The Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter Recipe

Believe it or not, the gluten-free starter is arguably the best starter.

A few weeks ago I posted on here a “battle of the starters” experiment.

The winners were a tie between

1) the gluten free starter – organic wild rice, and

2) my 100% organic rye starter

Well, color me surprised.

It didn’t look like or behave like the other starter, but the glove doesn’t lie.

The GF stater was so inflated, so bloated, I couldn’t believe it.

I was intrigued by the gluten-free starter —I mean, I never would’ve thunk it.

It was the first to come to peak and the glove 🧤 was very very inflated, suggesting a very high CO2 output.

Using a GF starter for country sourdough.

I fed my GF starter organic forbidden rice and used on a mini-loaf today and lo and behold, it leavened the bread really well.

So there you go. A gluten-free starter will leaven a regular dough, not just a gluten-free dough.

It does a really good job at it too.

What can you you feed your Gluten-Free starter?

You can feed a starter anything you want. You can start/feed your GF starter with anything gluten free.

As a general rule, you want a really active/robust starter —which is even more important in GF baking since there is no gluten for the bacteria and yeasts to feast on.

You’re substituting the food source —instead of gluten, the bacteria and yeasts are eating quinoa, buckwheat, rice, potato starch, sugar, honey, etc.

I feed my Gluten-free starter whole-grain rice flour at 1 : 1 : 1 ratio.

I buy fancy organic rice from my local health food store and use my mill to grind it at home.

If you don’t have a mill, you can use a coffee grinder or just use already ground brown rice flour from the store —no big deal.

Rice Flour vs. GF all purpose flour

I like to make my GF starter with organic wild rice, and not an “all purpose” GF flour blend. And that’s because the ideal characteristics and composition of your dough is different from what you want for your starter.

For example, whether it’s gluten free or not, you want to feed your starter the most nutrient-dense food source. This usually means the “whole” version of whatever you’re feeding it —whole wheat, rye, rice, etc. and extra points if you grind it yourself. Rice is easily ground in a coffee grinder.

If you feed your starter the “white” version of your flour, it will live, and it will leaven your bread, but it will never be as robust and active as a starter being fed the “whole” version of that flour.

But why don’t I just use a GF all purpose flour blend for my starter?

An all purpose GF flour blend is formulated to give you the right characteristics for airiness and fluffiness. It’s formulated to mimic white bread, which means it lacks the nutritional benefits of what I just covered above.

You would be much better off starting and feeding your GF starter the whole version of a naturally gluten-free product. I use organic wild rice only for my GF starter.

I buy it at my local organic health food store.

Here’s how I feed and keep my GF Starter:

Gluten-Free Starter Recipe / Starter Composition

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