Читать книгу The Art of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking - Sharon A. Kane - Страница 7

Sourdough bread baking is a time-tested technique that has been used for approximately 3500 years. The sourdough baking technique utilizes the natural yeasts and bacteria present in the air and on the grain to leaven bread. Before the invention of commercial yeast about 150 years, ago all sourdough starters and breads relied on this method.

Sourdough bread becomes highly digestible because the flours are soaked both in the starter and during the long rise period. Soaking neutralizes natural enzyme inhibitors in the grain and fosters the formation of probiotics and enzymes which begin breaking down the tough cellulose fibers. This is known as predigestion. If a food is predigested we spend less intestinal energy, thus less stress, digesting the food. Soaking also makes for a more nutritious finished product, as many nutrients become available for proper digestion and assimilation as a result of the soaking process. As a bonus the long fermentation period gives sourdough breads a robust taste and a long shelf life.

When I learned I was gluten-intolerant I also learned I was highly sensitive to milk and eggs, and had to minimize my intake of sweeteners, fruit and salt as well. I also found I felt better without yeast, xanthan and guar gums. Gluten-free bakers currently depend on milk, eggs, fruit, fruit juice, yeast, baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan and guar gums to help with binding, leavening and moisture balance. I found that most of the retail gluten-free breads have at least one of these ingredients, and often, many of them. That’s when I decided to try making gluten-free sourdough bread. I didn’t find any recipes on the internet for this type of bread so I began experimenting.

Enter Water Kefir!

Previously I had made many successful sourdough rye breads simply by using rye flour, salt and water. The starter was fed daily for 7 days. Using this technique as a guide, I began my gluten-free sourdough experiments with brown rice flour and water and fed the starter daily for 7 days.

At about day 6 the starter turned a moldy shade of bluish-green and had a putrid smell. Needless to say I discarded it and started a new batch with a shorter duration of fermenting (4–5 days). The resulting starter still smelled faintly spoiled and the bread was unpleasantly sour.

One wonders why I would go forward and bake something that smelled almost spoiled, but I was determined to follow through and learn as much as I could because I wasn’t willing to eliminate breads from my life, if I could help it!

Even the occasional successful starter produced heavy, dense loaves of bread that had very little crumb and were basically unpalatable. Without the usual gluten-free standard commercial ingredients it was very difficult to get the breads to rise.

During this time I had been sipping water kefir as a morning tonic to strengthen my digestive system. Water kefir is a naturally fermented drink consisting of water kefir culture, sugar, water, raisins and lemon. The fermentation process creates beneficial yeast, bacteria, enzymes and a small amount of alcohol. It was nicely potent but really too alcoholic for me to drink, as I am extremely sensitive to alcohol. I stopped drinking the kefir but continued to make it to boost the soaking water for grains and beans, as it “predigests” them.

One morning as I was taking my daily walk (an activity that encourages problem-solving for me as well as the genesis of new ideas) I wondered if the water kefir, being too alcoholic for me to drink, might be useful in leavening my gluten-free bread. I contacted an experienced fermenter and bread baker from Australia, who said that he often used water kefir to leaven his gluten-free, dairy-free sourdough products. He gave me some tips for growing the starter and when I tried his suggestions I finally began to have some real success.

I learned that in order for a starter to avoid the bacteria that causes spoilage, there needs to be ample amounts of beneficial bacteria, yeast and enzymes present in that starter. The fermented water kefir liquid contains a prolific amount of these beneficial bacteria, yeasts and enzymes. When a small amount of water kefir liquid is added to the starter, the bacteria and yeast feed on the starches in the flour fostering healthy reproduction of enough beneficial bacteria, yeasts and enzymes to prevent spoilage.

My original gluten-free starters often took five days to show much activity and, by that time, they were starting to spoil. Starters boosted with water kefir showed activity after 48 hours! This was an important turning point for me in my bread baking.

The water kefir culture is a colony of bacteria and yeast that form small gelatinous-like “grains” that are the size of small pebbles. I use water kefir in my starters because it is a dairy and casein-free culture and I am allergic to all dairy products. People who can tolerate dairy products can use live whey, milk kefir, milk kefir whey, or live homemade yogurt as a booster. Homemade kombucha tea can also work, although in my experience it adds a day to the fermentation time.

