GLUTEN-FREE Sourdough Shenanigans!

So, in a recent post, I talked about my life as a Plate Spinner. Well, not exactly. Rather how my life feels as though I’m the Plate Spinner in a circus act. And this week has been no exception. My daughter, Wildstyle has been craving some real bread and given her food restrictions, this is a challenge. There are a couple options that we can buy, but most have cornstarch or soy or egg whites and honestly, the ingredients often change, so I get tired of scanning every item before throwing it into the cart. Before the allergies, I used to bake bread often, so there is a big part of me yearning to get back to that.

A week ago, I bit the bullet and started spinning a new plate. That’s right! A new project in @Crowbarmama’s lineup! Gluten-free sourdough using teff and cassava. (Initially the GF starter was strictly teff, I started using cassava a few days later.) Now, to give myself something to compare it to, I also started up a traditional sourdough using whole wheat and sprouted spelt flours.

I started out with just flour and water, about ½ cup of each in a quart jar and tried to feed it twice a day. By day 3, I thought about using water kefir rather than plain water and what a difference that made! It’s usually recommended to feed a new starter for 5-7 days before using it, but it was so live by day 3, I made some sourdough teff pancakes. They were also egg-free, but rose beautifully!

A couple more days went by and I surprised my family with homemade pizza crust! The photo below is the whole wheat sourdough crust.

Yes, I did forget to take an after picture. Sorry! The next photo is the GF teff crust.

Teff is naturally very dark, so it may appear burnt, but was actually just crispy enough to satisfy my daughter’s desire for some crunch.

This was before I had added the cassava to the teff, so the GF crust didn’t rise as much as I’d hoped, but my daughter enjoyed it so much more than the Daiya frozen pizzas she usually eats.

Saturday I baked an actual GF sourdough boule. I used this recipe as a loose guide.

As you've learned by now, I don't take instructions well!

What I learned is that it didn’t need to actually reach 205 degrees, as I had initially thought. (I later read that some breads are done at 195, so I’ll keep that in mind in the future.) I actually let it bake an additional 20 minutes trying to get to that temp, and overcooked the outside, resulting in a very thick and chewy crust, but the inside was beautiful and so flavorful, and surprisingly not very sour!

Tomorrow I’m going to try the whole wheat sourdough and will share those results.
Sunday, being our lazy day, I prepped two bowls of sourdough pancakes the night before and spent Sunday morning over a hot griddle, coffee in hand, flipping pancakes onto plates almost faster than I could make them!

The plate on the left shows the whole wheat sourdough pancakes. On the right are the teff/ cassava blend with sprouted brown rice flour added into the recipe. My daughter actually preferred the recipe without the brown rice.

Luckily I made 2 big batches, otherwise, there wouldn’t have been any to photograph!

Have you ever tried making a gluten free sourdough? I'd love to hear about your results! Do you have any questions about what I created? It's all still a work in progress, but I'm happy with the progress we're seeing and even more happy that my daughter's digestive system seems to be agreeing with the sourdough.

I chose @Crowbarmama as a handle because I believe in doing the best you can with what you have on hand. The crowbar is a multi-purpose tool. You’ll notice my photography is a bit rough, my grammar is not the most polished, but as a homeschooling, homesteading mama of 4, if I waited to take my photos until the light was perfect or re-edited my posts a 5th time ( I shoot for 3 drafts), I would never get a post out!

Don’t sweat the small stuff, just Crowbar it!

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