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This flavorful loaf of gluten free sourdough bread is made with the simplest wild yeast gluten free sourdough starter. Your basic loaf of sandwich bread, no commercial yeast needed.
Why make pure wild yeast gluten free sourdough bread?
This recipe for a standard loaf of gluten free sourdough bread and our simplified recipe for gluten free sourdough starter are not designed to be a deep dive into all things sourdough. Our goal here is much simpler.
Indeed, this is a loaf of authentic gluten free sourdough bread, made without any commercial yeast at all. But these recipes are designed to scratch the itch for a fuller-bodied yeasty tasting bread, and to help you enjoy fresh homemade bread if you don't have any commercial yeast.
Think of it more like a workhorse kind of white sandwich bread that's great for lunches. In my bread book, GFOAS Bakes Bread, I have a whole chapter on wild yeast sourdough recipes and we go deep.
Here, we go simple. The rules are a little relaxed, but the process takes less work. And frankly I believe that the deep dive in Bakes Bread really illustrates why I still love traditional cookbooks that can really explore a whole subject.
How to bake gluten free sourdough bread
How to use a gluten free sourdough starter
Before we begin discussing how to make bread with your active, fed wild yeast sourdough starter, let's first make sure you have one (click thru earlier in this paragraph)! If you don't, no worries at all you've come to the right place.
Keep in mind that a wild yeast sourdough starter (one made without any commercial yeast, which is a single strain of yeast) takes at least 5 days to become active. And it will perform best after about 10 days.
You can speed things up by adding a bit of commercial yeast to your starter. If you have commercial yeast on hand and you need a loaf of bread today, I recommend our simplest gluten free bread recipe.
But if you've been confused by sourdough starters in the past, try to stick with us. We've simplified the process significantly, so click through above.
It includes an instructional video to bring it to life, and frequently asked questions to help soothe your worried sourdough soul.
How to feed your gluten free sourdough starter for use
Your starter must have been “fed” or “refreshed” within the previous 12 hours for it to work in this recipe. Do not proceed with an active starter that hasn't been fed recently. The yeast will have consumed its available food and simply won't be active enough to give a proper rise to a whole loaf of bread.
Once your starter is mature and active, it will need to be refreshed or fed at least once a week to keep it active. That way, when you are ready to bake with it, the wild yeast is alive and waiting for you.
To refresh or feed your sourdough starter, either to keep it active once a week or because you are preparing to bake with it:
- Remove your mature starter from the refrigerator.
- Discard about 1/3 of the volume (including any clear liquid or hooch from the top).
- Add 1/2 cup (70 grams) gum-free gluten free flour and 1/2 cup (4 fluid ounces) spring water or distilled water. Mix with a nonreactive spoon.
- Cover the starter and allow it to sit, covered, at room temperature for about 2 hours or until it is bubbling and active. It is now ready to use in baking.
- Once you've removed the amount of active, fed starter that you need for baking, repeat the process to feed or refresh the starter, then cover it again and allow it to sit on the counter for 12 hours before returning it to the refrigerator for another week, until it needs to be fed again.
Gluten free sourdough bread: ingredients and substitution suggestions
Gluten free dairy free sourdough bread
You should be able to replace the dairy in this bread recipe successfully. The milk can be replaced with unsweetened nondairy milk (my favorite is almond milk), or even with water. If you replace the milk with water, your loaf will simply be a bit less tender but it should still rise.
I haven't tried replacing the butter with a nondairy replacement, but you should be able to use your favorite vegan butter alternative. I only recommend using a butter alternative like Melt or Miyoko's Kitchen brand vegan butter or Earth Balance, and not oil.
Tapioca starch/flour
When I was first testing this recipe, I made it with 3 1/2 cups of all purpose gluten free flour, and the dough didn't rise as readily and the crumb was tighter. I much prefer the recipe made with 1/2 cup of tapioca starch/flour.
If you don't have tapioca starch, you can try using arrowroot in its place, or even another 1/2 cup of all purpose gluten free flour. I'm afraid I can't predict exactly what results you'll get, though.
FAQs
Since this bread is made with a very simple, liquid sourdough starter, it will not rise like the breads in Bakes Bread. If you have that book, turn to the opening section of the sourdough chapter. You'll find a photo of sourdough bread dough that literally popped like a can of biscuits when I opened it after its refrigerator rise.
This recipe is for a batter-style bread, not our bread recipes that call for the more complex gluten free bread flour so it has only one rise. And produces a more ordinary loaf. But when you're baking with limits, “ordinary” can be amazing, especially when it comes to fresh homemade bread.
This rise takes quite a bit of time. In all of my recipe testing, I'm yet to see a rise that took less than 3 hours, and have even let it rise for 8 hours without overproofing.
If you’re unsure about whether or not the bread has proofed enough, allow it to keep rising.
The dough should rise to about 150% of its original size when it's done proofing. That means that it should be 50% bigger than when it started. Unlike conventional bread, this loaf will not double in size, or rise to 200% its original size. Unlike bread made with conventional yeast, it will have more oven spring, where the yeast speeds up the fermentation process in the beginning of baking before a crust forms, so it will get considerably bigger during baking.
