We have been really enjoying our home grown, sourdough bread. This recipe is the beginning of a process that we will perfect as time goes by. We learn something new with every batch we bake.

So many questions!

How long to feed and grow the starter out of the fridge?

How long to bulk ferment in the bowl before kneading and shaping?

How long to proof the bread in the Banneton?

Some people use a colander lined with a tea towel, instead of a banneton to keep the shape, while proofing the dough. With this recipe we use a kitchen scale, because it is so much easier to tare the scale to zero, with a bowl on and add ingredients. It is also very accurate for baking.

So far the taste and texture is amazing, with none of that heavy feeling of bread in your stomach. The starter we made is based on an old family recipe we were given years ago. Here’s what we have so far!

This is a fairly dense and heavy dough with all the buckwheat.

 

For the Starter:

40 g brown rice flour

50 ml potato water

Peel and dice a potato and cover with water in a pot. Cook the potato until tender, strain water for the starter and cool until just tepid.

Mix slightly warm potato water, into the flour, stirring until completely mixed and smooth. The mixture should be like a thick pancake batter and you should always slightly adjust the flour and water as needed. It’s not necessary to be totally exact in your measurements for each feeding.

Sit this mixture, loosely covered in a bowl on the counter for 48 hours.

Feed again with 40 g brown rice flour and 50 ml filtered water and leave for another 12 hours.

Feed with 40 g brown rice flour and 50 mls of water until doubled in size and bubbly.

Make a batch of bread with this starter or store in the fridge until ready to use. The starter only needs feeding once a week in the fridge with 40 g of flour and 50 mls of water.

Take 20 g of starter out of the fridge. Weigh 20 g of brown rice flour and 30 mls of room temperature, filtered water. Feed again 12 hours later with all the starter and add 60 g of brown rice flour and 70 – 80 mls of water. There should be some bubbles showing and it should double in size.

If your sourdough is too sour your bread will be sour as well. This is when I discard half of the starter and refeed it. As long as you have the required amount for the bread recipe.

For the Bread:

260 g Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free Flour 1-1

70 g buckwheat flour

30 g teff flour

130 g starter

370 ml water

14 g psyllium husk

60 ml water to gel the psyllium

2 tsp honey

1.5 tsp salt

Make an Autolyse of 350 g flour and 370 ml of water. Sit in the oven with just the light on, if the house is cold, or on the counter for up to 3 hours, depending on the temperature and your time.

Autolyse, means to combine only the flour and water in a bowl and mix until no dry flour remains. Rest the dough, without kneading, for 20 minutes to 3 hours.

Mix the remaining ingredients well.

After the autolyse has rested, add your starter to the top of your dough and mix it in with a wooden spoon. Then add the salt dissolved in a little water and any extra water needed, depending on doughs consistency.

Bulk ferment the dough in a bowl and cover it with a cloth. It must stay warm. This is the bulk rise and it can be left overnight. Gently turn the dough over a couple of times in the first hour with wet hands.

Place dough into a baneton, dusted with white rice flour to prevent sticking.

Place the baneton in a plastic bag to prevent the dough drying out and leave it on the counter to proof. The time to proof will vary depending on room temperature. It could be 6 hours or 12 hours. Try not to over proof because there will be no rise left for the oven. The dough needs to increase in sizeby about 1/3 or a little more. If there is no time to proof and bake, the dough may be put in the fridge. But take it out of the fridge for a few hours to start rising again, before baking.

Decorate the dough with a stencil or score designs with a blade or lame.

Heat the oven to 500°C and preheat a pizza stone or Dutch oven. Bake bread for 20 mins covered If you do not have a Dutch oven with a lid, then tin foil, tented over the dough will work.

Remove the lid after 20 minutes and turn oven down to 450°C. Bake for 45 -50 minutes.

If at that time it does not sound hollow when you tap on the bottom bake for another 10 minutes or so at 350 out of the pan and just on the oven rack.

Eat with in 1-2 days as it will start to dry out. Or place in a bread bin for up to a week and freeze a few slices.

Enjoy!