Vegan, Gluten Free Sourdough Bread

My obligatory 2020 quarantine sourdough recipe.

I cobbled this recipe together from the following recipes.

The Sourdough Base

The Multigrain Soaker and oven instructions 

The Honey Glaze

Ingredients

The Soaker

• 3 Tbs Whole Flax Seeds
• 3 Tbs Whole Rolled Oats gluten free
• 3 Tbs Red or Tricolor Quinoa rinsed under running water
• 3 Tbs Hulled Sunflower Seeds
• 1/3 C (80g) Water room temperature

The Bread

• 1.5 cups gluten-free sourdough starter
• 1 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or maple syrup or any sugar)
• 1 cup warm water (not hot)
• 1 cup nondairy milk (I used almond)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 180 g (1.5 cups) millet flour
• 60 g (0.5 cups) buckwheat or oat flour (I use oat)
• 80 g (0.5 cups) rice flour
• 60 g (0.5 cups) tapioca flour
• 20 g (2 tbsp) xanthan gum
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

The Glaze

• 1 Tbsp vegan butter (I used country crock almond oil plant)
• 1 Tbsp honey or agave
• Oats and sunflower seeds for garnish

Directions

For the Soaker:

1. Prepare the soaker by placing the flax, oats, quinoa, and sunflower seeds into a small bowl. Pour room temperature water over the top of the soaker. Leave out at room temperature for about 6-8 hours. If you forget to do this, you can pour hot water (hot to touch) over the soaker before you start preparing the ingredients for the bread.

For the bread

Prepare the dough

1. Whisk the apple cider vinegar into the nondairy milk.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached, or in a large bowl if kneading by hand, place the sourdough starter. Add the sugar, warm water and almond milk mixed with vinegar and mix together on low speed or by hand.

3. Add the flours and xanthan gum directly into the bowl, one by one, kneading a little as you go along so they are thoroughly incorporated. Knead for a couple of minutes until everything is well incorporated and you have a tacky, slightly sticky dough. 

4. Drizzle in the oil and knead for a couple more minutes until the oil is absorbed.

5. Add the soaker and continue kneading or mixing until fully incorporated. If your dough looks dry, drizzle in a little more water and knead.

6. Transfer the dough to your bread pan. To do this, I scrape down the sides until the dough is in a compact ball. Then, I roll the ball into a well greased bread pan. Don't skimp on greasing the pan, or it will be impossible get out when the bread it done. Then, shape the ball of dough in the bread pan until it fills in all of the corners.

7. Now is a good time to refresh (feed) your starter and store it for next time.

Bulk Ferment

1. Cover the dough with a wet tea towel and allow the dough to ferment overnight at room temperature (it's okay if the wet tea towel touches the top of the loaf). Fermentation will take anywhere between 12-14 hours depending on how active your starter is and ambient temperature. I usually let mine ferment for 12 hours.

Bake

1. Place a oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 550F (288C). Decrease the oven temperature to 475F (246C) and bake the loaf 45 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread is between 200F-205F (232C). I used a glass baking pan, so I reduced the temperature of the oven to 450F.
2. While the bread is baking, now is a good time to prepare the glaze.

Prepare the glaze

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat.
2. Add the honey, seeds and oats and mix.
3. When the bread has been in the oven for 45 minutes, remove it from the oven and set the oven to broil. Drizzle the glaze over the top or use a basting brush to apply it evenly.
4. Return the bread to the oven to brown the honey glaze. It's easy to overdo it, so I place the bread in and leave the oven door cracked so that I can watch the bread. As soon as you can see the glaze start to brown, remove it from the oven. There is a very short period between "browned" and "blackened", so play it safe. It's better to remove it too early than too late.