When I first was diagnosed with CD, sourdough breads were the one item I craved most. Finding none in my grocery stores, I set out to make my own. I worked through Bette Hagman's books, tried chemicals and vinegars, etc and etc and etc. Trial and error and persistence finally did it, and now I'm regularly making sourdough millet baguettes, sourdough buckwheat dinner rolls, sourdough pizza, fake rye, and more.

Now it's time to share: I'll be teaching my techniques - which are simple, straightforward and cost effective - in a series of workshops. The first is scheduled for Portland Oregon on Saturday March 13. If you're interested, here's the link to my page:

I was making my wife some special pancakes this morning that are gluten free - egg free and dairy free (she is allergic to all) and the recipe I am always using and tweeking got much better. I usually have to use soy or rice milk in place of dairy milk, but this time I tried canned coconut milk. This worked really well and I also thinned the recipe and made a very nice injera type flat bread at the end. I wanted to share it with anybody that might want to try it, or give suggestions. I do add fruit sometimes, but am always working on getting the consistancy and flavor best before masking it with those additions. I usually make the following double batch so that she can have some ready made for later in the week.

3 cups buckwheat flour

2 cups coconut milk

2 tsp baking soda

3 tsp baking powder

3 tsp sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

4 flax egg substitutes (each = 1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 3 tablespoons boiling water, let sit for a few minutes till gooey)

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

enough water for runny pancake batter

ladle a scoop of batter onto medium hot lightly greased skillet.  When the batter stopps bubbling but is still steaming, flip

yum

For a nice injera type flat bread or roll up, add more water to the batter so that it can spread out nice and thin. Cook on one side until the top is dry to touch. Don't flip, injera only gets cooked on one side, this leaves the other side flexible for rolling. There will be alot of bubble holes and be nice and soft inside.

Russ from RI

Loafers,

I have done much research on TFL and all over the web (two weeks)and I am not seeing the solution to my quest. I have the Hamelman bread book on reserve at the library and I hope it will teach me a lot about how to design a proper recipe, as I see it is often referred to on TFL & elsewhere by skilled bakers. 

My wife is increasingly gluten sensitive (GS) and I am trying to emulate a sourdough secret recipe from Bezian's Bakery in San Fran which has a long acidic fermentation, from a week to a month. As a result of at least a 24 hour fermentation, the peptides in gluten are rendered harmless to GS people. Bezian claims that he has people with Celiac Disease eat his bread, and they report no problems. (We are not Celiacs) I have a strong suspicion that if I am able to produce a largely gluten free (GF) sourdough, then my family will be able to tolerate it just fine. An Italian study used a very controlled collection of  lactos & yeasts and I believe it was 70% GF flours (like rice flour etc) and 30% rye flour. It seems like a good idea to use mostly or all rye flour because it is not wheat and it contains far less gluten.

Can you give me any pointers on what might be a good start on a 1 week to a 1 month long fermentation sourdough recipe using all or mostly rye flour? I am quite lost in the forest in this regard.

I have two starters in process, and one pair of loaves under my belt > worst bread I've ever made! (the recipe didn't call for a cover, it seems like it would be useful, and it didn't spring much in the final rise, had no oven spring, and took a colossal amount of effort and time) I've begun using ideas from sourdoughbaker.com.au The Medium Rye Old Dough recipe does ferment for over 24 hours, but not for a week and more. 

I have had great luck using the 5 Minute Books. And these breads are intended to store in the fridge for a week or more. I wonder if a rye version of their standard recipe might do the trick, but I have my reservations (can't remember why not at this time). 

I welcome your ideas. 

Thank you

anemic in Grand Rapids 

I have recently discovered a good mix of gluten free flours that are freshly ground and nutritious. My daughter likes to stay away from gluten so I've been developing the recipes for her but the whole family has been eating them. :)

I freshly grind all my whole grain and was disappointed in the lack of nutrients found in the gluten free recipes I was coming across, so I tried a combination of pseudograins, ground them myself and found I really liked it. So here it is...

1 1/2 c. brown rice

1/4 c. amaranth

1/4 c. millet

1/4 c. flaxseed

Freshly grind all these (makes about 3 1/2 c. flour) and mix with:

1 tsp. salt (I use sea salt)

4 tsp. baking powder 

Set aside.

Lightly beat 4 eggs and add:

4 tbs. oil (safflower or mildly flavored)

6 tbs. honey (I use raw)

2 c. milk (I use almond milk to be dairy free)

For Quick Bread:

Mix all until fairly smooth and pour into 2 loaf pans.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes or until done. (I use a glass pan)

You want to slightly under bake this rather than over bake because it gets too dry.

Wait about 10 minutes before getting out of pan.

For Muffins:

Add raisins/currants and chopped walnuts for added flavor and crunch.

Mix all until fairly smooth and place heaping tbs. of batter in mini muffin tin.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes. I let these rest about 5 minutes in the pan so they come out easier. These get a nice rise and are loved by the pickiest of children. :)

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