Hi, I'm Dr. Jean Layton. In diverse jobs from chef to doctor, I've used my analytical skills to address the ongoing goal, "There has to be a better way." When not seeing patients, I'm in the social media world, teaching people to thrive gluten-free.
Finally, it is here, on the site,
My basic whole grain, tender gluten-free sourdough bread recipe.
Basic Gluten Free Sourdough Bread Recipe, a set on Flickr.
I know you’ve been waiting so long for this to be here, and for that I am sorry.
Life has a way of putting obstacles in the pathway to posting for me.
This week my new office manager resigned. She joined us recently 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?
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?
Then take a minimum of 5-7% of your total billing 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 (out of thousands) based on the visit with the patient, they have the right to request all your chart notes before paying a dime, and putting off those payments for 30-60 days all over again.
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 of billing them..
Since the insurance policy is the patient’s, they actually manage to get paid quicker and with less hassles than I do.
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!
Basic Gluten Free Sourdough Bread Recipe
Author: Dr. Jean Layton
You will need a scale to measure the flours accurately for this recipe, easily allowing a bowl of flours to be weighed without mess. – Gather your oven proof pot(cast iron is preferable) with lid or a handy canning kettle 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 ½ 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 ½ 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.
Forming a Boule:
- Place ½ 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 you can use millet 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 parchment paper covered 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. I
- 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.
Notes
Timing for this recipe is a bit tricky. The listed times are one scenario. It typically takes me just 15 minutes to mix. I can vary the rise time by refrigerating or warming the dough. the least amount of time you should allow is 2 hours in a slightly warmed oven or draftless place.
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 have been making my own sourdough for years and currently have 5 different starters I keep. My problem is my Dr has now instructed me to go gluten free. So after much research I came upon your receipe and if you don’t mind I’d like to ask a question.
My procedure is to use about 370 grams of starter to 1,000 grams of flour.
Your gluten free procedure is to use 1500 grams of starter to about 400 grams of flour.
Why so much starter???
Thank you for your time.
Hi Bob,
Most typical starter is a 1:1 ratio of flour to water. Mine is more hydrated than that, so you use more by weight to get the right quantity of yeast. Water is very heavy. Make sense?
Hello,
I’m on a sugar-free diet. Will this bread turn out much different if I omit the sugar it calls for?
Thanks!
Hi Van,
You could eliminate the sugar. The dough would likely need another 1/2 hour or so to rise and won’t brown quite as much.
Thanks so much for the quick reply! One other question, do you think this would work without the gums? I usually use flax seed as a replacement for the stickiness the gums add to the bread. Or do you have another sourdough recipe without gums?
Thanks again! I just put my starter together and looking forward to baking on Sunday!
Hi Van,
I am working to perfect a gum free sourdough. So far the experiments look good using my Pixie Dust
Keep watch, when I have it perfected, I’ll let folks know here.
The pixie dust looks great, I’ll have to try it. My starter doesn’t look like it’s working
On the 2nd day it was rising and looking good, then it collapsed (I fed it on the 2nd day after collapsing). Someone told me I should feed it more often, so I fed it the following day rather than waiting another 2 days. It hasn’t risen since, but does have some bubbles.
I did substitute one of the flours, so not sure if that’s the cause. Also our place is kind of cool, so I put it in the oven with the light on and that seemed to encourage the bubbling. I’d hate to have to dispose of all this flour!
Thanks again for your help, you’re a wonderful resource and I really appreciate it!
Hi Van,
Which flour did you substitute?
The coolness of your home might be a factor, but the flour is more likely.
Hello again,
The local health food store didn’t have white bean flour, nor garbanzo-fava flour. They did have garbanzo flour, so I used that, as well as some teff.
So, do you think my starter’s no good to use then? I fed it again yesterday (which was the 5th day already) it didn’t rise, but again there are bubbles. I have it in the fridge now.
Thank you very much
Hi Van,
Substituting the garbanzo for gar-fava flour would be ok, but the difference between white bean and teff is substancial.
It will likely work, just need to be fed more often
Could you use honey instead of sugar?
Yes, I actually prefer honey personally.
I just tried making the starter but if I use 600 grams of water and 600 grams of flour not even all the flour gets wet! It seems it takes 1/2 the water to weigh the same as the flour. So I ended up adding about the same amount of water in measurement as 600 grams of flour was in measurement but how do I know if I have the right consistency now and not one that is too flour dense or too watery? For some reason the link to the picture of your starter isn’t showing up. Thank you!
Hi Avril,
Are you measuring the water and the flours by weight? If you do measure by weight, you end up with a very soft dough, almost a batter.
