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Sourdough help- wheat free?

post #1 of 10
Thread Starter 

I am wanting to start making sourdough bread, but am really not a fan of wheat.  I'm not opposed to spelt however if its in the sourdough bread, does anyone know how the gluten contents of wheats compare to spelt?  Anyway, I am wondering if anyone else makes sourdough with alternative grains.  I am considering buckwheat, rye, sorghum, spelt, oat, barley, etc, I just want to find a good sourdough recipe, I love to mix flours, so even if it used 3 diff flours that would be fine, but I am wanting it to be not too extremely "whole grainy" which is why I mention sorghum.  Anyone?  Also, has anyone ever added tapioca starch/flour to their breads?  Thanks!

post #2 of 10
Subbing. I'm sad about my gluten intolerance and would love to bake some bread (esp. sourdough!) on occasion. What about rice flours?
post #3 of 10
Macrobiotics use rice flour for sourdough bread, so it's possible. I'm not sure of the particulars.

Spelt is a wheat, though I don't know how much gluten it has over more modern wheats.

Sourdough starter is usually made from white or unbleached flour, but not whole grain. Again, I'm hazy on the details. I made starter a few times, but lacked the confidence to make bread using it. There's a great sourdough website with a frequently asked questions page that I found helpful. If I can find it, again, I'll post a link to it.

I have made yeast bread from various grains. I don't have my recipes anymore, though.
post #4 of 10
Ooh! Sounds good! I am not baking right now bc of being pregnant with three kids, but plan to start up again soon. We are gluten free, and we buy bread from this guy here who uses brown rice to make sourdough bread. It is so good! I would love to be able to make some and keep it in the freezer all the time.

I wanted to post bc it is doable, I just don't know how. I'll reply back here if I can find a good recipe. Brittany Angell has some great baking recipes, and two great books on baking with different, wholesome GF flours. She has a technique of par baking quinoa flour to give it a wonderful neutral flavor. So, that might be good here, too.
post #5 of 10
Thread Starter 

Rice and quinoa flours sound great too!  My friend recently made her starter into a 100% whole wheat starter so guess it can be done.  She said its more sour but she likes it.

Here is what my friend says about gluten, sourdough, etc, so it makes me feel better about using grains like spelt that have gluten but are not modern wheat that has insanely high levels of gluten:

"Sourdough bread is a tradition that has been going on for centuries. The bread is leavened with wild strands of yeast and lactobacilli. The fermentation of the bread actually breaks down the gluten to such an extent that it is easily digested. Gluten intolerance has only been a problem since the 1950’s or so when commercial yeast was introduced to bakeries. Commercial yeast is made in laboratories where scientists select 1 strand out of thousands of yeasts and reproduce it so that they have only 1 type of yeast in their granulated or cake yeast you see in the stores. The reason bakeries switched to commercial yeast is simple. Sourdough takes a long time to rise. Bakeries not only had day shifts but also night shifts in order to take care of the starter, make the dough and bake the bread. With commercial yeast you can turn out a loaf of bread in 3 hours. Sourdough takes anywhere from 5-24 hours to rise. The fast rise of the bread eliminates fermentation and keeps all of the gluten intact. The commercial yeast is so concentrated in the bread that it builds up in your body and causes all sorts of problems. On top of this bakeries discovered that if you take powdered gluten and add it to the commercial dough you get some oh-so-soft and light bread that people love. The result? Gluten intolerance makes its appearance in society. Note: When you look at the cell structure of commercial bread under a microscope next to cancer cells, they look identical. So I guess the point I’m trying to make is sourdough bread will not kill you because of gluten. Commercial store bought bread (even commercial sourdough because it’s not real sourdough) may lead to gluten intolerance."

Did I mention Kamut flour?  I wouldnt mind trying that either :)

post #6 of 10
OK. I found the site I mentioned, and a couple others that look interesting. Google 'sourdough' for more.




I look forward to hearing how your experiments work! I'm motivated to start baking again. Thanks!

Adding this one : http://gnowfglins.com/ecourse/classes/sourdough
Edited by pek64 - 1/27/13 at 3:10pm
post #7 of 10
Thread Starter 

So I looked up a little info on kamut and it is so what I want to use!!  It's lower in gluten, and we are not gluten intolerant anyway I just think that the gluten content of modern wheat is very abnormal so mostly avoid it.  Anyway, the kamut is more nutritious than modern wheat and lower in gluten bc it hasnt been bred over thousands of years for the traits that todays wheat has been bred for- high gluten, low nutrition.  Too bad azure is out of kamut!  I dont want a 25lb bag yet... Lol.  I look forward to looking at the sites u provided PP thanks!

post #8 of 10

A long time ago I was trying to find a new use for my water kefir grains and I stumbled across this blog.  She uses water kefir grains in her gluten-free sourdough starters.  I hope this helps someone out.

post #9 of 10

I make sourdough bread out of rye and spelt.  Here is how I do it....


First make a starter using 1 c rye and 1 c water.  feed it and catch your yeast.  I haven't had any problem just leaving it on a shelf above my stove.  Feed it 1/2-1 c rye and the same amount of water every day.  Mine is nice and bubbly- I don't see why you wouldn't use whole grain flour?  I make mine in a 2 qt jar.


Then when I want bread I use 1 qt starter, 1 c water and 5-6 c whole spelt flour and salt is optional.  I use my Bosch- but you wouldn't have to.  I make a soft slightly sticky dough that cleans the sides of my bowl but still slightly oozes- knead on 2 for 4 minutes.  Then I split that up into 3 8" pans and let it rise.  I go for 7 hours to eat up the philates (sp?).  Sometimes that over rises it though and it leaks a little out (maybe I should make a stiffer dough and it wouldn't do this or use bigger pans-it doesn't bother me though so I keep doing what I am doing).  Anyway- then I bake it at 350 for however long.  Butter the top and it is good to go.  Easiest bread ever.  It does have a hard crust but makes amazing grilled cheese.


I am not against wheat I just think we should eat a variety of grains- so I rotate my bread recipes.  This is what I made today and we probably ate too much- it was just soooo good.

post #10 of 10
Thread Starter 

THanks for letting us know!!   I've also heard of einkorn and emmer grains, anyone know anything about these?  I got some kamut flour and love it but havent made bread with it yet!

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