Getting Your Starter Ready For Baking
Youll want your starter to be at peak activity when you mix up your preferment! You also want to make sure you have enough starter for your loaf, and to make your bread. So, before making bread, I like to do a big feeding and get to a solid doubling in size of my starter.
If your starter had been in the refrigerator, you want want to do two feedings before making bread to make sure your starter is super happy and ready to go!
Why I Grind My Own Buckwheat Flour
I have found that if I grind my own buckwheat flour from hulled buckwheat grouts, I get a much lighter and better tasting flour. Its super simple to do. Just grind the groats in a food processor until you get a nice flour, about 2 minutes.
Store-bought buckwheat flour will have a darker appearance and will have a stronger flavor. It also makes a slightly denser loaf. If thats what you have, it will still be absolutely delicious. The loaf in the right upper corner of the image below is made from store-bought buckwheat flour.
How To Store A Gluten Free Sourdough Starter
Personally, I like to store my sourdough starter in the fridge. Make sure the jar is tightly closed so it does not pick up any other flavors from the fridge. When ready to use it in my recipes, there is no need to bring it to room temperature or feed it. Just add the amount needed straight from the fridge to the recipe.
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Easy Gluten Free Sourdough Bread Recipe
This easy gluten free sourdough bread recipe is made from my sourdough starter recipe and it is so easy to make, you will be surprised it is gluten free! It is a bit of work to make your first gluten free sourdough starterbut it is well worth the effort!
This sourdough bread is also egg-free, dairy-free, and so it is perfect for those with food allergies!
There is nothing better than the taste of fresh sourdough bread! It is seriously is the most incredible comfort food! I have streamlined Sadies recipe quite a bit since she first shared her recipe with me back in 2014. Sadie used a combination of millet, sorghum, brown, and white rice flours in her original recipe.
Unfortunately, many of us dont have a lot of individual flours on-handespecially given how hard ingredients have been to find lately.
This is the second installment in my how-to-make gluten free sourdough bread series. The very first thing you need before making this gluten free sourdough bread is to make your gluten free sourdough starter. This will take you to the tutorial to get started.
This gluten free homemade sourdough bread recipe is yeast-free and absolutely worth the effort. You can enjoy homemade sourdough bread with very few ingredients! Feel free to comment or send me an email if you have questions, or read the comments below for more inspiration.
Timeline For Making Sourdough
- The night before you plan to startdiscard all but about 1/3 of your active gluten free sourdough starter and feed it 100 grams of whatever flour youve been feeding it and 100-120 grams of water . Stir to combine and set on the counter until the next morning.
- The next daymix the dough ingredients together using one cup of the starter. Ive tried it in the stand mixer, as well as by hand. Ive found the stand mixer to work better, but if you dont have one you definitely can make great bread without it. Cover the dough and put it in a warm, draft-free area to rise until almost doubled in size, which could take 3-4 hours or longer.
- That afternoon or eveningplace the risen dough in the fridge. This isnt done in normal gluten baking, but for us its so much easier to shape when chilled properly. I like to let mine hang out in the fridge at least overnight, but sometimes Ill leave it go for days . The longer you leave it, the more sour it will taste, so be aware.
- The following daybaking day!!
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What Kind Of Rise Can You Expect From This Gluten Free Sourdough Bread
Since this bread is made with a very simple, liquid sourdough starter, it will not rise like the breads in Bakes Bread. If you have that book, turn to the opening section of the sourdough chapter. Youll find a photo of sourdough bread dough that literally popped like a can of biscuits when I opened it after its refrigerator rise.
This recipe is for a batter-style bread, not our bread recipes that call for the more complex gluten free bread flour so it has only one rise. And produces a more ordinary loaf. But when youre baking with limits, like we always are, ordinary can be amazing, especially when it comes to fresh homemade bread.
Optional Step: Score The Dough
Before hitting the hot pan, you may want to score the top of your loaf. Scoring is the process of using a bread lame to create a slit in the top of your dough, along with optional fancy designs. It isnt required, but it does help give your loaf a place to naturally expand as it rises. Without scoring, a loaf will likely split open haphazardly during baking.
The loaf will expand and split open the most where you score it. Deeper scores are used for directing that rapid expansion. It may even create a nice little lip on your loaf. Bakers call this the ear. Smaller, shallow scoring can be used to create beautiful designs. Move quickly here so your loaf doesnt start to go flat on you!