Overproofed dough like this tends to have little dimples on the surface, and that tends to take much longer to happen here than it does in a recipe made with conventional yeast. Once those dimples start to form, your bread shouldn't rise any longer.
Yes, since this recipe rises so slowly without overproofing, you can make the dough before bedtime, shape it in the loaf pan, cover the pan, and set it to rise during the night. When you wake up, bake the loaf and enjoy. You can also start the process in the morning, let it rise and bake about an hour before dinnertime.
When this loaf is done baking, the center of the loaf will read 200°F on an instant read thermometer and the loaf will sound hollow when thumped quickly on the underside with a finger.
How to make gluten free sourdough bread
Gluten Free Sourdough Bread Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups (420 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (I used & highly recommend Better Batter; click thru for details)
- 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- 9 tablespoons (68 g) tapioca starch/flour
- 2 tablespoons (25 g) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons (9 g) kosher salt
- ¾ cup (165 g) gluten free wild yeast sourdough starter, fed within previous 12 hours (See Recipe Notes)
- 1 ½ cups (12 fluid ounces) warm milk, (about 95°F), plus more by the tablespoon
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Instructions
- Grease a standard 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Set the pan aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl with a hand mixer fitted with dough hooks, place the all purpose flour, xanthan gum, tapioca starch/flour, granulated sugar, and salt, and mix or whisk to combine well.
- Add the starter, 1 1/2 cups of milk, and the butter, and beat on medium speed to combine. This is a batter-style bread dough, so it won’t resemble traditional bread dough, but rather a soft cookie dough.
- Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and beat until the dough has taken on a whipped appearance (about 5 minutes). The dough should be tacky to the touch, but should hold its shape when scooped.
- If your dough feels at all dry to the touch, add more milk by the tablespoon, beating it in until well-combined, until the dough reaches the proper consistency.
- Transfer the bread dough to the prepared loaf pan. Using a moistened spatula, press the dough into every corner of the loaf pan and spread the top into an even layer.
- For a more traditional loaf shape, pile the dough a bit more toward the center in a dome.
- Cover the loaf pan with lightly oiled plastic wrap and allow it to rise in a warm, draft-free place until it’s reached about 150% of its original size, at least 4 hours. It will not fully double in volume, and will rise more in the oven than it does raw.
- Even traditional yeast bread dough will take longer to rise properly in colder, drier weather and less time in warmer, more humid weather.
- This wild yeast sourdough bread will take longer to rise than any other, and will depend in part upon the age of your starter.
- This bread dough is much less likely to overproof and take on that pock-marked appearance than bread made with conventional yeast. If you’re unsure about whether the bread has proofed enough, allow it to keep rising.
- When the bread is nearing the end of its rise, preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Remove the plastic wrap and, using a sharp knife or lame, slash the top of the loaf from one short end to the other about 1/4-inch deep.
- Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven and allow to bake for 30 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temp to 350°F, rotate the pan 180° around, and continue to bake until center of the loaf reads 200°F on an instant read thermometer (about 30 minutes more).
- The crust won’t darken very much, but the loaf should sound hollow when thumped quickly with a finger.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the bread to cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.
- To freeze the bread, cool the loaf completely, then slice, wrap tightly and freeze the slices. Defrost as many slices at a time as you need in the toaster.
Video
Notes
- Remove your mature starter from the refrigerator.
- Discard about 1/3 of the volume (including any clear liquid or hooch from the top).
- Add 1/2 cup (70 grams) gum-free gluten free flour and 1/2 cup (4 fluid ounces) spring water or distilled water. Mix with a nonreactive spoon.
- Cover the starter and allow it to sit, covered, at room temperature for about 2 hours or until it is bubbling and active. It is now ready to use in baking.
- Once you've removed the amount of active, fed starter that you need for baking, repeat the process to feed or refresh the starter, then cover it again and allow it to sit on the counter for 12 hours before returning it to the refrigerator for another week, until it needs to be fed again.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have a regular sourdough starter and have made things with it. My question is this: can I use my starter and then add GF flour to make things like focaccia bread and pizza dough? I can’t find info on adding GF all-purpose flour to a regular sourdough starter. What are your thoughts please?
I absolutely do not recommend that at all, Sue. I cannot provide you with anything approaching medical advice, but anything made with conventional gluten-containing flour is not gluten free by any measure. I would never take that chance for my son, and I don’t recommend you do that either.
I just baked this this morning, struggled to let it cool completely before slicing into it, but it was soooo worth the wait! No sign of a rise after a few hours yesterday so I actually let it rise overnight and it almost doubled. I’m in the UK and use Doves Farm GF bread flour which has gum and tapioca flour already in the mix. I’ll try another loaf tomorrow to check it’s not just beginners luck! Really delicious recipe, thank you!
It’s not beginner’s luck, Chloe! It’s the patience of a saint. That’s the secret to baking with a wild yeast sourdough starter. Well done!! I’ve heard nothing but good things about Dove’s Farm flour, and wish I could try it! Years ago I asked them if they wanted to send me some since it’s not available for purchase in the U.S., and they declined.?♀️
Is it possible to make this bread in a bread machine?