Thank you for your quick response.
Yes, I measured first the flour by weight and put it in the bowl, and then measured the water by weight and put it in the bowl. When I went to mix them it turned out very dry, not even a dough, much less a batter. Did I do something the wrong way? Thanks!
Hmmm, I’ve never had a problem with the starter being firm after combining the flour and water by weight. Are you zeroing out your scale for the container, with both the flours and the water? That would make the mixture be different.
Well I must be doing something then….I really would like to make this bread. I have missed bread a great deal but think sourdough is healthier. I’ve never made sourdough bread before though. I am weighing 300 grams flour, zeroing out the scale, and then adding the 300 grams water. I always have to add more water inorder to stir it into almost a batter consistency.
Hi Avril,
Are you baking at altitude?
Are you in a very dry climate?
I live in the Pacific Northwest, so my flours contain a bit more moisture naturally. If you are in New Mexico or Arizona, I could see that you might need 50 or 60 grams more per recipe to get the starter moist enough
Hi there. I live in the pacific northwest as well at about 500 ft, surrounded by 1000 ft hills. Would this affect it? Thanks! My starter is actually looking and smelling good now! I’m so excited! I started it on Saturday and fed it this morning. Will feed it again on Wednesday and follow your schedule. Worried that I’m going to run out of space though. Is it ok to seperate your starter? Does it kill it to pour it into different containers? Thanks!
Hi Avril,
No, being at 500 ft shouldn’t affect it at all. Glad to hear that your starter is looking good. I use a gallon glass jar to grow my starter, sometimes dividing it into 2 gallon jars. I leave mine on the counter to grow until the ambient temperature gets into the 50s. Then I grow it in the fridge, although I tend to not make as much bread in the summer anyway.
For a couple of loaves a week, alternating two jars would make it the simplest. That way you can bake on the weekend and mid week for fresh bread.
Thank you. I’ll just hope what I’m doing with the water and flour ratio will work.
That does sound like the simplest idea. Where do you get gallon jars that have a wide mouth? I have one but it is like an apple cider jug and too small of an opening. I’ll let everybody know how the bread turns out! By the way, do you have a clinic? If so, where abouts is it?
Hi Avril.
I ordered the gallon jars through a distributor but my local Coop also carries them
I do have a clinic,Layton Health Clinic in Bellingham, WA that I share with my husband’s acupuncture clinic, HamsterPuncture.
We just moved in on Saturday to the new location at 1609 Broadway Suite 202.
Well, I made the bread. It smelled great, but it came out doughy and dense. I don’t think we’ll be eating it. It didn’t seem to like being put in the fridge overnight but I’m not sure if that’s why it would turn out doughy. How big of a ball is it suppose to be shaped in and how much like a batter is suppose to be? I know when I mixed in the mixer it immediately balled up on the beater, but it wasn’t firm like regular dough either. I don’t really know for sure if I have the starter the right consistency either for the sake of the bread, but it bubbles up nice. It doesn’t make any more hooch, but bubbles up and rises, then falls in the jar after a while. Any more details/insight you could give would be great! It’s so frustrating to throw out things made gluten free as it’s so much more expensive! Thanks.
Hi Avril,
Did you allow the dough to come to room temperature once it rose overnight in the fridge?
It still sounds like the starter is too dry. When I make it, I have an inch or so of hooch that needs to be stirred into the starter before measuring.
Yes, I did let the dough come to room temperature first but it just didn’t act the same anymore. As far as the starter is concerned, that answers a bit too and may be why the bread was so dense. So, is it suppose to be more like a thin batter? When I do the measurements by weight it just is coming out very thick so I am going to have to figure it out from description I guess as far as what it should be like. Thanks a bunch!
Hi Avril.
The starter’s texture is like thick pancake batter. I’m not sure why you are having trouble with it, but really want you to succeed. After I get back from Expo West, I’ll create a little video to show you the steps, and how it looks once it grows a bit.
Oh Thank you! That would be great. I really very much appreciate your help. Sometimes gluten free can be discouraging but with support like yours it makes it so much nicer.
I’ll wait for the video to make any more because I hate to waste so much flour. 
Thanks again! If you don’t mind my asking (no pressure, just planning on my part), when do you expect to be back from expo west? I’m sure you’ll need a little time before you can make time to do the video but it just gives me an idea. I really apprecdiate your help!
Hi Avril,
I’ll be in Anaheim till Sunday. I’ll work on the video next week and likely post on Sunday with bread.
Hi Dr. Layton. Sorry I didn’t respond sooner. I haven’t been able to get back on here due to things on my end. Thank you very much for your help! I am looking forward to the video and trying it out again.
