cold frames allowing them to begin eating out of their garden in mid March. Sharon ferments anything from the garden at least once and has succeeded in fermenting vegetable parts that usually end up in the compost.
Her other book, Lacto-Fermentation Through the Seasons, is a manual about using old-fashioned salt brine pickling. It features 21 recipes that start with spring Rhubarb, moves through summer Daylily Buds, Snap Peas and on to the much-loved old standards of late summer and fall, cucumbers, swiss chard and sauerkraut.
Sharon has found a way to bring the joy of eating fine breads back into her, and hopefully your, life.
Foreword
By Peggy Matthews
I first met Sharon Kane at a small, vegan raw food potluck dinner in October, 2009. Sharon was to be the much-anticipated guest speaker on how to lacto-ferment vegetables for preservation and increased nutritional value. At that time, I had one foot in the raw vegan food movement and the other in the Weston A. Price camp (which advocates plenty of cooked, animal foods) with an overlap in lacto-fermented foods. I wanted to document the event and asked if she would feel comfortable having me videotape it. She readily agreed to my request. Sharon’s teaching style was enjoyable and informative, and she gave us plenty of time for questions and comments. By the end of the evening I knew I had met an extraordinary woman.
Later, when I told Sharon the videos had been posted to YouTube, she was hesitant to look at them! It took a few weeks before she mustered up the courage and I am happy to report that she was pleasantly surprised to see herself, for the first time, on video. I had no idea she was new to this, as she seemed entirely comfortable in front of the camera.
I signed up for her Intestinal Recovery Workshop and learned many invaluable techniques, including proper and traditional ways of handling and preparing foods. In passing, she mentioned that she wanted to build an online library of information where she could share her knowledge with people who could not attend her workshops. Having videos to share would be an added feature that she felt would also enhance her writings. One thing led to another, resulting in my assuming a new role in her life as her videographer.
Sharon and I have collaborated on many of her projects since then. Together we learned to use a high quality video camera, microphones, and an editing program. We spent countless hours editing countless hours of video footage.
I am neither a baker nor intolerant of gluten but after I began trying her bread recipes I found that I liked them very much. They were much easier on my digestion than other breads. If I can confidently make any of the recipes in this book I am sure others can too. At this point I enjoy Sharon’s gluten-free sourdough breads more than any other kind of bread.
It’s been very rewarding helping Sharon to bring this book to fruition and to develop her website. She passionately feels the calling to help others master these breads so they can bake for themselves and their families.
The Behavior of Sourdough
The behavior of sourdough is that it is a living colony of organisms that responds to its environment. This means that some factors, such as the ones listed below, may affect the outcome of the finished bread products:
•weather and humidity
•ambient temperature in the kitchen
•size of the flour grains (fine vs. coarse)
•slight differences in measurements
How this affects the gluten-free sourdough baker is that we cannot expect each loaf to be exactly the same as the last. Even I have differing results from batch to batch, using exactly the same recipe and measurements.
I have included many tips on how to work with these variables in the hopes that you will begin to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to playfully work with the particular challenges sourdough baking gives us.
The finished products are well worth the effort and time it takes to understand, and master, this ancient art.
Preface
I created these breads and bread recipes to cope with my own multiple food allergies and sensitivities. After finally mastering and enjoying old fashioned sourdough rye bread I was devastated when I learned I was gluten-intolerant and could no longer eat my beloved rye bread. I also learned I was allergic to eggs, dairy and soy products and had to limit my intake of yeast, sweeteners, fruits and salt.
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 control the ingredients. I began experimenting with the sourdough techniques I had mastered in making the rye bread.
At first I used the rye sourdough starter technique and simply substituted brown rice flour for rye flour. After a few starters that turned a moldy shade of bluish-green I learned that I would have to make some adjustments! After one year of much trial and many errors that resulted in bricks, doorstops and hockey pucks, I finally succeeded.
I find sourdough bread baking somewhat different from baking that uses an exacting recipe to ensure a consistent product time and time again. There is a natural variability involved with sourdough baking. Many things affect a sourdough product: weather, temperature and humidity in the kitchen, and variations in measurements. Allowances must be made for these factors and I have found that there are ways to compensate for some of them.
A relaxed attitude with lots of flexibility can help foster excellent breads. There is plenty of information to be had from less than perfect batches. These batches can lead to surprisingly good recipes and new techniques.
I’ve received feedback from gluten-intolerant people baking my breads. They’ve reported that their family members, who can eat gluten without trouble, like the breads very much and find them more digestible and satisfying than many of the wheat breads that are found in stores and bakeries. My husband, Allen, although not gluten-intolerant, has come to strongly prefer my breads to gluten based breads.
May these recipes help you succeed in becoming a confident gluten-free sourdough baker!
Introduction
Sourdough bread baking is a time-tested technique that has been used for approximately 3500 years. The sourdough baking technique utilizes the natural yeasts and bacteria present in the air and on the grain to leaven bread. Before the invention of commercial yeast about 150 years, ago all sourdough starters and breads relied on this method.
Sourdough bread becomes highly digestible because the flours are soaked both in the starter and during the long rise period. Soaking neutralizes natural enzyme inhibitors in the grain and fosters the formation of probiotics and enzymes which begin breaking down the tough cellulose fibers. This is known as predigestion. If a food is predigested we spend less intestinal energy, thus less stress, digesting the food. Soaking also makes for a more nutritious finished product, as many nutrients become available for proper digestion and assimilation as a result of the soaking process. As a bonus the long fermentation period gives sourdough breads a robust taste and a long shelf life.
When I learned I was gluten-intolerant I also learned I was highly sensitive to milk and eggs, and had to minimize my intake of sweeteners,