I find that using a fermented drink to boost and preserve a gluten-free starter is very economical. After the initial cost of the culture it costs only pennies per batch to keep it healthy and productive. With proper care the culture itself can live indefinitely. I make a quart of water kefir at a time which stays potent for a month. There are other uses for water kefir besides boosting a gluten-free sourdough starter. Some people drink it as a soda like beverage and make it every day or two to keep up with the demand.

Recently, I experimented with the original water kefir recipe that came with the culture. I shortened the fermentation time and was able to bring down the level of alcohol so that I can enjoy it in small amounts as a tonic without any discomfort from the alcohol. Now I drink in small amounts, 1–2 ounces at a time, as a digestive aid and tonic. I also like to use it for occasions that call for a wine or champagne toast!

Flours – Sourdough Bread #1

The next challenge was finding the right combination, and proportions, of gluten-free flours to create a loaf of bread with all the qualities we look for: taste, texture, crumb, shelf life, and visual attractiveness. Flour combining is a way of achieving these qualities. Each specific flour lends certain properties to the finished product. It becomes a bit of a chess game to determine which flours, and how much of each, will give just the right amount of sponginess, lightness, body, ease of leavening and of course, flavor.

It took much time, patience and many failed loaves. After months of experimentation I finally settled on equal amounts of brown rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, chick pea flour and potato flour, and achieved a really tasty and dependable recipe. The process from the first spoiled bread to the first successful and dependable bread took one whole year!

I called my first successful loaf Sourdough Bread #1. It was a joy to eat. Toasted, it had some sponginess along with a nice crust. I found the taste to be very balanced as no particular flour dominated. It had a good rise, nearly doubling in size over 12–24 hours.

Shelf Life

The nature of sourdough breads is that they have a long shelf life and I was very pleased that Sourdough Bread #1 was excellent in this regard. It lasted 4–5 days on the counter, 2–3 weeks in the refrigerator and even froze well. If it was frozen the day it was baked it was still excellent after thawing and toasting, lasting 7–10 days in the refrigerator. Compare this with many gluten-free breads that deteriorate after two days and really should be frozen after one day. Another benefit of sourdough bread is that the good taste builds over the life of the bread.

I was very happy with this bread and ate goodly amounts of it. I could toast a few pieces, store them in a lunch box and have them for a mid afternoon snack at work or during travel without retoasting.

Sensitivity

After two years of euphoric bread eating I started to show symptoms of sensitivity again. One of the principles of healthy eating is to eat a variety of foods. This ensures a mix of nutrients, micronutrients and enzymes. One of the challenges of having multiple food sensitivities is that it becomes difficult to eat a wide variety of foods because we must avoid so many foods. Undiagnosed gluten sensitivity impairs the intestinal system, making one much more sensitive to the foods we eat repetitively.

I was tested for all the ingredients in my beloved bread and found I was sensitive to three of the five flour ingredients! The two to which I was most sensitive were chick pea flour and tapioca flour. I was less sensitive to the third ingredient, sorghum, something I had never eaten before. Thankfully, I tested well for the potato flour and the brown rice flour.

I took a three month break from bread baking to ponder what was next. During that time I attended a gluten-free culinary conference taught by professional chefs, pastry chefs and cookbook writers. Through the information these remarkable people shared I gained a much clearer understanding of general baking principles and how they are modified for gluten-free baking. I was able to combine this new information with my own knowledge of gluten-free sourdough baking.

I was scheduled to teach a bread class and began a new brown rice starter for the class. I would teach my tried and true Sourdough Bread #1 even though I would no longer eat it.

Pancakes

The day after class I began experimenting with small batches of pancakes, rather than bread, in the hopes that the losses would be minimized in the event of failure. To ensure a “nutrient-rich” bread I decided that I would use only organic grains that I could grind in my grain mill. As much as I loved Sourdough Bread #1 I had never been completely comfortable using previously ground flours, being concerned about the length of time they may have been sitting on a warehouse or market shelf.

Previously I had made pancakes using only boosted brown rice starter and found them to be rather bland, dense and overly wet. Using the ideas about flour combining I had just learned at the conference I would try using a different flour, buckwheat, for the last feeding. What I found was that it gave the finished pancakes a very nice, complex taste and a spongier texture that cooked through more easily.

