You'll need to plan a day ahead for this beautiful gluten free sourdough bread, but the steps are simple and fast to create. This is a nice firm loaf that will bake free style in a really hot oven. You'll need either a proofing basket(s) or loaf pan, so that the dough can rise and hold shape during proofing.
You will notice that all the ingredients are in grams so you'll need to weigh them out. Using an inexpensive scale to weigh out all your ingredients is the best way to create successful gluten-free baked goods. This also allows me to tweak the recipe easily to double, triple it.
Ready...let's make GF sourdough bread!
Servings: 6
Prep Time: 20 plus rest and rise time minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
Day 1
Pre-ferment
140g of recently fed gluten free sourdough starter (see how to make a sourdough starter in recipes section under breads)
110g of non-chlorinated water
80g of whole gluten free flour of choice (brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, teff or sorghum are my favourites)
Day 2
Wet ingredients
350g of lukewarm or room temperature water
20g psyllium husk
10g ground flax seed, a coffee grinder or vita mix does a great job.
Dry ingredients
60g Brown rice flour
60g buckwheat or millet
60g teff flour or sorghum
60g potato starch or you can use sweet rice flour (also called sweet glutinous rice flour)
60g tapioca starch OR 60g arrowroot starch
25g dehydrated cane juice or organic sugar (this boosts the sourdough starter with extra food and helps with browning)
1 tsp unrefined sea salt or pink hymalayan salt
Instructions
Day 1
Feed your sourdough starter in the morning. That evening mix up your pre-ferment in a large glass bowl and cover. Let sit overnight or for 8-12 hours.
Day 2
In a bowl combine together psyllium, ground flax and water, mix well and set aside to gel.
In another bowl, combine all the weighed flour ingredients.
Add psyllium mixture to the pre-ferment. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment blend well.
Now add the dry ingredients and using your hand mixer or dough hook on a stand mixer, blend until well mixed, it will be a firm dough that is tacky. You can knead by hand (just because it is fun) to make sure everything is blended well.
Generously dust a 4x6 proofing baskets with sweet rice flour or grease a 4 x 9" loaf pan, I like stone loaf pans but you can use what you like, just not glass as it can shatter at such high temperatures. If you want to use glass, pre-heat the oven to 450, then once the bread goes in, lower to 375 and bake for 50-60 minutes.
This is 2-lbs of dough so you can make two small loaves or one large.
Cover with plastic wrap or place in a large ziplock bag. Let rise in a warm draft-free location for 4-6 hours depending on house temperature. The dough will double in size.
If baking free-style loaves, when your dough looks like it is ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 550F. I use a stone to bake on, which can heat up in the oven. If using a baking sheet, add about 5 minutes before baking to get it hot but don't keep it for the entire pre-heat time or it will warp. Good quality Stoneware is good for this temperature and you want it heated all the way through, so stone goes in when you turn the oven on.
If baking in loaf pan, simply pre-heat oven and get water and roasting pan ready.
You'll need 1/2 cup of hot water and a shallow roasting pan or cast iron pan. I turn my kettle on the same time I start the oven.
Put the shallow roasting pan on the very bottom of the oven.
For loaf pan, place in hot oven, add water to the roasting pan and follow remaining instructions.
Free-style loaf
Assemble everything into one place: risen dough, hot water~pour it into a measuring cup that is easy to pour from safely and quickly, and a sharp knife or bread blade for scoring, oven pads.
Ready….Open oven door, pull out rack so it is easy to access. Gently flip over the bread onto the hot stone or baking sheet and remove basket/bowl and towel, score the top in 3-4 places, then push the rack back into place. Quickly add the hot water into the pan that was placed in the bottom of the bread oven and shut the oven door.
Turn oven down to 450F and bake for 45-50 minutes depending on loaf size. It can be challenging to figure out when GF bread is fully cooked. At 45 minutes, you can checbread, If the bottom of the bread is still really soft, then bake another 10 minutes. Gluten free sourdough bread takes longer to bake, so don't worry about over baking. If the crust is looking too brown for your liking, simply turn the oven down to 350F and bake another 20 minutes after the initial 45.
Remove from oven to cooling racks. Let cool completely…trust me, do not cut into hot GF bread or it will gum up. It needs to off-gas and will continue cooking during the cooling process.
This sourdough bread stays fresh for several days at room temperature. Freezes beautifully.
The technique was Inspired by Samatha Sproul and Peter Reinhart