New Mum’s Food Adventures

I have been experimenting with gluten free sourdough. Another starter became mouldy. I read somewhere that it needs to develop enough acidity for this to be less of a risk. A number of my loaves were huge failures. My most recent one looked good but tasted terrible and was gummy. Tasted a bit like play dough. Just wasn’t very nice at all. Didn’t have any real sourdough flavour either despite being proofed overnight in the fridge.

The above image is my most recent dud. It cooked well, held a design. But it was gummy with a terrible flavour. A little too much salt. Just a bad loaf. There was no rescuing it either. A shame but it happens. Seems to be frequently with gluten free. I made the dough rather dry so I was surprised it was so gummy and terrible. Cooking longer didn’t help the texture but it was pointless to try resolve the gummy interior when the overall flavour was more or less inedible.

This loaf worked well and had the right flavour but I didn’t measure it very well at all. So I have no recipe. It toasted beautifully and when toasted it had a rich sourdough flavour. I used Mad Millie sourdough starter culture.

I then discovered two other Australian sellers that sell sourdough starter that is gluten free. One is called Sourdough Mama and the other is provided by Sourdough Mate. Both are rice flour starters. They’re around the same price. But the Mad Millie starter is the most affordable and easiest to use. I would love to try the other two brands. For both flavour and to satisfy my curiosity.

So far my biggest sourdough issue has been flavour, gummy texture or too dry. All the usual problems of gluten free bread. And thus the reason for a lack of updates in posts.

Next time I hope to share successful recipes. But until then I’m practicing and experimenting. Recently I discovered I need to use 5-7% whole psyllium husk to gluten free flour and it’s made a huge difference. The recipes that are overly gummy are psyllium husk powder. The powder is very difficult to work with.