For variation, I repeated this experiment, using some reserved brown rice starter from the initial batch, and made a few more batches of pancakes adding a different flour for each final feeding. I used teff, amaranth, tapioca, gluten-free oats and quinoa. Each batch had very different qualities. The teff pancakes had a very dense, cake-like texture. The amaranth pancakes were light and delicate. The tapioca gave it an angel food quality. Gluten-free oats gave the pancakes a fluffy texture.

Quinoa – Muffins, Buns & Mini Loaves and Sourdough Bread #2

Those experiments gave me important information that I was able to use for a variety of different starters and bread recipes. When I used quinoa, a South American grain, for the last feeding of the pancake starter I saw it triple in size during the rise. The texture was truly spongy with lots and lots of holes. I began to experiment using the Rice Quinoa starter for muffins, buns and mini loaves and had great success. Because of the quinoa they also achieved what is one of the most elusive characteristics of whole grain, egg-free, gluten-free bread: the fluff factor. My definition of the fluff factor is the texture we experience when we bite into a conventionally made white flour blueberry muffin, cupcake or piece of birthday cake: light, soft, fluffy, and comforting.

As a culture of wheat eaters we have come to expect our wheat breads to have these characteristics. When diagnosed with gluten-intolerance, we look for replacement gluten-free breads that have the traits to which we have grown accustomed: light, soft, fluffy, and comforting, which are challenging to achieve in a whole grain bread.

The sourdough rye bread I had grown so fond of had very different characteristics than commercial bread and that’s why I liked it. This old world bread was dense, aromatic, nutritious and highly digestible because of the long fermentation and rise times. It was tasty and extremely satisfying with a bowl of soup. Because I came to gluten-free baking from this perspective I did not have the expectation of developing light fluffy bread. My hope was to create nutritious bread that would simply rise. Not too terribly much to ask for, I thought. Sourdough Bread #1 had enough sponginess to please many people, but when I began using quinoa I moved to a whole new and unexpected place. These muffins were lighter and spongier than any of my breads yet still were well within my nutrition parameters: no xanthan or guar gums, baking powder, baking soda, or yeast. I was on to something important!

After creating many interesting and tasty variations of the basic recipe using fruit, spices and herbs, I began to work out the measurements for making a new type of loaf bread recipe, which eventually became Sourdough Bread #2. Compared to Sourdough Bread #1 it had much more sponginess and rose nearly twice as high! It had a nice taste and a long shelf life and lent itself to many interesting variations such as onion bread, banana bread and herb & spice breads.

Chia – Sourdough Bread #3

I was asked by a mother of a child with food sensitivities to develop a bread recipe that did not use quinoa. Around that same time I had read about the healthful properties of chia seed as well as chia’s ability to increase the shelf life of bread products. Chia seed has highly absorbent properties, much like quinoa, and when chia seed is mixed with water it becomes a thick viscous gel.

First I experimented with chia gel to see how it affected Sourdough Bread #2. It seemed to make it a bit more moist but usually I finished eating the loaf well before I could be sure if the shelf life had increased. Then I had a travel experience where I packed some frozen Sourdough Bread #2 made with chia gel. This particular loaf was left to thaw, then forgotten about, then repacked and brought home. Expecting it to have passed its prime I toasted a slice of it just to see how much it had deteriorated only to be happily surprised by its still excellent structure and flavor! It appeared that the added chia gel did help the bread retain its moisture, taste and freshness even after many, many days.

I promptly got to work on the chia-based, quinoa-free bread for the child with the quinoa sensitivity and was able to create another excellent bread, Sourdough Bread #3. It did not rise as much as quinoa-containing Sourdough Bread #2 nor was it as spongy but it still was a fine, nutritious bread that, like Sourdough Bread #2, lent itself to many variations.

My experience is that chia gel gives bread stability, sponginess and an unusually long shelf life.

One of my favorite chia-based recipes is Brown Rice-Chia-Teff Bread. The teff flour gives it a good rise with extra height and, when toasted, reminds me of old fashioned dark pumpernickel bread from my childhood. I’ve recently added ground caraway seeds to it and renamed it “Mock Rye Bread.”

