.
- Relax for the half hour or so.
- When the timer goes off, use the instant read to check the internal temperature of the bread. It should be 190-200 degrees when done.
- If the bread is fully browned, just put it on a cooling rack.
- If it could use just a bit more browning, remove the bread from the pot (again using the paper as a lifting aid) and place on the oven rack for 5 minutes more.
- For the Baguettes:
- Forming:
- With the other half of the dough, either repeat for a second boule or form into 2 baguettes.
- To form into baguettes: use a piece of parchment paper or silpat sprinkled with sweet rice flour since it gives a crisp crust, but millet is nice too for a softer crust.
- Taking one half of the dough you have (1/4 of the total dough) place it on the parchment paper in a long log.
- Sprinkle with a bit more sweet rice flour. Using the paper, extend and roll the bread dough into a long baguette shape. The dough won’t allow you to handle it like regular bread, it is just too soft. Let the paper do the work of rolling and extending.
- Roll it onto your baguette pan and repeat with the final dough.
- Rising:
- Pull out a long piece of plastic wrap and use it to wrap the entire baguette pan to hold in the moisture while rising. Let rise at room temperature 4 hours or till doubled. In my cold kitchen in winter, it can take up to 6 hours if I don’t put it in the oven with the oven light on but without any additional heat.
- If you want to be able to walk away for a bit longer, just pop the bread in the fridge instead. It can rise there as long as 12 hours.
- Bring the bread to room temperature before continuing.
- Once you have the plastic wrap off of the pan, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Using a pastry brush, spread a bit of water on the bread. Don’t soak it but get it good and damp.The combination of hot oven and damp dough creates a dense, crisp crust.
- Slash 3-4 evenly spaced diagonal slashes on the baguette using your sharpest knife, a razor blade or lame to insure a good place for the oven rise to occur.
- Oven rise is baker speak for the expansion of the water in the dough when it is in the hot oven. This is separate from the yeast bubble carbon dioxide rise.
- Baking:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Once ready, put in the baguette pan and let bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 400 degrees, rotate the pan and continue to bake for 15 minutes more before checking the temperature of the bread.
- Yes, just like a roast.
- Temp on instant read thermometer should be 190-200 degrees. If the baguettes are brown enough, remove and cool. If not, keep them in the oven for 5 minutes more.
Preparation time:
Cooking time: 35 minute(s)
Diet type: Vegetarian
Diet tags: Gluten free
Number of servings (yield): 12
Copyright © Dr. Jean Layton-GFDoctor.
Recipe by Gluten-Free Doctor Recipes.
And if this isn’t enough to inspire you, head on over to Yeastspotting and check out their archives. They have lots of fun bread recipes to play around with and convert to gluten free.
* a word about pots. Jeanne reminded me to tell you all not to go out and buy the most expensive cast iron pot for this bread, it simply isn’t needed.
I have a lovely Lodge pot like this one that works very well and can also be taken on camping trips.
A class attendee used her canning kettle with excellent results as well, hers was a 11 quart model
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I loved making sourdough no knead bread in my enameled cast iron for years. Last year I was tested and discovered that I have a wheat allergy. Oh the horror! I am not gluten intolerant, however, and can eat barley and rye with no difficulty. In addition the the wheat, I am allergic to eggs, casein, garlic, eggs, and potatoes. I would like to know what would be the best substitute for the potato starch. Could it be another starch, like cornstarch, or would another grain or seed flour be better? (I have a plethora of them in my cupboard from my attempts to make a bread that actually tastes good)
I have sorely missed my sourdough, and would love to be able to enjoy it again. Thanks!
Hi Andra,
I would substitute additional Tapioca or cornstarch for the potato starch by weight. The dough will still work fine. And let me know how it comes out or if you have more questions.
Will do. I have a lovely, bubbly bowl of brown rice/sorghum/teff starter waiting for me at home tonight. I can’t wait to smell the amazing aroma of baking sourgough in my kitchen again. Thanks again for your help.
Perhaps I’m in a new year’s fog. I’ve read through the recipe a number of times. I’ve got my 1500 g of starter, my 1/2 cup of water as outlined in step 1. But, nowhere in the numbered directions does it say when to add the flour mixture you mention as the ingredients to this recipe. Is it that I mix the flour ingredients and then take on step 1 by adding the starter/water mix to the flours? Gauging from your pictures, it looks as though that’s the case. And, I mix the starter and water together before I add them to the flour mix?
Super new to gf bread baking as I just started dating someone who is gf. I love baking bread and now I’m looking to really translate that hobby to a gf persepective. Sourdough is my favorite bread, by far, and if I can pull this off, I’ll consider myself a wonder.
ps–cast iron cooking is the second subset of my culinary hobbies—a Lodge 6 qt. enameled dutch oven is kitchen product everyone should own! It will change your world (at a fraction of the cost of a creuset and the same rating in a Cook’s Illustrated tester). And, just remember, if it’s a straight-up cast iron dutch oven without the enamel, be certain you don’t ever use it for anything other than gf, as the iron is porous and can soak up all of the gluten-zombies you’d want to avoid.
Hi Marisa,
New Year’s fog or maybe just a recipe that doesn’t highlight the line that says In a mixing bowl place:…
The flours and starches are all measured directly into the mixer’s bowl.
