Working with Sourdough... My Not-so-Gluten-Free sourdough experience

I found to my amazement this week that there are a whole heap of recipes on the internet for Gluten-Free sourdough. MMMMmmmm.
Why sourdough? Initially I would have said that it was yummy... which it is. However I found that you don't need to keep buying yeast so that ticks another box self-sufficiency and lastly its a more healthy option for bread, it's cultured so more easily digested by your body. I'm excited.

I went with the starter from this website. Its funny somewhere in my initial reading, it said... never use brown rice flour to make your starter, and the bread recipe I ended up using this recipe called for a brown rice starter, it caught my eye as it is an artisan style bread and I wanted to compare it to my “Quirky cooking” recipe.
 
Too late I had already started the sorghum starter (actually I was a little lazy that day I didn't want to grind up all my rice just for a bread that might not work), so I made a few alterations. I swapped the sorghum flour in the bread dough with brown rice flour. Found a HUGE bag of brown rice at Coles so next time I have no excuse not to try the rice flour starter. I also read that you need to keep feeding your starter the same kind of flour. With rice being this available, a more sustainable starter is (possibly) with the rice flour.

Pancakes and pikelets
So does it make good bread? My loaf is proving as we speak. With this recipe I found it made a whole lot of starter. Don't worry said another website use your spare starter to make pancakes. Add some flour (any flour) and water and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I used my least favourite flour that I have heaps of which is a GF bread flour that you add water to. It also does pizza bases, pancakes and more. The flour is a little salty and I prefer my quirky bread now, so it was just sitting in the pantry taking up space. I used one bag, added some water to keep the consistency of the starter and popped it in the fridge.
Due to my crazy work schedule it was in there over a day before I was able to test the pancakes. They were quite sour plain, however were quite nice when I added butter and honey. Next day I tested them on Honey and took them as “pikelets” with jam and cream to my staff meeting. I had positive feedback from my “guinea-pigs”, and found that the sour flavour of the cold ones was slightly more pronounced than the hot ones. Also they were a little more dry, I had popped them on a plate with a tea-towel covering, perhaps next time, I would use an airtight container. But they were quite nice with a cup of tea.

Pizza base
I made my pizza in the “usual way”... roll out an orange sized blob between 2 sheets of lightly oiled baking paper. When its about plate-size I pop it in our cast-iron frying pan and pop the lid on for a few minutes on high. I then pop on the topping and put it into an oven at about 200 degrees Celsius. Cook for about ½ hour and slice and eat. If I am making some for Honey's lunch I stack about 3 slices together and wrap in the baking paper it cooked in. Pop it in the fridge and he enjoys it later.
Honey like it, I thought the base was slightly thinner than the usual and not quite as crispy. This could be due to other factors such as less oily toppings, slightly different “standing” times or cooking times.
If the bread is a flop I know that the dough will not be wasted. We will just have more pizza. Ok all this talk of pizza has made me hungry... see you in a bit.
Verdict
The result was slightly disappointing; as toast in the morning, it did not brown (what's new with GF bread) but the quirky recipe had spoiled me though I tried 4 toppings I really could not find one that I “loved”. I would have made it into breadcrumbs and frozen them for the next time Honey decides to make his Mum's famous rissoles. There was one slight problem... my body reacted to oats the way it reacts to gluten. Apparently one in five gluten-frees cannot tolerate oats... and I am one of them.

So I am looking for a whole new recipe... Hmmm a few years later - still looking

Judie












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