Buckwheat Sorghum – Sourdough Bread #4

I received a request for a rice-free sourdough bread recipe as many people are sensitive to rice as well as gluten. Since I initially began with rice as a starter I needed to find a flour that would provide a strong and neutral base but would easily take on the qualities of other flours that might be added to it. I decided to begin with sorghum, native to Africa and Asia.

Sorghum does not have a lot of natural sponginess or structure to it so I combined it with buckwheat flour because buckwheat has the ability to create sponginess as well as structure. This starter became the base for the Multigrain and Tapioca breads. These breads have wonderful sponginess plus complex tastes because of the variety of flours used. This starter became my first rice-free starter. A wonderful rice-free mock rye bread can be made with Multigrain Bread #4.

Rice-Free Teff – Sourdough Bread #5

I had already successfully been using teff flour in one of the Sourdough Bread #3 chia-rice variations. Teff is said to have originated in Ethiopia. It is a high protein grain that has a lot of natural sponginess to it. I eat this potent whole grain soaked and simmered for breakfast.

When I needed a small amount of teff flour for baking I ground it myself in a small coffee mill. I was ready to try some large scale experiments with teff and made an online purchase of what I thought was 25 pounds of whole teff grain. When it arrived I found 25 pounds of teff flour!! I checked my invoice and original order form and saw that I had, indeed, ordered 25 pounds of teff flour rather than teff whole grain.

I looked at this enormous sack of flour, wondering how many years it would take to use it up. Meanwhile, I still needed whole teff grain for breakfast so I ordered another 10 pounds. Lo and behold, I had clicked on the wrong option again and found myself with another 10 pounds of teff flour. Note to self: Slow Down!

With this newly arrived abundance of teff flour (35 pounds worth) I began experimenting with 100% teff starters. This was the birth of Sourdough Bread #5 – Teff. Its natural sponginess meant less flour combining. The darkness of it reminded me of chocolate cake, something I haven’t eaten in a very long time. I tried a piece of experimental teff bread and was disappointed it did not taste like chocolate cake and why would it?

I wondered how I could add some sweetness to these teff breads without using any conventional sweeteners, as I cannot tolerate them. I needed something that would have no impact on blood sugar or candida. I also needed something that would not kick start another cycle of sugar addiction.

I had heard that maca root powder is naturally sweet. Maca root, from South America, is used there as a hot breakfast drink. I also thought about carob, that poor denigrated ingredient from the Mediterranean and Middle East, commonly used as a substitute for chocolate that no one really appreciates for its own natural sweet and mellow taste. I combined the maca and carob along with some stevia and created what I was looking for: mildly sweet, dark, rich and comforting with no sugary side effects.

This experiment so far, has produced Teff Carob Bread and Teff Carob Coconut Bread. Their sweetness almost makes them dessert breads but they are still neutral enough to eat with a meal.

It took about 6 months to use up my 35 pounds of teff flour and during that time I made countless Teff Carob Coconut breads, now one of my favorite breads. When I recently got to the “bottom of the barrel” I was a bit sad to have finished this unusual source of abundance. Meanwhile, I have successfully ordered whole teff grain once again and will grind it into teff flour as I need it.

Quinoa 100 – Sourdough Bread #6

A man with a highly sensitive system contacted me about making a single-flour bread for him and his son. He wanted to know if a sourdough bread could be made solely from quinoa flour. Given the importance of flour combining in gluten-free recipes, I wasn’t sure if it could be done. I gave it a try, creating first a quinoa-only starter and then a quinoa-only bread. The natural sponginess of quinoa made it possible.

Since quinoa has a natural bitterness and sourdough has a natural sourness the first loaf was extra bitter and extra sour. It took a few batches to eliminate the heavy bitterness and minimize the excessive sourness. The resulting loaf is fairly mild and very satisfying. This simple bread uses only 4 ingredients: quinoa flour, water, salt and olive oil. It has a light and spongy texture.

Coconut Flour Breads

I had heard a lot about coconut flour for baked products and finally got around to trying it. One of coconut’s beneficial properties is that it does not spike blood sugar. Since coconut flour is a high protein flour and absorbs a large amount of moisture it took some time to figure out how to use it with sourdough starter. Some wonderful products have been the result and the coconut lightens them up nicely. I am continuing to develop some sourdough dessert breads and cakes using coconut flour, coconut oil and coconut sap sugar (Coconut Nectar).

