Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking: The Miracle Method for Creating Great Bread Without Wheat Paperback – 19 April 2022

My partner absolutely loves it

I decided I wanted to bake some gluten free bread that didn’t taste of cardboard. Having tried various gluten free recipes & been disappointed gluten free sourdough sounded like a good idea. As I already had most of the different flours & ingredients,I didn’t need to buy much- that is something people need to consider as the ingredients are not cheap & although there is a section on discarded starter, there is still a certain amount of wastage.I bought this book & followed the instructions to the letter. I weighed every ingredient carefully, checked the temperature of the water, the fridge & the oven. The starter & levain were bubbling nicely. I have a proofing oven to ensure the proofing was done correctly. So I was hoping for a decent loaf. Sadly, the first few were like house bricks. I had no idea what I’d done wrong. For me, this is where the book is lacking, there is very little guidance if the bread does not turn out well. Fortunately I had also bought The Sourdough School so I had some idea of the process. Vanessa Kimble tells you that every kitchen, every starter & every levain will be different. Also, different flours behave in different ways, so I then just started using the recipes in the book but doing my own thing rather than following her instructions. I never leave my loaf overnight, I have found that it doesn’t work for me. The beginners loaf has never been great, the classic loaf (the photo) is so much better. The seasame dinner rolls are lovely, as is the roasted garlic & olive bread. However I haven’t always found the instructions crystal clear, sometimes it feels as if bits have been missed out. I am sure it’s because the author knows exactly what she is doing but to a novice, it can be confusing. Most of the recipes I have tried make a really good loaf, much much better than anything I’ve made or bought before. I use the recipes for ingredients but I have had to adapt the method to get (what I consider to be) a palatable loaf of bread. Just a tip, if, like me you don’t have a tea towel stiff enough to make peaks (for the bread rolls) roll up 3 other tea towels & put them underneath (as in photo) this creates troughs that don’t collapse. I have also found the bread rolls bake just as well on a baking tray as on a pizza stone.