Yep, I realize the headline is provocative. Even we celiacs have to admit that most GF breads are abysmal. But, thanks to insights gleaned from you lucky majority of bread builders  – you're able to digest gluten! – I’ve come up with a natural-leavened GF bread that not only tastes great, but stales slowly and contains no dairy, fat or eggs.

The secret? This bread is leavened only with wild sourdough.

To make it you’ll need some equipment in addition to ingredients. Items include: A pizza stone. A cloche top (I use a Romertopf clay top). A gram scale. Saran wrap. A plant sprayer. Rubber/vinyl gloves. A heated proofing environment. A pizza peel or flat cookie sheet. Six plastic “picnic” wine glasses (if making rolls) or a length of sawed-off plastic PVC pipe if making loaves. A very sharp fillet knife or a razor blade on a stick. Or a lamé.

Ingredients:     60 grams millet sourdough in storage concentration (See below)

                        67 grams millet flour

                        260 grams Analise Roberts Brown Rice Blend  (see below)

                        3 teaspoons Xanthan gum

                        1 1/4 teaspoon salt

                        331 grams spring water

                        Cornmeal for dusting

Making the sourdough: I followed the instructions in The Bread Builders, by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott. To 120 grams of millet flour I added 120 grams of water and stirred well. I let this sit in a covered, non-metallic vessel in a cool (62 degree) area in my house. After 48 hours I threw away 1/2 this mix, added 60 grams flour and 60 grams water and let stand at the same temperature for another 24 hours. At the end of this 24 hour cycle I again threw away 120 grams of the mix and added 60 grams flour and 60 grams water. I let this stand until it showed signs of life – bubbling, froth, fermentation stink –

then removed it to a 70 degree environment, added 60 grams of flour (to bring the mix to a 50% hydration) and let stand 3 hours. At the end of this time I put it in my refrigerator.

It looks like this:

To make a bread recipe I remove 60 grams of storage sponge, add 40 grams of millet flour and 80 grams of water to it, mix and cover. I place it atop my refrigerator, where the temp is 75 – 80 degrees, and let it stand 12 hours. Then it looks like this:

I remove all but 80 grams of this sponge and weigh what I remove. Then I add enough flour to the removed amount to create a 50% hydration leaven, put this back into the storage container, and let this stand 3 hours, after which it goes back in the ‘fridge.

            So, what I have left is 80 grams of 100% hydration leaven.

            On with breadmaking:

            Mix 67 grams of millet flour, 260 grams brown rice mix (Available from Authenticfoods.com) 3 tsp xanthan gumn and 1 1/2 tsp salt and blend carefully and well. It’s important to do this thoroughly because the xanthan will coalesce as soon as water hits it and you want the distribution to be even when this happens/

            Dump mixed dry ingredients into a large bowl, add the water, and stir just enough to wet all the flour. 

Let this stand 1/2 hour. As it stands, take the 6 hemispheric classes and stuff a small square of plastic wrap into each. Spritz this with water. Also lay a sheet of plastic wrap on your counter and spritz this well. Warm up your proofing chamber (mine, btw, is a heating pad and two kitchen towels J ) Put on your rubber gloves and wet them thoroughly.

            Add the leaven to the dough, stir until blended fairly well, then turn out onto the wet plastic and mix by hand, squeezing out lumps and working to create a very rough-textured  sheet about 1/2” thick. Remember, there’s no gluten to protect or develop – what you’re after is a thorough blend and a shaggy-surfaced sheet of dough. When you’re certain you’ve got a good mix, lift the edge of the plastic and roll the dough into a long tube.

            If you’re making loaves, simply divide this tube into two lengths, continue to wrap loosely and place the sections into the halved PVC pipe. Cover with a towel and set in your proofing chamber.

            If you’re making rolls, stuff chunks of dough into each glass, pressing down with your fingers to get good contact with the plastic wrap. Spritz the dough surface well, cover with the plastic you used as a work surface and stick into your proofing chamber. The glasses should look like this:

Let proof 12 hours at 80 – 85 degrees

Now heat oven with pizza stone and cloche to 500 degrees. Dust your peel thoroughly with cornmeal, and work with one loaf or 3 rolls at a time. Roll loaf onto flour and remove plastic, or invert glasses onto flour and remove plastic. Slide loaf/rolls onto pizza stone. Repeat with second loaf or remaining 3 rolls, arranging so that your cloche lid will fit without touching any of the loaves/rolls. Place lid over rolls/loaves and close oven.

            Bake for 8’.

            Remove cloche top and score rolls/loaves with knife/razor.

            Re-close oven and bake 19 min more.

            Remove bread and place on wire rack atop oven so that products cool slowly. This will help prevent shrinkage.