Crackers

A woman asked me to create a recipe for gluten-free sourdough crackers for her children. After a year of no success I stumbled upon an article on baking science and realized I had been going about it the wrong way. My existing technique was fine for breads and muffins but needed to be greatly adjusted for crackers and probably cookies. I learned to use a combination of sourdough starter and sprouted flour to achieve some crispiness while making sure all the flour is properly soaked for optimal digestion.

Making crackers is a new challenge in my baking and although I have offered only two cracker recipes in this book as of yet, I feel sure that the technique will continue to develop and improve, hopefully with many exciting variations.

Pizza Dough

After going gluten-free most people want to be able to continue eating pizza. When I developed my pizza recipe I was still determined to make it without yeast or baking powder. I was able to succeed using the sourdough starter plus the addition of a large amount of arrowroot flour. This is the only recipe that I use such a large proportion of starch flour.

I would like to be able to say that this pizza dough recipe is fast and easy but it really isn’t. It has a number of steps that take careful planning of one’s time. When one has the time, however, it is well worth it.

Sweets

One of my most important goals in my bread making is to use as little sweetener as possible. People regularly ask me how to use my sourdough starter for sweet breads, cakes and other treats. The challenge is balancing the “sour” of the sourdough. The added challenge for me is balancing that sour with something that has no impact on blood sugar or candida.

Sweet Buns and Sweetheart Bread were my first experiments in trying to lend a hint of sweetness without the use of sugar, honey, maple syrup or agave. Stevia powder, which registers zero on the glycemic index, makes it possible, combined with a small amount of vanilla powder or vanilla extract. Together they “imply” more sweetness than there actually is. What I like most is that I can eat these delicately sweet breads without blood sugar spikes and without the start of another round of the sugar addiction cycle.

Using mildly sweet ingredients like cinnamon, maca, carob and fennel seed work well with stevia to “sweeten” some of the breads.

Coconut Nectar

Some of my readers let me know that they were using Coconut Nectar (coconut sap sugar) in my recipes instead of stevia, with great success. I finally tried it when I was experimenting with gluten-free sourdough crackers. I tried it in a few recipes and found that a very small amount lends a hearty sweetness to the bread product. Coconut sap sugar has a low glycemic index compared with other sweeteners and doesn’t seem to activate the sugar addiction cycle.

I’m very happy to be able to tolerate small amounts of this very unusual natural sweetener. I know that no one sweetener will be right for everyone so I began to test my breads using other sweeteners. I have compiled a conversion chart to help people make the choice that’s right for them and their families.

Holiday Treats

Years ago I tasted an excellent artisanal wheat chocolate bread available only during the winter holiday season. The memory of it lingered in the back of my mind for many years. It was dark and rich but not too sweet. It had bits of fruit, nuts, and dark and white chocolate chips. Because of persistent requests for sweeter treats I decided to try a gluten-free sourdough version of it and enlisted my extended family as “testers” during the holiday season.

This is the only recipe in this book that calls for sugar for sweetening. I call it “Holiday Chocolate Bread.” It is included for all of us who give ourselves permission to cheat a bit around the holiday season. At this point in my life, I would rather “cheat” with a homemade, gluten-free sourdough, whole grain bread that has a bit of sugar in it rather than a nutrient deficient, high sugar treat that will leave me feeling awful, perhaps for a few days.

The recipe is based on the highly nutritious and easily digested sourdough starter. Because of the sourdough technique, the whole grains and modest amount of sugar, blood sugar spikes are greatly minimized.

When I brought the finished bread out to be “tested,” the testers consumed the bread with gusto, proclaimed it “awesome” and promptly became very, very quiet! I know a recipe has succeeded when there is complete silence in the room. Too busy enjoying the food to talk.

I plan to continue my experiments in the “Dessert Bread” arena, trying to create treats that satisfy without challenging the body in any way.

Conclusion

Years after giving up gluten I have achieved what I had hoped. I have successfully created my own nutrient dense, allergen-friendly bread products using a combination of ancient fermenting techniques and gluten-free seed and grain flours. I feel encouraged and comforted that as we move into the future we can utilize the wisdom of the ancients to strengthen and nourish us.