Tuesday
Feb032009
Sprouted Quinoa Buckwheat Millet Sourdough Bread (gluten free, vegan, yeast free)
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sprouted? Sourdough? Gluten free? Yeast free? And vegan?
Really?
Yup, naturally leavened and lovely. This was my second sourdough bread experiment, and I'm really pleased with the result, it turned out moister, with a better "sour" flavor, and raised much better - I think that is because my starter is older and more developed than when I tried my first sourdough loaf!
This recipe is time consuming - all the soaking and fermenting and rising takes place over about 2 1/2 days - but it is totally worth it. It makes a beautiful hearty loaf that is naturally leavened, with sprouted quinoa even, and therefore, easier to digest and assimilate. The buckwheat, millet, and quinoa blend is great - the texture is good, the flavor is deep and earthy, and it is super nutritious and full of healthy amino acids. The bread has a crispy crust, a dense texture, and a rich flavor. It is amazingly delicious toasted. My sourdough starter rocked this loaf - I can't believe how much it actually raised! Next time I will not cut such deep slits in the top, because it cracked pretty deep into the cut while baking - so, next time, just a nice shallow slit. I baked it in a round Pyrex casserole dish instead of a bread pan, I greased it with olive oil and dusted with quinoa flakes.
If you need a sourdough starter, check out this post for a basic recipe and my experience and suggestions.
Need a recipe for GF sourdough starter? I used the same process as I did HERE, using a mixture of buckwheat and millet as the starter flours.
SPROUTED QUINOA BUCKWHEAT MILLET SOURDOUGH BREAD (gluten free, vegan, yeast free)
1 c whole quinoa grain
water for soaking + about 1 c filtered water
1/2 c sourdough starter (mine is a buckwheat-millet-quinoa blend)
1 1/4 c buckwheat flour
1 1/4 c millet flour
additional flour for dusting
1 Tbsp molasses (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
First, sprout your quinoa...
- Rinse the quinoa well, rubbing grains together to remove the saponin coating, which can irritate digestion. Place in large bowl, cover with fresh water, and soak quinoa for 6-8 hours. You will see little tails form!
Then blend it and ferment it...
- Rinse sprouted quinoa well.
- Place quinoa in food processor or blender with about 1 c filtered water, and blend until most of the grains have been mashed up.
- Transfer quinoa mixture to large bowl, and add 1/2 c of your sourdough starter. Stir until well mixed, cover with dish towel, and let sit in a warm place for 6-8 hours. Your mixture should start to bubble and get foamy, with a sourdough smell. Hurray!
Make your dough and let it rest...
- Gradually mix flours and salt into quinoa-starter mixture until a stiff dough forms. Add more flour if necessary, but don't add too much - we don't want our bread to be tough.
- Remove from bowl, and knead on a floured surface until it feels as close to bread dough gluten free flour can!
- Place in clean bowl, cover with towel, and let rise 2-3 hours.
- Knead dough again. Feed your starter with 1/4 - 1/2 c each flour and water.
- Place in oiled and floured or quinoa flake dusted bread pan or round baking dish, depending on the desired shape of your loaf. Cut shallow slits in the top of loaf to prevent cracking.
- Cover and let rise 6-8 hours in warm place. I like to put mine in a cool oven with a pan of water in the bottom (I have a gas oven and it is just a little warm in there from the pilot light). If you have a good starter, your loaf should grow in size!
Then, you are finally ready to bake!
- Place pan in a cool oven with a large pan of water on the bottom of the oven. If desired, brush bread with olive oil before baking.
- Heat oven to 425* and bake bread for 15 minutes at that temperature
- Reduce heat to 350* and bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Do not open oven while baking until the very end when you are checking for doneness. Loaf shoudl be golden brown, and give a hollow sound when you tap on the bottom.
- Remove from pan/dish to cool on a wire rack.
- Slice after cooled and serve!
Oh, so good! I tried freezing some of the slices, and thawed it by toasting in the toaster oven. It stayed moist, didn't fall apart, and was crisp and delicious. I even dipped it in soup (Split Pea Spearmint Soup, to be exact) and it stayed crusty and fantastic like "real" bread. Hot damn. It also held up to being spread with sunflower seed butter.
Give this recipe a try!
Reader Comments (16)
Oh, this looks fantastic, and is exactly what I was searching for--sprouted, sourdough, vegan, and gluten-free! Hurray, it can be done! :) Thanks for posting. Can't wait to try.
Wha!! so exciting to find your blog! I have been experimenting with GF sourdoughs and had mixed results...sometimes it's great, sometimes it's flat and stiff as a board. But i will try out this recipe and see how it goes. the rest of your posts are really nice too! thanks for the good ideas :)
plus, i use things like kefir in my bread too, and it always warms my heart to see a fellow kefir fan :) check out my recipes if you want- if you like good GF waffles, I recommend my cornmeal pancakes, which were HEAVENLY!
must get a waffle-iron and try yours out...
http://you-name-it-free.blogspot.com
erin
Hi Erin! Thanks for your message, your blog looks great too! Glad you like the blog - let me know if you try out the bread and how it works for you! If you like using kefir or yogurts, totally try out the recipe on my blog for the Buckwheat Muffins, they are GREAT and could be made vegan by using soy yogurt or kefir instead of goat. Unfortunately, I'm allergic to corn, so I can't try your cornmeal pancakes, but many of your recipes look fantastic and I must try them. I will definitely be stopping by your blog often! I love finding new fellow foodie bloggers, so thanks for your note! Hope to see you on the blog again soon.
i just came across your blog and it looks wonderful! i have been searching for a whole food gluten free bread recipe exactly like this & i have never made sourdough but it sounds fun, i can't wait to try it! thank you so much, i will be coming back to your blog...