            Here’s what you’ll have:

The crumb:

Unlike any other GF bread you may have eaten, this one doesn't stale in half a day. If you leave the rolls out their crust stays crunchy and their innards, moist. Freezing softens the crust, making them ideal hamburger buns. Of course they don't taste like wheat bread - they're mostly millet, after all - but they are excellent!

Most people associate pancakes with maple syrup, butter and fruit. Since I have had to stay away from sweets I have begun to use pancakes in a different way. I use them as a savory grain side dish to accompany soup, beans, and stew, sometimes even tearing them up, putting them right in the soup or stew. I use them as part of a snack with unusual toppings and spreads like peanut butter, tahini, chopped liver, salsa or gravlax (home cured salmon).
The high proportion of nutritious ingredients makes these pancakes a substantial part of a snack or meal.

We normally flip a wheat pancake when bubbles form around the edges. With gluten free pancakes we need to wait another few minutes after bubbles form because the extra moisture and density of the batter takes more time to cook properly.

Allow at least 7 hours of fermentation time after feeding the starter before using the starter in cooking. This will ensure your flours are properly soaked before cooking and eating.
So that means if you feed the starter in the morning the batter will be ready for pancakes for dinner. If you want pancakes in the morning feed the starter the night before.

 
Sourdough Pancakes – Basic recipe

For pancakes: prior to cooking, have the last feeding of the starter be ½ cup of buckwheat or gluten free oat flour and slightly less than ½ cup of water. Let ferment 7 hours. A pure rice flour starter tends to be on the thin, soupy side and buckwheat or oat flour will give the pancakes some needed density.

For 4 pancakes:
1 cup mature brown rice flour sourdough starter (including the last feeding of buckwheat and water)
1 tablespoon oil, melted butter or fat
A large pinch of salt
1-2 tablespoons freshly ground flax seed (grind in a dedicated coffee grinder)

Mix oil, salt and ground flax seed into starter
Let sit for at least 15 minutes to allow the flax to thicken the batter. The batter should be like a thick cake batter.
If the batter is too thick whisk in a little water, a tablespoon at a time, until you get the desired consistency
 (The batter can also sit for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. The finished pancakes will be thinner and lighter)
Oil pan or griddle and heat to fairly hot
Spoon or ladle out the batter onto the pan
These take longer to cook than wheat pancakes so flip a few minutes after bubbles show up or the edges start to dry out.
Cook another 1-2 minutes and serve.

You can also cool them on a rack and refrigerate in a container for a 3-5 days. Just reheat them in the toaster.

I see a lot of sourdough starter recipes that call for commercial or dried yeast. For those of us who chose not to use yeast it is possible to create a starter without it. Before the invention of commercial yeast all sourdough starters and breads relied on the natural yeast in the air for leavening. I’ve made many successful wheat and rye starters with just flour and water. They fermented easily and made wonderful breads. After I learned I was gluten (and dairy) intolerant I tried to make gluten free starters using the same technique I had grown accustomed to for the wheat and rye breads: a 7 day sourdough starter. With gluten free flours 7 days did not work well. The starter turned a moldy shade of bluish green. I experimented, searched the webs and learned that gluten free sourdough needs to be fed 2-3 times a day unlike wheat/rye starter which can be fed as little as once a day.

I was able to create a brown rice starter in about 4-5 days using only brown rice flour and water but it smelled almost spoiled and the bread was unpleasantly sour. (one wonders why I would go forward and bake something that smelled almost spoiled, but I was determined to follow through so I could learn all the ins and outs of this) Someone suggested that I try a small amount of Water Kefir, a non-dairy fermented drink, to give the starter a boost. This made all the difference for me because it cut the fermenting time down to 3-4 days and never moldered. I have come to greatly depend on this success-every-time starter.

Fermented drinks are an important part of my diet. They have helped me repopulate my digestive system with probiotics and enzymes enabling me to fully recover from health challenges. Water Kefir culture is a colony of bacteria and yeast that, when fed sugar, creates lactobacillus into the liquid which then becomes available to us in the form of a drink. It can also be used to soak grains and beans before cooking. It then boosts the predigestion process that happens when grains and beans are soaked. It does the same for the flour in the starter making the finished bread more digestible. It also speeds the fermentation process.

Kombucha Tea is another fermented drink I make at home, that can be used to boost a starter, although I find the fermentation time to be slower than with the water kefir. For people able to eat dairy products, Milk Kefir or active Yoghurt could be used to boost a gluten free starter. Just add 2 tablespoons of any of these fermented products to your starter when first mixing it up. I save a bit of this starter to start the next batch and store it in the refrigerator. If I haven’t used it after 2 weeks I take it out, let it come to room temperature, feed it with rice flour and water, let it sit (and ferment) for 4 hours and store it back in the fridge. Creating a new starter with this bit of previously fermented starter cuts the fermentation time from 4 days to about 2 days!

