well. I also found I felt better without yeast, xanthan and guar gums. Gluten-free bakers currently depend on milk, eggs, fruit, fruit juice, yeast, baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan and guar gums to help with binding, leavening and moisture balance. I found that most of the retail gluten-free breads have at least one of these ingredients, and often, many of them. That’s when I decided to try making gluten-free sourdough bread. I didn’t find any recipes on the internet for this type of bread so I began experimenting.
Enter Water Kefir!
Previously I had made many successful sourdough rye breads simply by using rye flour, salt and water. The starter was fed daily for 7 days. Using this technique as a guide, I began my gluten-free sourdough experiments with brown rice flour and water and fed the starter daily for 7 days.
At about day 6 the starter turned a moldy shade of bluish-green and had a putrid smell. Needless to say I discarded it and started a new batch with a shorter duration of fermenting (4–5 days). The resulting starter still smelled faintly 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 and learn as much as I could because I wasn’t willing to eliminate breads from my life, if I could help it!
Even the occasional successful starter produced heavy, dense loaves of bread that had very little crumb and were basically unpalatable. Without the usual gluten-free standard commercial ingredients it was very difficult to get the breads to rise.
During this time I had been sipping water kefir as a morning tonic to strengthen my digestive system. Water kefir is a naturally fermented drink consisting of water kefir culture, sugar, water, raisins and lemon. The fermentation process creates beneficial yeast, bacteria, enzymes and a small amount of alcohol. It was nicely potent but really too alcoholic for me to drink, as I am extremely sensitive to alcohol. I stopped drinking the kefir but continued to make it to boost the soaking water for grains and beans, as it “predigests” them.
One morning as I was taking my daily walk (an activity that encourages problem-solving for me as well as the genesis of new ideas) I wondered if the water kefir, being too alcoholic for me to drink, might be useful in leavening my gluten-free bread. I contacted an experienced fermenter and bread baker from Australia, who said that he often used water kefir to leaven his gluten-free, dairy-free sourdough products. He gave me some tips for growing the starter and when I tried his suggestions I finally began to have some real success.
I learned that in order for a starter to avoid the bacteria that causes spoilage, there needs to be ample amounts of beneficial bacteria, yeast and enzymes present in that starter. The fermented water kefir liquid contains a prolific amount of these beneficial bacteria, yeasts and enzymes. When a small amount of water kefir liquid is added to the starter, the bacteria and yeast feed on the starches in the flour fostering healthy reproduction of enough beneficial bacteria, yeasts and enzymes to prevent spoilage.
My original gluten-free starters often took five days to show much activity and, by that time, they were starting to spoil. Starters boosted with water kefir showed activity after 48 hours! This was an important turning point for me in my bread baking.
The water kefir culture is a colony of bacteria and yeast that form small gelatinous-like “grains” that are the size of small pebbles. I use water kefir in my starters because it is a dairy and casein-free culture and I am allergic to all dairy products. People who can tolerate dairy products can use live whey, milk kefir, milk kefir whey, or live homemade yogurt as a booster. Homemade kombucha tea can also work, although in my experience it adds a day to the fermentation time.
I find that using a fermented drink to boost and preserve a gluten-free starter is very economical. After the initial cost of the culture it costs only pennies per batch to keep it healthy and productive. With proper care the culture itself can live indefinitely. I make a quart of water kefir at a time which stays potent for a month. There are other uses for water kefir besides boosting a gluten-free sourdough starter. Some people drink it as a soda like beverage and make it every day or two to keep up with the demand.
Recently, I experimented with the original water kefir recipe that came with the culture. I shortened the fermentation time and was able to bring down the level of alcohol so that I can enjoy it in small amounts as a tonic without any discomfort from the alcohol. Now I drink in small amounts, 1–2 ounces at a time, as a digestive aid and tonic. I also like to use it for occasions that call for a wine or champagne toast!
Flours – Sourdough Bread #1
The next challenge was finding the right combination, and proportions, of gluten-free flours to create a loaf of bread with all the qualities we look for: taste, texture, crumb, shelf life, and visual attractiveness. Flour combining is a way of achieving these qualities. Each specific flour lends certain properties to the finished product. It becomes a bit of a chess game to determine which flours, and how much of each, will give just the right amount of sponginess, lightness, body, ease of leavening and of course, flavor.
It took much time, patience and many failed loaves. After months of experimentation I finally settled on equal amounts of brown rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, chick pea flour and potato flour, and achieved a really tasty and dependable recipe. The process from the first spoiled bread to the first successful and dependable bread took one whole year!
I called my first successful loaf Sourdough Bread #1. It was a joy to eat. Toasted, it had some sponginess along with a nice crust. I found the taste to be very balanced as no particular flour dominated. It had a good rise, nearly doubling in size over 12–24 hours.
Shelf Life
The nature of sourdough breads is that they have a long shelf life and I was very pleased that Sourdough Bread #1 was excellent in this regard. It lasted 4–5 days on the counter, 2–3 weeks in the refrigerator and even froze well. If it was frozen the day it was baked it was still excellent after thawing and toasting, lasting 7–10 days in the refrigerator. Compare this with many gluten-free breads that deteriorate after two days and really should be frozen after one day. Another benefit of sourdough bread is that the good taste builds over the life of the bread.
I was very happy with this bread and ate goodly amounts of it. I could toast a few pieces, store them in a lunch box and have them for a mid afternoon snack at work or during travel without retoasting.
Sensitivity
After two years of euphoric bread eating I started to show symptoms of sensitivity again. One of the principles of healthy eating is to eat a variety of foods. This ensures a mix of nutrients, micronutrients and enzymes. One of the challenges of having multiple food sensitivities is that it becomes difficult to eat a wide variety of foods because we must avoid so many foods. Undiagnosed gluten sensitivity impairs the intestinal system, making one much more sensitive to the foods we eat repetitively.
I was tested for all the ingredients in my beloved bread and found I was sensitive to three of the five flour ingredients! The two to which I was most sensitive were chick pea flour and tapioca flour. I was less sensitive to the third ingredient, sorghum, something I had never eaten before. Thankfully, I tested well for the potato flour and the brown rice flour.
I took a three month break from bread baking to ponder what was next. During that time I attended a gluten-free culinary conference taught by professional chefs, pastry chefs and cookbook writers. Through the information these remarkable people shared I gained a much clearer understanding of general baking principles and how they are modified for gluten-free baking. I was able to combine
