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Author:
Franco Salzillo
Sourdough bread is more than bread; it’s an experience, especially when you make your own. Letting the bread ferment without help is primal and evocative of how we used to make bread thousands of years ago. If you think about it, turning flour and water into food is almost magic.
Here’s the thing with sourdough, it has gluten, and that’s because we use wheat flour. Gluten is not at all bad unless you’re allergic to it. It gives the dough flexibility and causes those tiny air pockets that make our bread fluffy and airy.
To make gluten-free sourdough bread, you’ll need gluten-free flour, which you can just buy or create your own with the recipe below. I love making my own and have a pre-mixed batch around for all my gluten-free baking needs.
Although there are many ways of substituting wheat, I like the combination of cornstarch, tapioca starch powdered milk, potato starch and white rice flour; it behaves like regular bread flour.
There’s another key ingredient, though, and that’s xanthan gum. You’ll need it to bind all the ingredients together. Check the recipe below and learn how to make your own gluten-free flour and gluten-free sourdough starter.
For the gluten-free bread flour (2.5 cups):
For the gluten-free sourdough starter:
For the sourdough bread:
Five days before making your sourdough bread, make your starter by combining half the quinoa flour, half the brown rice flour and half the water. Mix well in a small bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave over your counter.
Once you start seeing bubbles (2-3 days), add the rest of the quinoa flour, brown rice flour and water. Reserve.
Whenever you’re ready to make your bread, combine the gluten-free bread flour ingredients thoroughly.
To make your sourdough bread, add to a large mixing bowl the dry ingredients: gluten-free bread flour, xanthan gum and salt. Combine.
Add the wet ingredients: water, olive oil, honey and your starter (it should be around 200 grams).
Mix all the ingredients by hand for about 10 minutes.
Cover the dough and let it rise while covered with a tea towel for 2 hours at room temperature.
Remove the tea towel and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
Flour a surface with quinoa flour, remove the dough from the fridge and knead until smooth.
Form a ball, return the dough to the mixing bowl and let it rise for 30 more minutes covered with a tea towel at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 500°F.
Place the dough on a baking tray or pan and bake for 45 minutes or until cooked through.
Let the bread rest and cool down before slicing.