I make a quart of water kefir at a time and use it to soak grains and beans before cooking. I also drink it in small amounts as a digestive aid before meals. It becomes effervescent and is very refreshing. I bought my first batch of water kefir culture for under $30 including shipping. With care these can last indefinitely and as they add probiotics into my diet I save money as I no longer need to buy bottles of probiotics.

Here are very succinct directions for making Water Kefir:

Nearly fill a wide mouth quart jar with water.

Add 2 tablespoons sugar, stirring to dissolve, 20 raisins and a slice of lemon or lime.

Add the contents of your bottle of water kefir grains into the quart jar.

Cover with a paper towel or cloth and secure with a rubber band. 

When raisins float to the top, scoop them and the lemon slice out and discard.

Ferment the water kefir for 6 more hours on the counter with the paper towel.

Then store in fridge and use as needed.

When you have used the liquid down to about an inch in the jar start a new batch in a new jar and pour the water kefir grains plus the liquid their in right into the new jar, cover and ferment.

You can order water kefir culture (as well as kombucha and kefir culture)  at www.anahatabalance.com and type in “new_customer_10” for a 10% discount. I’ve been very happy with this company’s products. They send the water kefir grains in a little bottle with liquid which you use in entirety when you make your first batch.

I created these breads and bread recipes to cope with my own multiple food allergies and sensitivities. After mastering and enjoying old fashioned sourdough rye bread I learned I was gluten intolerant and could no longer eat rye. I learned I was also allergic to eggs and dairy products.

Wanting to continue eating bread, I looked at the ingredients in retail gluten free breads and found there was at least one ingredient I needed to avoid in each one. If I was going to be able to eat bread I needed to be able to control the ingredients.
I began experimenting with the sourdough techniques I had mastered for the rye bread.

Sourdough baking is a time tested bread baking technique that was used exclusively until the discovery of modern commercial yeast. It utilizes the natural yeasts and bacteria present on the grain and in the air to leaven bread. Sourdough bread becomes highly digestible because the flours are "soaked" in the starter and in the long rise period. Some people may remember their grandparents soaking oatmeal the night before cooking it for breakfast. Soaking neutralizes natural enzyme inhibitors in the grain, begins breaking down the tough cellulose fibers, fosters the formation of probiotics and enzymes and releases vitamins. All this makes for a more nutritious finished product that is easy on the digestion with many nutrients available for assimilation. Sourdough breads have a robust taste, long shelf life and freeze well.

For those of us who are gluten intolerant and have other food allergies these sourdough bread recipes can be a welcome addition to our diets.
The recipes in my gluten free recipe package are free of gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, soy, yeast, sugar, baking powder/soda, and xanthan and guar gums.
It can be purchased at: www.food-medicine.com

Free starter recipes on my personal blog: glutenfreesourdough.blogspot.com

Hi All,

A number of weeks ago I promised to share my gluten free sourdough bread recipe. It's finally ready for you. This recipe is suitable for people with a multitude of allergies, gluten, dairy, egg, soy, corn, and yeast and sensitive digestive systems. I know most of you are eating wheat and rye with delight but most people know someone who is gluten intolerant and who would love to be able to bake their own gluten free sourdough bread. I have posted 3 recipes on my blog, the actual bread recipe, the starter recipe and the booster recipe (what's a booster?) I have found in my 3 years of experimenting that for a gluten free starter to be very dependable it needs something to boost the bacteria and yeast growth. I have found a wonderful fermented drink called Water Kefir, that does the trick nicely.

Please take a look at my blog or forward the info to someone who would appreciate it. http://glutenfreesourdough.blogspot.com

Thanks and let me know if you have questions or comments.

Sharon

PS I love all the interesting posts on this site. People's successes and failures help me to develop even more gluten free recipes.

Hello fellow knead-less dutch oven bread enthusiasts! I've been enjoying this bread for almost a year now and rarely have trouble with it, except when our temps. here are in the 100's. Then it rises too fast, comes out flat, etc...Anyway, I've had a request for a wheat free version using buckwheat, spelt, quinoa, or other non-wheat flours. Have any of you baked this bread wheat free?
I'd love some advice before I start experimenting. I'm not really a bread baker, I love the knead-less recipe because it is so simple, therefore I don't really know the chemistry behind bread and alternative flours. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Hi

What do I need  for gluten free baking. I am told there is no such thing as gluten free flour. I can get rice flour but don't know what is used in place of gluten to hold it togather.

Any gluten fre recipes would be appreciated. Some thing in the cookie department for now.

Thanks

For Classes on yeast-free, gluten-free cooking contact River Organica @ 360-840-7802