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Tips To Baking With An Active Fed Wild Yeast Gluten Free Sourdough Starter
Before we begin discussing how to make bread with your active, fed wild yeast sourdough starter, lets first make sure you have one ! If you dont, no worries at all youve come to the right place.
Keep in mind that a wild yeast sourdough starter takes at least 5 days to become active. And it will perform best after about 10 days.
You can speed things up by adding a bit of commercial yeast to your starter. If you have commercial yeast on hand and you need a loaf of bread today, I recommend our simplest gluten free white sandwich bread recipe.
But if youve been confused by sourdough starters in the past, try to stick with us. Weve simplified the process significantly, so click through above.
It includes an instructional video to bring it to life, and frequently asked questions to help soothe your worried sourdough soul.
How Do I Store This Gluten Free Sourdough Bread
This bread is fantastic right out of the oven nice and warm, but also good at room temperature the next day.
Once cooled, you should store the loaf in an airtight container. It is best within the first 2 days. You can reheat it in the microwave to give it a bit more softness and warmth like when its fresh out of the oven.
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Gluten Free Sourdough Recipes
Gluten-containing grains:Gluten Free:Gluten Free Baking Tips:Gluten Free Book Recommendations Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients
One last tip to leave you with:almost any recipe can be converted to sourdough. You don’t have to find gluten free books catering towards sourdough, any old baking book can do. AND almost any recipe with flour can be given a more tangy flavor by substituting sourdough starter in recipes like cookies, cake, etc. Just be sure to cut down on the liquid the recipe calls for! Check out our baking conversion page for how to convert standard recipes to sourdough!
How To Refresh A Sourdough Starter
A well-taken care sourdough starter is a happy sourdough starter. I try to refresh my starter every 7-10 days. Whenever I do this, I weigh out 50 grams of sourdough starter, 50 grams of flour , and 50 grams of warm water. Mix to combine and return to the fridge. Leftover sourdough starter can be discarded or used to make gluten-free pretzels or one of my other recipes.
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Boom You Just Made Some Righteous Gluten
I sure hope this recipe works well for you, and enables you to enjoy delicious and nutritious homemade bread that you may have otherwise been missing. Please let us know how it goes by coming back for a review, sharing how your personal tweaks to the recipe go, or to ask questions! I would also love to see your results over on Instagram by tagging #homesteadandchill and/or @deannacat3. Happy baking!
Alternate Version: Bread Pan
We created this recipe following a very similar process as our classic wheat sourdough. Plus, we already had all the supplies. However, gluten-free bread has a tendency to spread out and go more flat than gluten-based bread. Weve found our gluten-free sourdough boule loaves cooked in a combo cooker have satisfactory rise. If you already have a combo cooker or a Dutch oven at home, give this recipe a try and see what you think!
Yet if the open-pan boule method leaves your loaves more flat than you desire , you can also bake gluten-free sourdough in a classic tall-sided bread pan. The added structure creates a taller loaf. I am going to write up instructions for that method and post it ASAP! Essentially, it is the same ingredients, preparation, and cook time as below except the dough bulk ferments and proofs right in the bread baking pan rather than a bowl and banneton.
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Where To Get Gluten Free Sourdough Starter
Obviously having a gluten-free starter is the key ingredient, but it isnt always easy to come by. There are some sellers of it online or Etsy that you could order some from. I am trying to figure out the logistics of selling my own down the road.
If you do order it online, it will most likely come dehydrated. It will probably arrive with their directions of how to activate it. But if you need some extra help or want to see how I have rehydrated some of mine I have given friends, you can find it here.
Another way to get some starter is by starting one yourself. Lisa from Farmhouse on Boone has a tutorial of starting one here.
I have had a few friends try to make their own from various recipes, and I will just warn you that it can be tricky. You have to follow the steps carefully and be patient.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Baking Gluten Free Sourdough Choosing The Right Pan
As you can see at the top of this post, there are many different options when it comes to baking your gluten free sourdough bread. If you prefer to make an artisan-style loaf, no bread pan is needed.
Follow along with one readers VIDEO of how she made her beautiful gluten free sourdough loaf using with this recipe and this artisan method following clicking here to watch!
For that method, I found that lining a large glass bowl with oiled parchment sprinkled with more gfJules Flour was the best way to support the bread as it rose.
Once risen, I simply lifted up on the parchment and laid it out onto a baking sheet for the bread to bake.
The bread will take more of a free-form shape, but its really beautiful and impressive!
Using either the artisan or bread pan method, you may choose to dust the top of the loaf with gfJules Flour before baking for a more rustic look, or simply brush olive oil onto the top, or both.
