Wheat / Gluten free sourdough breads and etc.

[davidcreamer]

I'm wondering if anyone has experimented with guar bean gum. I avoid wheat and gluten and yet would like to be able to make things rise the way wheat does (though I thoroughly enjoy the all rye sourdough I've been making). For instance I'd like to make pancakes for my toddler and french sourdough bread for my teenager. I've read a small amount online about using 2tsp. guar gum per cup of non-wheat flour. I bought some guar gum (from what I've read guar is preferable to xanthan gum by quite a ways). Suggestions anyone?

Thanks,
David

[Isabel]

Haven't tried the guar gum, but just had to chime in.
I just finished my first batch of sourdough rye (scary moments-it smelled like wine!)
but it is the most amazing, crusty, sour yummy bread I have ever had! And no kneading and it's wheat free! And I think it's also low in gluten-because the thing in rye that rises the bread is something else...pentosans, not much gluten.

I just wanted to say YUM! And Thanks Sandor!

[jkhdsf]

Yes absolutely, add guar gum to your recipe. Though just to be clear, you want to add it when you're mixing up all the ingredients and not to your starter.

There's a website here you can check out too.

http://glutenfreesourdough.blogspot.com

[Arc]

Hi,

I've been on on a gluten free diet for some time now and I just thought I'd offer up my knowledge where it might be relevant here.

Firstly rye products of any kind are definitely gluten (as are spelt, which is another common misconception (although in small doses that may be safe for some people)); I am not sure if the above above post had some confusion but, gluten is not a rising element, when stretched it creates elasticity in baked goods. Gluten free rising agents include bicarbonate soda, when pure and gluten free yeast (regular yeast for use with wheat flour may or may not be safe).

I am not sure about fermenting gums, but in normal gluten free cooking they are employed to crudely simulate the effect of gluten as they will absorb moister to swell up and add body/texture, which may make a person feel fuller. At the below link you can find information saying that texture may be more like real bread if you use substitutes such as flax seed rather than gums.
[url]
http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-p ... tio-rally/[/url]

I have heard that it can be vary difficult to keep a gluten free sour dough starter alive for more than a week and many people recommend boosting it with kirfi (spelling) water so it reaches the desired level of activity before it rots. I will check out the above blog too after this post.

One thing thing I would say, although I can't find the blog at present, is that it has been explained to me that for celiacs even if there are no unpleasant symptoms gluten may still be silently damaging the intestinal wall in a way that will eventually lead to heath problems from food leaking into the blood stream. If you are just avoiding gluten as part of some diet then this shouldn't be a problem and including rye in your diet should be a personal choice.

[ljjmfour]

Hello, I use brown rice flour to make gluten free grain products. I have been making a brown rice flour sourdough for at least a year and a half now. I 'caught' the first wild yeast off organic grapes (from Chili I think) after I read how to do it from the book 'Wild Fermentation' by Sandor Katz, page 95. My husband usually makes pancakes on every Sunday. He adds to the mix-( not the starter!) an egg-replacer product from Ener-G, baking soda, a little more brown rice flour -or water- as needed, salt and oil.

A friend shared with me a 168 year old sourdough Alaskan culture that I promptly converted into using brown rice, quite successfully. So I mix the two cultures together in a large glass bowl when I set out the two starters on a Saturday evening, all fed with fresh brown rice flour and let it ferment up to 12 hours. We use up what's in the bowl completely and set the two well-fed cultures back into the refrigerator to await next Saturday's preparation - (Our kitchen temperature can be 80 overnight in the Sonoran Desert summer, even under air-conditioning conditions, so the frig is a happy place of yearlong steady temperature)

We have recently, bi-weekly in the last month or two, also begun to make a brown rice sourdough bread following the recipe in the book 'Nourishing Traditions' by Sally Fallon, page 490. (We let the starter ferment up to 12 hours and the bread raise up to 12 hours) If the flour used is only brown rice flour, this results in a yummy, but very dense loaf that will crumble when cut, making it hard to toast. We experimented with the recipe by substituting 1 cup of tapioca powder, 1 cup of millet flour and 1 cup of mesquite flour and these loaves held together better. This weekend's bread will include tapioca powder. I will report how well that turns out and I will try guar gum next week, and ground flax, the next after that.
Nice to meet you all, Maureen (ljjmfour)