Hi Judy-
Yes, this bread is very tasty, and the sourdough is a fun process! Truth be told, I haven't tried making it again since, because the natural yeasts were just a little too yeasty for me at that time, and I had some reactions. So I stopped my sourdough experiments and haven't gone back yet. I hope to return to them soon though, and see if I can handle it a little better as I've continued to heal...
Good luck, let me know how it goes if you try it out!
I've been searching for a recipe liek this for a long time. Can I make it without the sourdough culture? I am sensitive to fermented foods.
thanks!
Hi Young Sage,
Yes, I think you could make it without the sourdough culture - I've been wanting to doing that try it myself!
So, let's see...here are two options without the sourdough starter. The first option includes absolutely no additional dough fermentation/resting at all. The second involves a 12-24 hour dough resting period. I haven't tried these, I'm just guessing that this will work - I think I will try it out ASAP!
OPTION 1:
Soak/sprout and blend the quinoa, as directed. But instead of letting the blended quinoa sit and ferment with the starter, go right to the dough making step and mix the blended quinoa with flours and other ingredients; you may need to add an additional 1/2 c water to replace the liquid sourdough starter. Since the sourdough culture helps to make the bread rise in the original recipe, we need to add a leavener to replace the natural yeasts- try adding 1 tsp baking soda and 2 tsp cream of tartar when mixing all the ingredients together. For into a loaf and bake it immediately, following the baking instructions in the recipe. .
OPTION 2:
Soak/sprout and blend the quinoa, as directed. But instead of letting the blended quinoa sit and ferment with the starter, go right to the dough making step and mix the blended quinoa with flours and other ingredients; you may need to add an additional 1/2 c water to replace the liquid sourdough starter. Let this flour/quinoa mixture sit for 12-24 hours, which would start the fermentation process but not be nearly as yeasty as using a full on sourdough culture. After letting the dough rest, dissolve baking soda and cream of tartar in a little warm water, and mix into dough thoroughly. Form into a loaf and bake immediately.
GOOD LUCK! Let me know how it works for you : )
thanks for getting back to me Kim, I'm really excited to try this! I'm going to go for option 1 and see how that turns out. I can be a little impatiently inspired sometimes and don't feel like waiting for the dough to rise. What is the reason for having a pan of water on the bottom of the oven??
The pan of water helps to steam the bread, which makes a nice, crisp crust. I just tried another recipe that suggested spraying the walls of the oven and the loaf with water right before baking in addition to placing the pan of water in the bottom. The crust was awesome! It was the Sunflower Honey Bran Bread I posted a couple weeks ago.
Have fun! let me know how it turns out - I'll have to try this version soon! I"m super curious : )
Hi Kim,
You've given me hope to try some decent bread as I havnt any "bread" for many years.
Do you think your process would work on Rye or Spelt ?
Spelt is my fave...though its hard to remember.LOL
Thanks for any feedback !
Kevin
Hi Kevin!
Yes, I think this would definitely work for rye or spelt. I think I'd recommend keeping the sprouted quinoa in the recipe, and then substituting rye or spelt flours for a portion or all of the other flours. Your sourdough starter could be made with any kind of flour. I think this bread made with a glutinous flour would probably work better, because it will hold moisture better and not be as crumbly.
I loved spelt too - I'd love to be able to eat it again someday! I do not have celiac disease, just a wheat allergy, and am currently avoiding all gluten for other reasons. But someday, I may try bringing back rye, and maybe spelt. We'll see!
Good luck with your recipe experimentations!
Kim
Thanks for the post Kim. I just had some sourdough organic spelt bread made from scatch this morning...love it but thinking I need to watch the gluten until I get the g.i. back in order (w/ the Lord's help of course!). This looks great! Thanks for all the helpful info and the pics. Keep up the great work!
I've got my fingers crossed I can find the ingredients since I live rural. I go to "the big city" next Tuesday and plan to do a search.
I have non-celiacs gluten intolerance and I truly crave good sour dough. Plan to give your recipe a good try. It looks and sounds yummy.
I made this bread, which I got to turn out edible (though tough and strong, not rising as much as yours) but had some bumps along the way.
I definitely did not get anything kneadable even though I added LOTS of flour. It was just a sticky mess and when I thought I'd finally gotten it there and turned it out onto the kneading board, my daughter had to come to my rescue with pan and spatula to scrape it all back into the pan and try to get the strings of goop off my hands. I've baked many a gluten bread so know what to look for as "kneadable" but it just never got there even with an abundance of flour (which you warned against).
Any suggestions?
Can you please share your recipe for your sourdough starter? Ratio of millet, buckwheat, quinoa. Directions?
So excited to try this though!!!
Hi Sarah!
A link was listed above in the text, but perhaps you missed it. I just added another line above to make it more obvious! Here is the link for you, too: http://christensenka.squarespace.com/imported-20100106014405/2009/1/28/fermenting-experiment-quinoa-millet-gluten-free-sourdough-st.html I did basically the same thing for the starter for this bread, except with millet and buckwheat flours as the starter flours. good luck!