I like the look of the flour with the golden finish of the olive oil in combination, so most of my loaves pictured are done that way.
Allow the dough to rise covered with oiled plastic wrap to help keep the loaf warm and moist. I like putting the loaf into a preheated 200F oven, then turning the oven off, but turning the light on. I do this with the bread rising in either the bowl or the oiled and floured bread pan.
You can allow the bread to rise here for a minimum of 1 1/2 hours or up to one day if youre baking egg-free.
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What Is A Gel
Unfortunately, it is the gluten proteins in regular sourdough that bind the ingredients together. Since our gluten free flours dont contain gluten, we need to figure out another way to bind the ingredients. Using some very healthy binders found in nature we can do just that!
I also add some enrichment to this dough by increasing the fat content slightly with olive oil. If you dont like this you can try omitting the oil and substituting more water.
Adding a few key ingredients: apple cider vinegar, pure maple syrup, and aquafaba, help to rise the dough and bind it together. See below for more!
The Ratios Of Sourdough
Youll hear people saying things like 100% hydration or 85% hydration when talking about sourdough.
What they are talking about when they say this is the ratio of flour to water. So, if a loaf is 100% hydration, then the ration of flour to water is 1:1.
I would recommend not getting too caught up in hydration ratios. I mostly ignored them while I learned all about sourdough, and that works well for me. The only time I really refer to them is when talking about my starter, which I feed with about 100% hydration. All this means is that youre feeding 1 part starter to 1 part water to 1 part flour.
Gluten-free flours vary far more widely in absorbency than traditional all-purpose flour does, which means its more important to look out for the right consistency in gluten-free sourdough starter, rather than precisely the right ratio. Many times with my gluten-free flours, I find I need more water than flour because the flour is so absorbent.
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Your Sourdough Baking Schedule
This gluten-free sourdough bread isnt particularly hard to make, but you do have to follow its schedule for the best results!! Heres a sample schedule of bread baking.
5:00pm: feed your starter a big feed to get it super active.
8:00pm: your starter should be at or close to peak rise. Once it is, mix up your preferment. Cover, and let it ferment overnight.
8:00am: mix up your bread dough. Place into your proofing basket or lined bowl and allow it to rise for three hours.
10:00am: preheat your oven with the Dutch oven inside of it, an hour before were ready to bake.
10:55am : carefully flip your proofed bread out onto a sheet of parchment paper. This will help us move it into the hot Dutch oven). Score your bread as desired.
11:00am: remove the Dutch oven from the oven, carefully! Close the oven to not let the heat out. It will be very hot. Take off the lid, and carefully lower your bread into the hot Dutch oven. Be very careful not to drop it in, or youll deflate the bubbles that you worked hard for! Put the lid back on, place back into the oven, and set your timer for 45 minutes.
11:45am: after 45 minutes of baking, quickly and carefully remove your the lid, and close the oven back up.
Let it cool completely before you cut into it. Honestly, this is the hardest part, but if you cut into it too early, youll release all the steam inside of the bread and it will get weird and gummy. Please use all your willpower to refrain!
Create Your Sourdough Starter
The first thing you need to do is get your gluten-free sourdough starter in order. Youll want to make it from scratch using gluten-free flour and water.
It will take 7-10 days for your starter to begin to ferment. The longer it ferments, the better your bread will be both taste- and texture-wise. If you have the time, allow your sourdough starter two weeks to ferment.
When you make a starter, you are basically making your own wild yeast, from scratch. Most bread bakers use store bought yeast to make their loaves of bread, but youre making your own yeast by fermenting water and flour. It sounds difficult to do, and a bit strange, but artisan bread makers know there is nothing like a homemade sourdough starter to give rise and taste to an artisan bread recipe.
If you havent already made your starter, follow the step-by-step instructions found in my gluten-free sourdough starter article to create your own sourdough yeast.
Here is what my sourdough starter looks like after several weeks of nurturing it. Notice those beautiful air bubbles. What youre seeing is happy yeast ready for sourdough making!
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Key Tips For Using Your Gluten Free Sourdough Starter:
- For best rise, feed your gluten free sourdough starter 4-12 hours again before using it and bring to to room temperature
- You may still use the starter stored in the refrigerator that wasnt just fed your loaf will have less springiness and will take a lot longer to proof.
- Using starter that is not fed a few hours before will produce a loaf with more sour flavor.
- Unfed starter can still rise the sourdough, even after two weeks in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before using, if possible.