But now that I realize it isn’t clear, I’ll go back and edit that.
You don’t have to mix the starter and water together first unless you want to. Just dump it all into the mixing bowl.
And I second your love of cast iron. My kitchen is about half and half, cast iron and Stainless steel without non stick coatings.
Enjoy and let me know how it comes out. I love to hear.
Jean
I followed this recipe and the starter recipe to a T, but the dough never really doubled in size (6 hours of rise time), and the bread was just a hard rubbery lump. Maybe I need to introduce some active dry yeast at some point?
Hi Sarah,
That must have been truly disappointing. Can you tell me how the starter looked after the growth time?
It’s great that you’re sharing a gluten free sourdough bread – but to call it wholegrain is misleading, when everything except for sorghum flour is a refined starch! Fluffy no doubt, but nutritious, not a bit! Maybe try to encourage folks to eat their grains whole?
Hi Naomi,
Perhaps your definition of whole grains is different from mine or maybe you didn’t click over to read about the sourdough starter. This post is where the starches are incorporated for a nice textured loaf of bread.
I use the term whole grains whenever the entire seed of a grain is ground into flour, as it is with the brown rice, millet, and sorghum components of the sourdough starter. The beans are not grains at all but incorporate the entire bean as well, ground to flour. So lots of nutrition is included. This is probably one of the highest protein and fiber loaves of gluten free bread available, the nutritional analysis is pending.
To make a nice rising loaf of bread there are starches, after all we have experienced enough dense brick loaves of gluten free bread in our lives.
I do encourage whole grain pilafs and dishes, but they are hard to spread with goat cheese to create a lovely crostini. Sometimes we just want bread, and bread needs starch to be pliable.
Even your lovely chestnut and buckwheat sourdough includes tapioca flour.
Hi, I made my first attempt yesterday and oh my gosh, it is delightful! Thank you so much for sharing! I live in Lompoc, CA and have been cooking and baking gluten free for over 2 years but this recipe and starter is by far the best tasting! And what a unique way to bake the bread in a cast iron pot! Never would have thought that. Loved the flavor!
Hi,
I’m interested to try this recipe as my first attempt at making sourdough. However, I noticed that your recipe calls for much more starter in percentage to flour than any other recipe I’ve seen. Is this because gluten-free sourdough needs more leavening, or more moisture? I’ve seen other gluten-free recipes that call for a much smaller amount of starter, but their loaves don’t look so crusty and great as yours do. Is this large amount of starter what makes the bread react more like “normal” sourdough bread? Have you tried it with less starter with different results? Just curious. Thanks!
Hi Anna,
I’ll attempt to clarify the process.
First you’re creating a 50/50 solution of flours and water, then allowing the wild yeasts to populate.
Then this mixture is added to more flours for the actual bread.
I really can’t say why other breads use a different amount of starter. Some people use the word sourdough for a levain process which isn’t technically the same thing.
The biggest problem of reducing the starter is that the moisture content will change drastically, resulting in a denser and flatter loaf.
Feel free to play with the starter, that is how we all learn. But I would suggest you make the recipe as I wrote it once, just to get a good feel for it.
Please let me know how it comes out.
Dr. Jean
Hi Jean,
Thanks so much for your reply. I think you have answered my question, – you DO need that amount of starter to get a fluffy gluten-free loaf. I’ve been doing gluten-free baking for awhile, and have noticed that all of the gluten-free breads and cakes I’ve made have been much more “wet” than their wheat counterparts, so this makes sense. I will use your recipe and let you know how it comes out!
I had one more question though. I am trying to get my starter nice and active, and from what I’ve read, you have to discard half of it every time you feed it in order to get an active starter. Would this be the same for a gluten-free starter? I was wondering, because gluten-free flour seems to have less yeast in it, so I feel like I may be diluting it too much when I discard half and feed it with a 1:1 ratio. What has been your experience with feeding your starters? And how do you know when your starter is ready? I have some bubbles, but not a lot, and I’m not sure if it’s already active or if I should wait longer. It’s been a week since I started it. Thanks!
Hi Anna,
I feed the starter each day with a 50/50 mixture of the flour and water, but I don’t discard any. Our gluten free flours are just a bit too dear for that.
Each time I feed, I stir it in thoroughly.
If you click over to http://www.gfdoctorrecipes.com/recipes/gluten-free-sourdough-bread-starter-recipe-if-you-dare.html, you can see what the starter looks like when it is ready to go.
And if you want to try out a fun variation, check out this one http://www.gfdoctorrecipes.com/uncategorized/gluten-free-sourdough-bagels.html
Dear Jean,
Those bagels look AMAZING!!! I will have to try them!
Thanks for all your advice. It really is expensive to throw away gluten-free flours! So I will see if I can still get it active without.
I tried baking the bread yesterday from your recipe, and I don’t think the starter was quite active enough, so the dough didn’t double, although it did rise a little bit. It took the bread 75 minutes to brown, and even then it was still undercooked in the middle ( I think because of it not rising enough), but it was still DELICIOUS, and had a great sour taste and chewy crust. When it’s sliced and toasted it’s perfect. Your proportions in the recipe seem perfect, so I am eager to try again with a more active starter, and see if I can brown it more quickly and have it cook all the way through.