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Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread
Three years of gluten-free sourdough and the loaf I finally settled on. Psyllium instead of gluten, an overnight cold proof, and a Dutch oven.
Three years of gluten-free sourdough, and this is the loaf I would hand somebody who asked me to prove it can be done. It took me that long to get here.
The starter in that jar is almost three years old. It is not my first. I killed my first one by leaving it on top of the stove while the oven was going underneath, which slowly cooked it. This one has never been allowed near the stove since.
Gluten-free sourdough is not wheat bread with the wheat taken out. There is no gluten to build a structure with, so something else has to hold the air in, and learning that is most of what those three years were. This recipe is where I landed, and I have not changed it since.
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Why gluten-free sourdough is its own thing
In a wheat loaf, kneading builds a net of gluten, and that net is what catches the gas the yeast gives off and holds the loaf up. Take the wheat away and there is no net. The dough will ferment beautifully and then have nowhere to put any of it.
Psyllium husk does that job here. Whisked into warm water it swells into a thick gel, and that gel is what traps the gas and gives the crumb its structure. It is the reason the dough feels like something between a batter and a bread dough, and the reason you do not knead it and do not do stretch and folds. Mix it thoroughly and then leave it alone.
It also means this loaf will never behave like the videos. It will not double. It will not pass a windowpane test. Judging it by wheat standards is the fastest way to talk yourself out of a perfectly good loaf.
What I have learned in three years
- Wet your hands, not the counter. This dough grips dry skin and slides right off wet skin. Keep a bowl of water next to you and dip your hands whenever it starts sticking.
- Do not add flour to fix stickiness. Not right away. Let the dough rest fifteen or twenty minutes first. The psyllium and the flours are still drinking, and what feels too wet at mixing usually is not too wet twenty minutes later.
- Damp parchment beats a floured towel. I have had the best luck wetting a piece of parchment paper, setting the shaped loaf on the damp parchment, and putting the whole thing in a bowl. A floured banneton works, but nothing sticks to damp parchment and the loaf goes straight from the bowl to the Dutch oven.
- Cold dough scores. Room temperature dough drags. This is the whole reason for the time in the refrigerator. A cold loaf takes a clean cut. A warm one grabs the blade and tears.
- One deep score, everything else shallow. Make one main expansion cut about a quarter inch deep and keep your decorative cuts shallower than that. The deep cut gives the loaf a place it is allowed to open, so it opens there instead of splitting somewhere you did not choose.
- The four hours of cooling are part of the recipe. Not a suggestion. The inside is still setting while it cools.
How to tell when it has fermented enough
Do not watch the clock and do not wait for it to double, because it will not. Three to six hours is the range, and where you land inside it depends on how warm your kitchen is and how lively your starter is that week.
What you are looking for instead is the dough turning noticeably puffier and lighter, with a slightly aerated look to it, and a little jiggle when you nudge the bowl. That jiggle is the tell. Once it is there, into the refrigerator it goes.
One note before you start: this needs an active gluten-free sourdough starter, which is a whole subject of its own and deserves its own post.
Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
Method
- Whisk the warm water and the psyllium husk powder together and let it stand 5 to 10 minutes, until it is thick and gelatinous.
- In a large bowl, combine the oat flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch and salt. Mix thoroughly.
- Add the active starter, the psyllium gel, the olive oil and the honey to the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. The dough should be soft, slightly sticky and cohesive. It holds together, but it is not as firm as wheat bread dough.
- Let the dough rest 15 to 20 minutes so the psyllium and the flours can absorb the water. Do not add flour before this rest. After resting, if it is still so loose it will not hold a mound, add oat flour one tablespoon at a time until it is shapeable.
- Wet your hands and gently form the dough into a round boule, smoothing the surface with wet hands. You want a smooth outside, not a tight one.
- Place the boule seam side down into a generously rice-floured banneton, or a bowl lined with a rice-floured tea towel. I have had the best luck wetting a piece of parchment paper, laying the smooth loaf on the damp parchment, and setting that into a bowl.
- Cover and let it rise at room temperature for 3 to 6 hours. Do not wait for it to double. You want it noticeably puffier, lighter, slightly aerated, and a little jiggly when you move the bowl.
- Once it has visibly fermented, cover and refrigerate 4 to 12 hours. Cold dough is much easier to score and decorate.
- Place a Dutch oven with its lid inside the oven and preheat to 450F for at least 45 minutes.
- Take the cold dough out of the refrigerator and turn it onto parchment paper. Dust the surface lightly with rice flour. Score it with a bread lame or a sharp razor. Make one main expansion score about a quarter inch deep and keep any decorative cuts shallower. That gives the loaf a controlled place to expand and helps prevent random cracking.
- Carefully transfer the loaf and its parchment into the hot Dutch oven. Cover and bake at 450F for 30 minutes.
- Remove the lid, reduce the oven to 400F, and bake another 30 to 35 minutes. For an extra crisp crust, take the loaf out of the Dutch oven for the last 5 to 10 minutes and set it directly on the oven rack.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and let it cool at least 4 hours before slicing. Gluten-free sourdough needs that time for the interior to finish setting.
Notes
Questions I get about this bread
Can I use my regular sourdough starter?
No. A wheat starter is not gluten-free, and feeding it gluten-free flour a few times does not make it gluten-free either. You need a starter that was built and has been fed with gluten-free flour from the beginning.
Can I leave out the psyllium husk or swap it for something else?
No, and this is the one ingredient I would not experiment with. The psyllium is not there for flavor or fiber, it is the structure. Take it out and you have a crumbly loaf that falls apart under a knife.
Why does it really have to cool for four hours?
Because the inside is not finished. Gluten-free crumb sets as it cools, and cutting into a warm loaf gives you a gummy, sticky center. People taste that and decide gluten-free bread is bad, when what was actually bad was the timing.
Do I have to use a Dutch oven?
It is the easiest way. The lid traps the steam coming off the loaf for the first thirty minutes, which keeps the crust soft long enough for the bread to finish expanding. Take the lid off too early and the crust sets before the loaf is done rising.
Can I skip the cold proof and bake the same day?
You can bake it, but you will not enjoy scoring it. Room temperature gluten-free dough is slack and the blade drags through it. The refrigerator is what makes a clean cut possible, and if you want any kind of pattern on top it is not optional.
My dough did not double. Did I do something wrong?
No. It is not supposed to. Puffier, lighter and a little jiggly is the whole target. If you wait for double you will overferment it and end up with a loaf that spreads instead of rising.
Can I change the flours?
You can, but expect to adjust the water. This particular ratio of oat, brown rice, tapioca and potato is what I settled on after a lot of loaves that did not work, and every one of those flours absorbs water differently. If you swap one, change one thing at a time and take notes.
If you have been trying to make gluten-free sourdough work and keep getting bricks, start with the cooling time and the jiggle test. Those two things fixed more loaves for me than any change to the flour ever did.
More from the kitchen: a gluten-free honey tea cake and gluten-free oatmeal cookies.
The Tuesday Letter
I write once a week about the actual work of this place. The cooking, the preserving, the animals, and the things that don’t go to plan.
One letter a week. Unsubscribe any time.
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