I don’t use or recommend use of a bread machine, Diane. They vary so significantly from brand to brand that instructions for one brand will not work for another.
I have the same problem as Nicole above. I can tell there is promise. There are holes in the bread, there is a lovely crust. Using a thermometer I took the bread out after approximately 90 minutes at 200F in the middle. The bread is still doughy. I only have a hand mixer, no bread paddles. People made bread before mixers. What to do??
Sharon, yes, people certainly made bread before mixers, but this is gluten free yeast bread, and it’s quite different than conventional bread-baking. It sounds like you took it out too soon, since it must sound hollow when thumped on the underside, as directed in the recipe. You also may not have let it rise long enough in the first instance, overmeasured liquid, or undermeasured flour. I’m afraid I just don’t know, without being there.
Hi Nicole. Just wanted to say thanks so much for this recipe. I’ve made it twice now with my sorghum + teff starter and it’s been great both times. For anyone in the U.K. I’ve been using Doves Farm plain gf flour in place of the the Better Batter and tapioca starch. Proofing took ages (7 hours the first loaf and 5.5 hours on the second) but it did get to 150%. I found that it didn’t rise much more in the oven but I haven’t had the gummy texture issue a few folk were mentioning so I am happy! I’ve also been making crackers out of the discard to reduce waste. Thanks again!
Thank you for letting us know that Dove’s Farm plain flour worked well for you. From everything I’ve heard, it’s an appropriate replacement for Better Batter, which is great. And yes, the proofing does take a long, long (long) time. Your lived experience will help others be brave!
Hi Nicole!
Just wanted to let you know that I substituted your yeast bread flour blend and it turned out great! It also had a lovely browned crust. I didn’t use any additional yeast, but I did put the loaf into a warm humid microwave to raise. Will definitely be making more sourdough bread in the future.
Your sourdough starter instructions were so well done and easy to follow!! Turned out perfectly. Being in Sudbury, Ontario, we unfortunately don’t have the flour blend that you recommended .Made this loaf with PC GF all purpose flour and it worked beautifully. Thank you for making this Covid time a more tasty learning journey!!
That’s so awesome, Kim! Thank you for reporting back with your results. There is something so empowering about making a loaf of wild yeast sourdough bread, isn’t there?
Hey! I tried making this with my bubbly, active starter, and it just didn’t rise properly. I even left it overnight after waiting 8 hours and nothing. I am following the recipe exactly, the ONLY difference is that I don’t have a mixture (a stand mixer OR a handheld) so I am mixing/kneading by hand. Could the mixing process be whats stopping it from rising properly? I am admittedly not that experienced with kneading dough. I am fairly certain its not my starter, which seems healthy. I also had a similar problem making yeast bread, again with mixing by hand and not with a mixer. Thanks in advance with answering this! Other than the bread loaf recipes (I ordered your books and I am eagerly awaiting their arrival) every other recipe I’ve tried on your website has been AMAZING. I am obsessively mixing all your flour blends, my partner is so shocked that I am suddenly making empanadas and the 2 ingredient dough rolls and bagels and such. She’s thrilled lol. Anyway, thank you!!
It sounds like you’ve been super busy, Kimberly, in a very good way! I’m afraid you really do need some sort of mixer, at least in my experience. Do you have a food processor? I haven’t tried that, but it might help. I’m sorry that I don’t have any other suggestions!
It. Worked. Perfectly.
The step-by-step starter instructions (and Q&A from readers) helped alot for a newbie.
Baked this recipe today with a Day 6 starter. Added a little instant yeast to help as per your tip. Started in the morning as per your advice and it was ready for the oven before dinner time. Such priceless advice.
Our kid was and still is super happy.
His first reaction, “Mama, I have missed this kind of bread”.
Thank you Nicole.
Aw, Samantha, that comment from your son is truly priceless. You can’t buy that sort of satisfaction—for mom or child! I’m so glad you did well. Thank you for letting me have a peek inside that happiness.
I was so excited for this, and have followed the recipes meticulously. We tried the bread on day 6, and it turned out a little dense so i figured it was because the starter wasn’t mature enough. Tried again today, day 9, and same result! It definitely rose more during the 8 hour rise than the last time, but it’s heavy, dense and just a little gummy. I was expecting it to rise more, like yours, and look more like sandwich bread. I’ve done gluten based starters before which worked great, so I thought the transition to gluten free sourdough starter wouldn’t be much different. The starter looks healthy and bubbly as I expected, smells yeasty, sour and a little sweet. I’ve relooked a the steps a million times with my husband, and can’t figure out what’s wrong. I miss eating good bread so much :(
It sounds like your starter is nice and active, so the issue that is happening is later in the process. Are you making substitutions, especially in flour blend? You cannot use anything other than the blends that I recommend. King Arthur Flour, Bob’s Red Mill, blends will simply not work. Are you measuring by volume instead of by weight? And where are you setting the bread to rise, and are you baking the bread until it sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom?