My first (two) attempts at sourdough were … pretty good. They both used a very simple recipe (4-Ingredient Gluten Free Sourdough) that was clear and gave a timeline for the two day process. The bread was beautiful to look at, however the crust was so tough that it was nearly impossible to cut, and the bread itself was on the gummy side. I understand that GF breads are often gummy, but this stuck to the knife, once you got through the crust.
Back to the drawing board – but luckily a good friend recommended a different recipe from the Homestead and Chill blog. Not all of her recipes are GF, but as she said
I will admit that we are not gluten-free in this household and do thoroughly enjoy wheat sourdough! However, I felt like a meany, teasing you all with photos of our crusty gluten loaves… So over the last few months we’ve been working on tweaking and perfecting this gluten-free sourdough bread recipe for you all. That way, no one feels left out.
Homestead and Chill blog
I love that she wanted everyone to enjoy good sourdough, so she did all the work for me to be able to produce better GF sourdough loaves.
It took a bit of searching around to find all the flours that are needed for this bread. Unlike in the US, the “oddball” flours (sorghum, millet, etc.) are not on every grocery shelf here. We collected our various flours and jumped into the process. Sourdough is a 2-day affair – making the most of a long refrigerated rise to let the “wild yeasts” do their thing. Luckily there is a lot of waiting during the process, so it isn’t 2 days of all consuming baking.
Day 1 – Feed, feed, feed
The starter gets fed TWICE in preparation for making bread. We want the little yeastie beasties to be as active as possible to add loft to the bread.
I’m still using the same starter that I used for the last loaves. As a scientist, I’m keeping certain variables constant to see how the new things work out. I’m will eventually change the flour that I use for my starter to be 100% brown rice flour instead of Bob’s Red Mill 1-for-1 all purpose flour. Mainly because the BRM flour has xantham gum in it to provide structure in baked goods, and I think it is making my starter exceedingly dry.
But one step at a time – I’m trying an entirely new recipe – let’s just use the starter I have.
After the second feeding gets to peak growth phase it is time to make the dough. Four types of flour, water, starter, salt and a lot of hand mixing and I ended up with a course grained (from the sorghum, I think), relatively heavy ball of dough that then fermented on the counter for about 5 hours before going into the fridge for the night.
Day 2 – A loaf is born
The second day is all about the baking. Heat the oven and cast iron Dutch oven to prep for the magic of fresh bread. For us (mostly the Basha) the hardest part is waiting for the bread to cool. (Hmm, maybe that is because *I* do the baking…) This recipe also has a dense crust, however much less dense than the What the Fork recipe. The bread is NOT GUMMY! It came out very heavy with few air pockets, but very tasty and tangy (combo of sourdough and buckwheat). Not perfect, but already far ahead of the other recipe.
My thoughts for next time:
– I think I need to use more water in the dough. The recipe calls for 1.5 to 2 cups. I used just over 1.5 cups, and think that the dryness and cracking of the dough (see picture above) should have told me that I needed more moisture. The dryness may have been exacerbated by the dryness of my starter as well.
– Another crust/moisture factor that I’m thinking about is during the fermentation (on the counter and in the fridge) the exposed parts of the dough tend to lose moisture. I have used a damp kitchen towel over the bowl to try to reduce moisture loss through the top of the dough, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. My current thought is that I’ll place the towel in contact with the dough to keep the surface moist.
– The What the Fork recipe uses an interesting technique to increase the steam in the Dutch oven during cooking. They drop 2 ice cubes between the parchment and cast iron just before lidding the whole thing to go into the oven. That steam didn’t seem to soften the crust in that recipe, but it is something I’m cogitating trying in future.
There will be many more iterations of this recipe. The first loaf has demonstrated great promise. I think the problems I’ve had are more to do with the baker than with the recipe!