Gluten Free Sourdough Discard Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why is my gluten free sourdough starter not rising? ›

Most commonly, the issue here has to do with temperature (which is very important). If your sourdough starter is kept at a low temp, even 70°F (21°C), it will slow fermentation activity and appear to be sluggish, taking longer to rise and progress through the typical signs of fermentation. The solution: keep it warm.

If you plan on baking gluten free sourdough often, just keep your starter on the counter and feed it at least once a day. If you don't plan on baking as often, you can store your starter in the refrigerator and feed it once a week.

Sometime between days 5 and 10, you'll notice that within several hours after feeding the starter will have grown in size to between 2 1/4 and 2 3/4 cups. At this point it's ready to use in your recipe.

Put in the fridge for a couple of days. Long-Fermentation Rise in Fridge: For the longer fermentation process to eliminate 97% of gluten, keep your floured bowl or proofing basket in the fridge for 48-72 hours.

This usually means 1 or both of 2 things: 1) you aren't feeding the starter often enough; and/or 2) you haven't been feeding it enough food and water. Go back and follow the directions in the Sourdough Starter post (there is new info there as of 6/2020).

Traditional bread bakers would do a bulk rise of their bread dough and then a second rise in the tin. Without gluten to manage the activity of the yeast and to add structure, doing that first bulk rise may cause your loaf to be dense (more so for gf/vegan bread).

Feed starter with GF flour and water every 4 hours by using one of the following methods: If using a scale to measure ingredients, combine equal amounts by weight of starter, water, and GF flour. For instance, 50 grams of starter, 50 grams of water, 50 grams of GF flour.

A note on hydration

Gluten free flours are often incredibly thirsty, meaning they'll need a lot more water than regular flour. Your starter needs to be the consistency of a thick paste in order to ferment. It can be wetter, but it can't be drier. So please take the 100% hydration as a guide.

All-purpose Flour

It strikes a perfect balance of softness and structure, making it an ideal choice for various recipes. Due to its wide availability and affordability, all-purpose flour is often my top recommendation for creating and maintaining a sourdough starter.

For about two weeks, I recommend you feed your developing starter with brown rice flour only, and then after the starter reliably doubles, you'll switch to a 50:50 mix of brown rice flour and Breadtopia gluten free bread flour.

Is gluten free sourdough starter possible? ›

It doesn't require anything other than gluten-free flour, water and salt. Other ingredients may be added to create a flavor you like. To get started, you'll need to spend a few minutes a day for seven days. Then you'll be able to maintain it by “feeding” it more flour and water as necessary.

Underproofed dough is dense and has not increased in volume. This will result in a dense bread with a very tight crumb (holes are very close together) that doesn't have the pillowy texture when you take a bite. The flavor will also be underdeveloped.

Proofing tends to be much faster with gluten-free bread. While it can take up to 6-8 hours in cooler weather, bread is often ready for baking in 1-2 hours. Overproofing is common, but will not harm the final bread.

Gluten Content

Although Ezekiel bread is technically flourless, it is not a gluten-free product. Those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance shouldn't eat it. There are other flourless breads that do not contain gluten.

Sourdough bread is transformed when it is fermented for 7 hours or longer. Then it is not only easily digested, but can often be handled by those who are gluten intolerant.

Getting the proportionate amounts of starch and flour is key. If there is higher fiber, heavier flour and not enough starch it won't rise. Also try reducing the liquid a little. Sometimes if I am using a whole grain flour I'll add an extra tsp of yeast and that helps it to rise.

A note about moisture in gluten-free bread recipes: getting the right amount of moisture in GF bread dough is crucial to success. If the dough is too moist, the bread will rise well but sink in the middle when baking. If it is too dry, the bread will not rise.