Hope things went well in Anaheim.
Avril,
We have been inundated with other work so my video is waiting for a bit of peace. Likely not for a couple of weeks.
I am so glad that you have taken the time to perfect this recipe and share it with us. I used a different sourdough starter recipe, but I have been using the different types of flours you used in your starter food to feed the starter daily. I tried the bread recipe for the other source, and to put it mildly, it had mixed reactions. Today I decided to try it again, and this time I used your recipe, making a boule, I still need to bake that one, it is still raising, and some french rolls. I used my french bread pan to raise them on, then placed them in the oven as it was still heating. I placed a tray with 1″ of water on a lower rack and used the convection setting. The rolls turned out beautiful, and my daughter and I shared a ham and cheese sub for dinner. Tomorrow she’ll be taking another sandwich to work for lunch as it is a long day. I might put the boule in the fridge to bake on Saturday, and then hollow it out for fresh French onion soup on Sunday. Finally, a loaf I can live with!
Bread is such an amazing food. Glad you are enjoying my recipe.
Surely there’s a typo up there? You can’t mean 1500g – which is 1.5kg of starter – has to be added, I guess you mean 150g. I live in Europe so I’m used to metric measurements.
If people have been adding that amount of starter, then I’m not surprised they are having trouble!
Hi Amanda,
No, it is not a typo. The starter is both flour and water, the substrate that the sourdough has grown upon for anywhere from 2- infinite days. The quantity IS 1500 grams. Water is heavy after all.
Can the xanthan gum be substituted for guar gum as I
can not do corn.
Hi Kaylene,
You can double up on either of the gums to sub in for the other. The substitution does change the texture though.
I have a version that contains ground flax, ground chia and psyllium husks coming out soon.
Just want to do another round of testing.
Ok I am trying the gf sourdough bread recipe for the first time.. Just got done baking the first loaves. I did baguettes. It didn’t raise much. I even left it set on the kitchen counter all nite so probably raise time was close to 16 hours. The bread seems very dense. Not much for holes in it.. It tastes like sour dough but is just really dense. Where did I go wrong? The only variation I had to make was to grind my own white bean flour as it is not available in my area. No problem I just put the beans in my vitamin machine. The dough itself seemed dense. The starter never had a lot of hooch to stir back in. Was the starter not moist enough? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’m not ready to give up. I miss sourdough bread so I have great hopes for this..
Hi Jeannette,
It sounds like your starter was too rich in flour. Were you feeding it 1/2 water and 1/2 flour? Was the starter lovely bubbly and fragrant before you used it? I don’t think grinding your own white beans would have an effect unless they weren’t completely powdered.
Let me know how your second batch comes out.
Yes I was feeding it half water and half flour. I did cut the recipe in half from the beginning as I hate throwing stuff out if it fails. It was bubbly and has a great aroma. But not as bubbly as I remember wheat type sour doughs. Would cutting the recipe in half be a cause?
So how bubbly does it need to be? You can see bubbles in it thru the glass jar. Strange thing. I did half the recipe upon the second feeding it raised to the top of the gallon jar. That surprised me as I only made 1/2 the recipe. Does this whole starter recipe actually stay within the jar? I was worried it would crawl across the table so that nite I put it in a very large crock bowl. Next morning I put it back in the jar and it did well but only made it. About 3/4 way up the jar ? Should I start over? I have some left in the jar that I feed last nite. Do I keep feeding and try again? Have u ever added yeast to the ingredients when preparing the dough. I use to make my own wheat bread before I knew I couldn’t have it. So it’s driving me crazy. I must accomplish this. Thank you so much
Hi Jeanette,
Using just half a recipe is a great way to test.
My full sized starter stays within the gallon jar on my counter, but I live in a cool house. Is your house warm? or is the counter in the sun? Both will make the yeast more active and likely to overflow.
If the yeast have been very active before being made into the bread, that might explain the density of your baguettes.
I don’t use commercial yeast in addition to my wild sourdough, but you can if you wish. I’m a bit of a purist at heart.
Amazing! This is the second GF sourdough bread recipe I have tried, and it came out beautifully! I did not have Guar gum, so used a total of 30 grams of xanthan gum. I had worried that I had added too much water (my starter is a bit dense from pouring off hooch, that will be remedied over the next few feedings!) but I am very happy with the results.
Glad you like it!
Hello,
I’m mostly happy with how this bread is turning out, but I have a couple questions: It seems very dense and moist in the center of the loaf, even when the temperature is 200 f; what could I be doing wrong? I’m following the recipe, including the starter recipe, exactly; no substitutions and I’m carefully measuring with my kitchen scale. One thing that I’m confused about, and this could be where I’m off track, is that the instructions for baking say to warm pot and lid in 450* oven, but the directions don’t explicitly say whether or not to bake with the lid on or off. I’ve been baking with the lid on, and then removing the lid for about 15 minutes so that the loaf browns. Should I be baking with the lid on, or off? It seems the dough is not getting good life, but the starter seems active; it’s certainly yeasty-smelling and tart-tasting!
Thank you so much for this recipe and the tutorials; despite my less than perfect results, we are truly enjoying this bread!
Apparently I misread the instructions the first several reads-through!
I am following all instructions to a T, including preheating cast-iron dutch oven and lid, baking with lid on to 200*, removing loaf for final 5 min browning…Even getting the loaf to 200*, the inside seems too moist and compact; I’m just not getting good lift of the loaf. That said, I’ve found the dough freezes well; I used 1/4 of a full batch for a pizza crust after it defrosted, and the crust was wonderful!
Please tell me what I can do to get this bread to lift and bake all the way through. Thank you!
Hi Susan,
Sorry you are having troubles. How long do you let the dough rise? Has it completely doubled in size once the starter and starch mixes are combined? If the dough hasn’t had enough time to create the air bubbles, then the center stays moist.
I’m letting it rise at least 5 hours, in the cool oven with the light on. Sometimes I leave it rise in the fridge, but then I let it sit in the oven to warm up for a couple hours; once I forgot it, and it had been rising for about 6 hours. We like it good and sour, so that’s not a problem! It does not seem to rise very much during the rise time, but does most of the rising during baking. Once I forgot to let the dough come to room temp all the way after it was in the fridge 24 hours; learned that lesson quickly! We still ate it, but it wasn’t as pleasing as other loaves.
Thanks so much for your response; I really want to make this work for me!
Hi Susan,
How long has the starter grown? Are you feeding it before you make the bread? For the best lift, the starter needs to be at least a week old, with one additional feed since beginning in order to be highly active. So the way I do it is to mix up the starter on a weekend, feed it Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (I keep it at room temp) for a week and then use the starter on Sunday.
Always use the starter BEFORE feeding it. Otherwise the yeasts are already fat and happy, kind of lazy and won’t create the gas bubbles we need to raise our loaves.
I love the bread! Having recently started a training diet that has calorie recommendations regarding how much you eat, do you have nutritional info on the bread, i.e. calorie content by weight of a slice?
Hi Steve,
That is an interesting question. Since it is a free form loaf, I don’t think you can quantify the calorie count per slice.
I’m about to start the Starter recipe but am confused. The start of this recipe says to use 1500 grams of the starter, but from reading the Starter recipe, won’t I only have about 919 grams of starter since I’ll only be using two cups of the starter flour mixed with two cups of water? I’m new to baking so I may have just missed something.
Hi Maribel,
Starting a new sourdough is a bit confusing. You begin with 2 cups of starter flour mix and 2 cups of water. After allowing it to grow for a bit, you will feed it with 1 cup flour mix and 1 cup water, then allow it to keep growing.
Keep repeating this feeding every 3 days till you want to bake if you keep it at room temperature. If you put it in the fridge, you can feed it once a week.
After the first feeding, you will have just enough to make the bread with a tiny bit left over to feed for the next time.
Make sense?
So once it begins to bubble and grow (like the picture from the starter), I can feed it and then wait for it to start growing again before baking with it? Hope I’m getting this right. It’s starting to make sense.
Thank you so much for your blog! I’ve never been a great baker and once my husband and son both needed to be on a gluten-free diet, baking became even more of a daunting task. I appreciate the detailed information you give and love the recipes! My husband loves my new creations and appreciates that there are actual good recipes out there.
Hi Maribel,
Yes, if you feed it then let it grow, you will get a big jar like mine to use to make bread. I’m glad you found my blog, let me know if there is a favorite recipe you need for your guys. This whole diet can be a bit daunting at first.
Any way this could be made without sorghum flour?
If you go to the flour chart http://www.gfdoctorrecipes.com/recipes/comparison-of-gluten-free-flours-in-one-simple-chart.html, you can pick another flour similar in protein, carbs, and fiber to substitute. I’d start with quinoa or teff. Then try it and let me know.
Can I ask, why not sorghum?
Hello,
Could you, or did you, share your recipe on GF sourdough starter? If not, would you please?
Appreciatively,
Sheila
Hi Sheila,
It is over here http://www.gfdoctorrecipes.com/recipes/gluten-free-sourdough-bread-starter-recipe-if-you-dare.html
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.