A Guide to Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
Sourdough is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving! A treasure trove of passion and experimentation. The wild yeast that make up a sourdough, promote healthy digestion and metabolic assimilation of nutrients. What can I say, I’m obsessed! I know everyone and their mother began baking sourdough during the COVID 19 pandemic, but I just want to say, I started it before it was cool! (kidding, sort of…)
My mission is to help as many people as I can to experience the joy and freedom of baking their own wholesome gluten-free bread. The gluten-free product industry has become too focused on replicating traditional bakery textures at the expense of healthful ingredients and tons of artificial additives. Gluten-free does not have to stand for flavorless, stodgy and bland. Let’s And remove ourselves from the reliance on industrialized baking, and reclaim what it can mean to bake gluten-free!
Since beginning my gluten-free sourdough journey, I have gone through a year of experimentation, research and troubleshooting to create a base gluten-free sourdough recipe that is bursting with whole grain flavor, and without any artificial sugar, binders, or gums.
I want to share the story of how I came to/created my gluten-free starter, how to care for your starter and get the best out of your bread, and other options for how to make or purchase your own gluten-free (and celiac friendly) sourdough starter. At the end I’ll give you a few ideas of what you can do with your starter once you’ve got one!
Origins of my Starter:
I began experimenting with my gluten-free sourdough starter in March 2019. I was working in Macau on a performing contract, and making day trips to Hong Kong on our days off (it’s a whole other world now in comparison).
A friend/cast mate of mine found a wonderful sourdough bakery in Hong Kong, and the bakery was generous enough to give her some of their starter for her to bake her own bread back in Macau. It turns out the sourdough starter actually originated in Italy as well, this is a very international sourdough starter…
Sourdough starters have the reputation of having more flavor the older they are. Same goes for fermentation times in baking bread, the longer the fermentation, the stronger and more complex the sourdough flavor in the dough. My friend had the ingenious idea to try and convert some of this starter into a gluten-free starter. Now of course, I am not celiac, so this would not be a viable option for those who are, but with some time and experimentation, we did it!
Over the course of 2 weeks or so, I fed the starter an equal amount of brown rice flour and water. Once the starter had doubled in size (at room temperature will usually be 8-12 hours depending), I tossed 3/4 of the starter and fed it again with new flour. Rinse, repeat. Again, I am not celiac but intolerant of gluten and have an autoimmune condition, so I simply guessed based on the appearance/color of the starter when it had fully converted and began baking with it. Since that time, the starter (now named Sally), traveled with me to Thailand, New York City and back to my now home in Montréal, Canada.
What is in a gluten-free sourdough starter, and how do I feed it?
I originally converted my starter to 100% brown rice flour. Sourdough yeast eats through gluten-free flours much faster (about twice as fast) as a wheat flour. The gluten protein in wheat flour takes more work to break down and slows the fermentation process. I found that with a starchy flour like brown rice, the starter constantly needed to be fed, so I split the feed half brown rice and half buckwheat flours, which has been very successful.
Feeding Your Starter
My process for feeding the starter goes as follows:
40g brown rice flour
40g buckwheat flour
85g water
After using the starter in a bake or once it needs to be fed (more on this below), set the sourdough container on a scale and add the flours, and then the water. If you don’t have a scale, add 1/4 cup of each flour and 1/3 cup of water, although I highly recommend getting a food scale for bread baking. Mix the flour and water together, incorporating it into the existing starter as much as possible. Scrape down the sides of the container so that it is as clean as possible.
Storing Your Starter, and Knowing When to Feed it
I like to keep my starter in the fridge. Cold slows the metabolic activity of the yeast, so the starter only needs to be fed every 3 days or so. If you know you will bake every day, you can keep your starter at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. When the starter has about doubled in size, it is ready to be used in a recipe. Once it begins to fall, this is when it needs to be fed! A hungry starter will also smell more of alcohol than a pleasant yeasty smell.
I try to keep on a bake every 3-4 days schedule, which works well with how often I need to feed my starter. If you are not going to bake anything, I suggest keeping it in the fridge and feeding it every 3 days for upkeep.
Every 3 months, I recommend removing your entire starter into a bowl, sterilizing your container, transferring the starter back and feeding it. This helps to avoid any contamination of mold. Hot tip: Another good habit to get into is throwing away or using nearly all the starter every few months and either giving it a double feeding or feeding it twice in 2 days to build it back up anew (kind of like a sourdough refresh). This can often help if you notice your starter is rising less than it used to!
How I Bake With My Starter
I prefer to keep my starter in the fridge, and then remove it from the fridge 1-5 hours before baking. How long you let the starter sit for depends on 1. how long it has been since the last feeding and 2. how warm it is outside of the fridge. If you fed your starter 3-4 days ago, and it is boiling hot in your kitchen, it may only need to warm up to room temperature for an hour and be ready for use! And vice versa. This is an experience thing that takes a bit of trial and error to understand the needs of your special little sourdough yeasty friends.
How to Start a Sourdough Starter
There are 4 ways you can create or obtain a gluten-free sourdough starter:
The easiest option - ask a friend or neighbor with a gluten-free sourdough starter if you can have some! Get yourself set up with an airtight jar or BPA-free plastic container with plenty of room (at least 1 L/1 quart), sterilize it with boiling water and feed the starter as explained above. Give the starter a few days of feedings outside of the fridge before beginning to store it in the fridge and bake with it!
Convert a wheat starter to gluten-free flours. This process (described above in how I got my starter) may not be suitable for those with celiac disease. For those with intolerance or who avoid gluten for optimal health, this is a great method for maintaining the flavor of an older starter while staying gluten-free! But playing it safe, if you discard 75% of the starter with each feeding, 2 weeks of this process should leave you with an entirely gluten-free starter.
Go to a local bakery with sourdough bread and ask if you can have a small amount of their starter. They might say no! Some bakeries (especially in San Francisco) consider their starters to be a proprietary secret. You can also ask a friend/neighbor for some wheat starter as well.You can create a new sourdough starter by fermenting shredded apple in gluten-free flour. I have no yet tried this method, I hope to make a future post about it! In the meantime, Homestead and Chill (no affiliation) has a great tutorial on this: https://homesteadandchill.com/gluten-free-sourdough-starter/
Buy a dehydrated sourdough starter. There are a few different companies selling sourdough starters. I have always appreciated Cultures for Health (no affiliation). They are a site that sells fermentation products and provides great information on all kinds of fermentation, not just sourdough.
https://shop.culturesforhealth.com/products/gluten-free-sourdough-starter
I hope this has answered most of your gluten-free sourdough questions! Confused about something? Troubleshooting your own sourdough? Feel free to send questions my way here. I’d love to hear about your own gluten-free journey!
Just a Few Ways to Use Your Starter!
