This gluten free and vegan sourdough bread is amazingly good. It is moist, flavourful and chewy. Perfect for sandwiches and toast.
The best evidence of this bread’s exceptional flavour and texture probably comes from the wheat-eaters in my life, who have all gobbled up copious amounts of my bread, describing it as “the best gluten free bread they have ever eaten.”
A lower carb, keto-inspired bread
To be honest, I have been working on a good gluten free and vegan sourdough bread for at least 4 years. I didn’t really hit on anything that worked until my mom introduced me to her favourite keto bread.
The result is this vegan sourdough loaf. It is practically a keto and paleo bread, however, the sourdough starter does require gluten free grain. The trick is have a really long ferment, which develops the flavour and loft of the bread.
Variations
Variety is the spice of life, or at least in this case the flavour in the loaf of bread. The structure of this bread is strong enough to support added flavours. And the rich sourdough compliments other flavours.
Here are a five of my favourite additions:
- Kalamata Olives: Add in 1/2 cup of chopped kalamata olives.
- Multigrain: Stir in 2 tbsp of millet, 2 tbsp amaranth flour and 1 tbsp of poppy seeds. Then brush the top of the loaf with water before baking, and sprinkle on some sesame seeds
- Walnut: Adding in a 1/4 cup of walnuts gives the bread a naturally purple hue.
- Rosemary: 2 tbsp of finely chopped rosemary gives the loaf a burst of flavour. It makes the perfect garlic bread.
- Sweet Cinnamon: Mix in 1 tbsp of cinnamon and 1/4 cup of finely chopped dried fruit for a sweetly-inspired breakfast bread. I recommend using currents because they are already nice and small.
- Spreads: This bread is delicious served with a rich and flavourful spread. I love Minimalist Baker’s tapenade or miso cultured hummus.
Gluten Free and Vegan Sourdough Bread
Looking for the perfect loaf of bread? This bread is gluten free, vegan and healthy. It only contains about 1/2 cup of flour, which is used to give the bread a delicious sourdough flavour. The structure is provided by high fiber psyllium husk and flax.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 1 small loaf 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Sourdough
- Cuisine: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten free sourdough starter
- 1 cup water (chlorine free)
- 1/4 cup wholegrain gluten free flour (to feed the starter, see notes)
- 6 tbsp ground flax
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 5 tbsp ground psyllium husk (affiliate link)
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of additional flavours (see section above for suggestions)
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
Instructions
- Mix the sourdough starter with the water and the gluten free flour. It’s really easy to make a GF sourdough starter. See the notes if you are new to sourdough starter.
- Then mix in the flax, psyllium husk, sea salt and any flavour additions. It will start out quite liquidy. Leave it for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Form the bread once the dough has thickened. Sprinkle the tapioca starch on the counter. Using a spatula scrape the dough from the bowl to the counter. Coat your hands in tapioca starch, then roll the dough in the starch to form a loaf. See the picture above for an example of the sticky dough transformed into a loaf.
- To make a sandwich loaf, grease a loaf pan and put the formed loaf in the pan to rise. For a free-formed loaf, let the bread rise on the counter.
- Cover with a damp tea towel and leave bread to rise. The bread can be baked after 2 hours, however, leave it for 12-18 hours for a really strong and fully fermented sourdough bread.
- Bake at 500 for 40 minutes.
Notes
- If you are new to GF sourdough, I recommend making a starter with buckwheat or teff since they only take 24 hours for a very vigorous GF starter.
- The sourdough starter is what really gives this bread its unique flavour. Use whatever flour you’ve been feeding to your sourdough starter for the flour in this recipe, since the goal is to feed the sourdough.
- I’m certain this recipe would work with a wheat-based sourdough starter, however, I haven’t personally tried it.
- I like baking free formed loaves in a cast-iron dutch oven, since it delivers a nice even heat and keeps in the moisture to prevent early crusting. Put the dutch oven in the oven to preheated. Then gently move your loaf to the dutch oven. Bake with the lid on for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid for the last 10 minutes of baking to form the crust. (See the picture above.)
- This recipe doesn’t involve added ingredients (eggs, starch, xanthan gum) to give it loft and support the structure. So the loaves are quite small to ensure good a good rise structure. Feel free to double the recipe and make 2 small loaves.
Keywords: gluten free, keto, paleo, sandwich, toast, olive, rosemary, raisin, walnut, multigrain, dinner, holiday
Perfectly delicious! Thanks Emillie.
★★★★★
What is the finished loaf dusted with? Thanks!!
It’s formed with tapioca flour (or another starch) which is what gives it that white dusting.
Hi, can I use a rye-wheat starter and then gluten free flour? thank you!
I haven’t tried this bread with a gluten flour, however, I think it should work. Just use rye flour in the recipe because you want to feed your starter. Starter tends to work best being fed the same kind of flour. 🙂 If you bake it with rye, can you let me know how it turns out? I’m curious! Thanks.