with my own knowledge of gluten-free sourdough baking.
I was scheduled to teach a bread class and began a new brown rice starter for the class. I would teach my tried and true Sourdough Bread #1 even though I would no longer eat it.
Pancakes
The day after class I began experimenting with small batches of pancakes, rather than bread, in the hopes that the losses would be minimized in the event of failure. To ensure a “nutrient-rich” bread I decided that I would use only organic grains that I could grind in my grain mill. As much as I loved Sourdough Bread #1 I had never been completely comfortable using previously ground flours, being concerned about the length of time they may have been sitting on a warehouse or market shelf.
Previously I had made pancakes using only boosted brown rice starter and found them to be rather bland, dense and overly wet. Using the ideas about flour combining I had just learned at the conference I would try using a different flour, buckwheat, for the last feeding. What I found was that it gave the finished pancakes a very nice, complex taste and a spongier texture that cooked through more easily.
For variation, I repeated this experiment, using some reserved brown rice starter from the initial batch, and made a few more batches of pancakes adding a different flour for each final feeding. I used teff, amaranth, tapioca, gluten-free oats and quinoa. Each batch had very different qualities. The teff pancakes had a very dense, cake-like texture. The amaranth pancakes were light and delicate. The tapioca gave it an angel food quality. Gluten-free oats gave the pancakes a fluffy texture.
Quinoa – Muffins, Buns & Mini Loaves and Sourdough Bread #2
Those experiments gave me important information that I was able to use for a variety of different starters and bread recipes. When I used quinoa, a South American grain, for the last feeding of the pancake starter I saw it triple in size during the rise. The texture was truly spongy with lots and lots of holes. I began to experiment using the Rice Quinoa starter for muffins, buns and mini loaves and had great success. Because of the quinoa they also achieved what is one of the most elusive characteristics of whole grain, egg-free, gluten-free bread: the fluff factor. My definition of the fluff factor is the texture we experience when we bite into a conventionally made white flour blueberry muffin, cupcake or piece of birthday cake: light, soft, fluffy, and comforting.
As a culture of wheat eaters we have come to expect our wheat breads to have these characteristics. When diagnosed with gluten-intolerance, we look for replacement gluten-free breads that have the traits to which we have grown accustomed: light, soft, fluffy, and comforting, which are challenging to achieve in a whole grain bread.
The sourdough rye bread I had grown so fond of had very different characteristics than commercial bread and that’s why I liked it. This old world bread was dense, aromatic, nutritious and highly digestible because of the long fermentation and rise times. It was tasty and extremely satisfying with a bowl of soup. Because I came to gluten-free baking from this perspective I did not have the expectation of developing light fluffy bread. My hope was to create nutritious bread that would simply rise. Not too terribly much to ask for, I thought. Sourdough Bread #1 had enough sponginess to please many people, but when I began using quinoa I moved to a whole new and unexpected place. These muffins were lighter and spongier than any of my breads yet still were well within my nutrition parameters: no xanthan or guar gums, baking powder, baking soda, or yeast. I was on to something important!
After creating many interesting and tasty variations of the basic recipe using fruit, spices and herbs, I began to work out the measurements for making a new type of loaf bread recipe, which eventually became Sourdough Bread #2. Compared to Sourdough Bread #1 it had much more sponginess and rose nearly twice as high! It had a nice taste and a long shelf life and lent itself to many interesting variations such as onion bread, banana bread and herb & spice breads.
Chia – Sourdough Bread #3
I was asked by a mother of a child with food sensitivities to develop a bread recipe that did not use quinoa. Around that same time I had read about the healthful properties of chia seed as well as chia’s ability to increase the shelf life of bread products. Chia seed has highly absorbent properties, much like quinoa, and when chia seed is mixed with water it becomes a thick viscous gel.
First I experimented with chia gel to see how it affected Sourdough Bread #2. It seemed to make it a bit more moist but usually I finished eating the loaf well before I could be sure if the shelf life had increased. Then I had a travel experience where I packed some frozen Sourdough Bread #2 made with chia gel. This particular loaf was left to thaw, then forgotten about, then repacked and brought home. Expecting it to have passed its prime I toasted a slice of it just to see how much it had deteriorated only to be happily surprised by its still excellent structure and flavor! It appeared that the added chia gel did help the bread retain its moisture, taste and freshness even after many, many days.
I promptly got to work on the chia-based, quinoa-free bread for the child with the quinoa sensitivity and was able to create another excellent bread, Sourdough Bread #3. It did not rise as much as quinoa-containing Sourdough Bread #2 nor was it as spongy but it still was a fine, nutritious bread that, like Sourdough Bread #2, lent itself to many variations.
My experience is that chia gel gives bread stability, sponginess and an unusually long shelf life.
One of my favorite chia-based recipes is Brown Rice-Chia-Teff Bread. The teff flour gives it a good rise with extra height and, when toasted, reminds me of old fashioned dark pumpernickel bread from my childhood. I’ve recently added ground caraway seeds to it and renamed it “Mock Rye Bread.”
Buckwheat Sorghum – Sourdough Bread #4
I received a request for a rice-free sourdough bread recipe as many people are sensitive to rice as well as gluten. Since I initially began with rice as a starter I needed to find a flour that would provide a strong and neutral base but would easily take on the qualities of other flours that might be added to it. I decided to begin with sorghum, native to Africa and Asia.
Sorghum does not have a lot of natural sponginess or structure to it so I combined it with buckwheat flour because buckwheat has the ability to create sponginess as well as structure. This starter became the base for the Multigrain and Tapioca breads. These breads have wonderful sponginess plus complex tastes because of the variety of flours used. This starter became my first rice-free starter. A wonderful rice-free mock rye bread can be made with Multigrain Bread #4.
Rice-Free Teff – Sourdough Bread #5
I had already successfully been using teff flour in one of the Sourdough Bread #3 chia-rice variations. Teff is said to have originated in Ethiopia. It is a high protein grain that has a lot of natural sponginess to it. I eat this potent whole grain soaked and simmered for breakfast.
When I needed a small amount of teff flour for baking I ground it myself in a small coffee mill. I was ready to try some large scale experiments with teff and made an online purchase of what I thought was 25 pounds of whole teff grain. When it arrived I found 25 pounds of teff flour!! I checked my invoice and original order form and saw that I had, indeed, ordered 25 pounds of teff flour rather than teff whole grain.
I looked at this enormous sack of flour, wondering how many years it would take to use it up. Meanwhile, I still needed whole teff grain for breakfast so I ordered another 10 pounds. Lo and behold, I had clicked on the wrong option again and found myself with another 10 pounds of teff flour. Note to self: Slow Down!
With this newly arrived abundance
