Easy Sourdough Gluten-free Bread

When I moved to the D.R., I decided that my gluten-free sourdough days were behind me.  I just couldn't handle the stress or commitment of dealing with starter or everyday baking.  So I took a four year break.

But lately I've started baking some pretty great desserts in my little toaster oven (because it doesn't heat up the house) and I decided to dream big and try some bread again.  I still have my kefir--in fact, I have a new batch that isn't so tart and I really love it.

So I thought I'd try my sourdough recipe with kefir in place of starter.  I mix the kefir, oat flour, yucca flour, a gluten-free flour blend, a little flaxmeal, 2 eggs, 2 T sugar, 1 t baking soda, a dash of salt, and a half stick of butter in a glass dish that just fits in our toaster.  The consistency is knead-able only with a spoon but not a liquid.  Then I let it rise a few hours (or all day, if I'm gone) and then bake it almost two hours.

And it tastes AMAZING!  We loved it so much I made three batches just this weekend!

A Sad Event with a Happy Resolution

So on Wednesday, I went to replicate my sourdough successful loaf.  I put out all of my starter into a bowl as suggested by a helpful online source.  I added some flour and left it to sit out while I drove Micah to school.  I said to myself, "Self, you are really going to have to remember to take out some starter before you add egg or anything that will make it unsaveable."  Then I came back from dropping him off, on the phone (already, you see where this is going), and put an egg in it.  So I baked up all my starter and made by far my best bread yet.  Very crisp crust, extremely moist inside, sour taste (you know, like sourdough bread), perfect with the Amish farmer's market rhubarb jelly I had on hand. 

But I knew that it was going to be a while until I could make any again, seeing as I had made it impossible to save any of my starter.  Which would either end my happy trip down sourdough lane or prove that I had my starter recipe nailed down.

As soon as I had my bread all mixed up, before I even baked it, I got out a jar and added some flour and water.  I added some sugar and some kefir.  Two more times on Wednesday I fed my starter.  By Thursday it was bubbly and active.  I fed it three times a day on Thursday and Friday, too.  Today (Saturday) it was ready to make into bread.  It made more good bread!

Three things I learned:

1. My sourdough starter recipe rocks
2. NEVER empty all of the starter into a bowl
3. Keep more starter around (use a bigger jar and feed it more each time)

The smaller objects are there to offer a size-comparison for the enormous jar of starter on the left.