My gluten free rice sourdough :)
Hello everyone, first time poster on this community!
I think the context came out a tad too long, so TL;DR: this is gluten (and nickel) free bread made mostly from rice flour and starch. The recipe is my own, developed mostly from scratch for the past year or so. The starter is live, 2.5 years old, made from whole grain rice flour (more photos and info below).
A bit of context: For a variety of reasons and food allergies/intolerances I've been eating gluten free for the past 5 years or thereabouts. I've always been deeply unsatisfied with commercial gluten free breads, especially since my mother used to bake a lot, even sourdough sometimes, and it was always stellar.
In an attempt to make some decent bread, a couple years ago I started my live sourdough made from whole grain rice fluor exclusively (it actually started from white rice flour, but whole grain has more proteins, so it rises better, and I find it has a better taste too).
The recipe is one I've been developing on my own for the past year or so, mostly because I needed something that was also nickel free (for allergies). I live in Italy and the GF offer here is stellar, but the only alternative I could find which suited my needs tasted waaay too sugary for my taste (which is a common issue in gf baked products I find, since sugar tends to be used both for rising and for giving the bread a nice caramelized color). GF products tend to replace wheat with mostly corn (tons of nickel) and/or potato starch (also tons of histamine as well, and I need to keep it in check). The flour mix I was using before was made mostly from those two alone, so I had to change it.
This is my first bake after a period away from home. I had dried and freezed my starter before leaving, then unfreezed it and started feeding it again a couple days before the bake. I actually got the proportions for my recipe completely wrong this time, and added about 100g too much flour. Somehow the proportions worked out in the end, I didn't even need to change the hydration.
After making the dough, I let it rise for ~1.5hrs outside the fridge ( ~35°), then 12hrs in the fridge, then a couple hours outside to let it reach room temp. I think the dough was a bit dry on the outside and it split during rising. I cut it ~1cm deep in a ) shape along the border before baking. With my recipe the bread usually splits along the cut which didn't happen this time, but at a second look it mostly rised from the previous split.
The crust is very crunchy for a GF bread, not so much for a normal wheat bread. The crumb is a bit humid and gummy, probably because of too high hydration. The bubbles are some of the best I've ever obtained, I'm definitely marking this accident as a happy one.
Would be really happy to contribute my bakes to this community and to hear everyone's thoughts!
12 replies
That is one amazing looking gluten-free loaf, especially since gluten-free is actually much harder to succeed with as opposed to regular gluten-containing bread. That has been my experience! So this is a truly amazing bread, well done, and I hope you can repeat it.
I couldn't work out from your post if you were using your own flour mix or if you were using a commercial blend such as Caputo fioreglut?
Also, what is interesting for me is the somewhat long ferment that you manage to get away with without having a floating crust or anything funny like that. Maybe it's a good idea to do a bit of shaping before baking.
Some of the gluten-free sourdough recipes that I have followed, such as Aran Goyoaga's have a very rapid fermentation - one hour with lots of starter - and then it's pretty much into the oven otherwise you do get some of those defects like the floating crust. And recipes like that also have a very long baking time.
Thanks for sharing!
When I wrote "recipe is my own" I actually meant that both the recipe (flour/water/salt/oil) and the flour mix are my own. I could have been clearer. The closest pre-made mix is Ori Di Sicilia's Pane Base Riso (their bread mix, rice based. As opposed to corn based).
I always shape before baking. I usually make the dough, then split it into different loafs, shape them and then they rise inside the rattan baskets. GF doesn't really hold the shape well enough to shape after rising.
That is a common trend with GF stuff. In my experience, you can get away with less starter and more rise time. I usually vibe the starter/flour proportions depending on room temperature, how quick I want the loaf ready, if I can let it stay in the fridge for some tie, etc. The standard I use is 150g of starter on 1kg of flour, as far as I am aware it should be common with wheat as well.
What is interesting about this flour is the starch is rice starch and not the usual tapioca or potato.
When it comes to your own flours, what did you end up using? Do you use a mix of white and brown rice? And for starch did you manage to get hold of rice starch, or do you do 'the usual' say and go for a blend of tapioca & potato starch?
I assume too, from looking at your crumb that you are using some psyllium rather than xantham gum.
That's because it's mostly white rice flour (I really should try brown rice, it should contain less sugars!), and something like tapioca would make it to gummy/gluey (as in glue-like texture, i don't know if that's a word). Rice starch tends to give more "dry" crumbs, which is why it's not commonly used in cakes and sweet bakery (corn, potato or tapioca starch would be used instead), but I find it's a plus in this case.
For now I can just get rice starch at some GF or organic food retailers locally, or on amazon (amazon has a better price per kilo, and I want to keep the cost comparable to that of commercial mixes). I want to try making my own in the future.
The one I used in this bake is actually tapioca starch, because I didn't notice I ran out of rice. It's why you see the crumb behave the way it does in the video. I ordered some nore starch, maybe I'll show it for next week's bake!
That looks incredible for a gluten free bread.
If at all possible I'd love to get the recipe (and guessing the starter was made just by leaving rice flour+water out to pick up whatever local bacteria there are).
My sister has celiacs so I always feel horrible for her whenever she visits cause it's incredibly tough to find any truly gluten free restaurants within 60 miles of where I live.
I am so sorry to hear about you sister, I know it's tough.
I am sorry but I won't share the recipe for different reasons. Although as I mentioned early the closest pre-made flour mix is Ori Di Sicilia Pan Riso. Their bread mixes always tend to have a sugary aftertaste, which I don't particularly like. Mine seems to be closer to wheat flour in texture (of the final product) as well. Most of the taste and color are usually given by the starter though, and my mix is tuned to my taste and my kitchen after all.
If your sister doesn't have any other particular allergies (e.g. nickel like me) you will get away with basically any pre-made mix. Just be mindful of hydration, more is always better. Shaping can be hard, as the dough tends to stick to your hands. If you're not experienced with GF you can use vegetable oil on the board and hands to help. Using flour instead can be tricky: too much and the dough becomes too dry to rise. Shape before rising, then bake without reshaping.
Most of the resources I have and follow are in Italian though, I don't know how helpful they can be. Another good mix is Romana Gluten Free Cuor Di Pinsa.
Do understand, appreciate the response and suggestions will have to give them a try. Have a great day.
Here is a video of my cutting a slice as well!
https://files.catbox.moe/8xuxxs.mp4
It definitely sounds like the real deal :)
I honestly didn't even realize you could make gluten free sourdough, this looks so good
The crumb is so much better than I expected, kudos!
Thank you! I've made a comment with a video of me cutting it