Join me on this several day journey to establishing a gluten free sourdough starter. I use brown rice flour but have used almond flour, buckwheat flour, teff flour, there are so many options. This method will also work for wheat flour starters as well.
I encourage you to always have a healthy sourdough starter on hand, even if you never make bread. It can be used for so many things & I will be sharing lots of helpful recipes in the future so you can get the most out of your starter!!
Sourdough starter is a natural fermentation mixture of flour & water that captures wild yeast & bacteria from the environment.
Some interesting terms & facts about sourdough & sourdough starters:
*preferment-part of the bread making process that includes a sourdough starter
*ripe-starter is ripe when it has risen & is bubbly with a sourdough starter on aroma
*temperature-ideal temperature is 75-80 degrees F or 24-27 C. Higher temps cause faster rising/fermenting
*autolyse-flour & water combined & allowed to rest before adding sourdough starter
*oven spring-the increase in size during baking
*boule-a classic round loaf of bread
*bulk ferment-bf-the first rise period
*discard-unfed starter, discarded before feeding the starter
*active-fed starter that is bubbly & rising
Other names for sourdough starter-levain, leavan, chef, lievito madre, mother dough, mum, chief, head, mother, sponge
Fun facts-
Blackley’s sourdough starter, created from 4500 year old yeast, is considered the oldest sourdough starter.
A bakery called Christi’s Farmhouse Bakery uses the Saint Honoratus Wheat starter & claims it dates back 900 years!!