Sourdough Frustration

Hi folks,
I've been experimenting with sourdough bread recipes and experiencing some frustration. I use cassava flour, brown rice flour, milled flax seed, olive oil, brown sugar, and distilled water as my ingredients. (I don't use eggs, milk, or wheat.) The starter I make rises nicely, the bread smells good when I bake it, and the crust is crispy. However, the batter when baked rises very little and the bread itself doesn't seem to cook even when left in the oven at 400 degrees F for 90 minutes. It often has a beery taste to it. Any recommendations on how to get the batter to cook properly/fully without burning the crust?

Is it a batter or a dough? Maybe there's just too much water in it. I find rice flour needs some time to hydrate fully before cooking, as well.

Jan White wrote:Is it a batter or a dough? Maybe there's just too much water in it. I find rice flour needs some time to hydrate fully before cooking, as well.

Hi Jan,
I think I would call it a batter.
1. What is a good ratio of water to rice flour and / or cassava flour?
2. How much time does rice flour need to hydrate?

I've never worked with cassava flour, so I have no idea what to tell you about ratios. When I cook with rice flour I leave it anywhere from a few hours to a couple days.

For sourdough generally, I know that if you feed the starter the day before using it it will be stronger. When you make the bread batter, let it rise before putting it in the oven to bake. I always let my bread rise twice, once after mixing and again once the bread was in the pans.

Are you using the same flours in your starter? If they're different maybe it takes a little while for the yeasts to switch over to working in the new flours of your batter. That's a total guess.

Hopefully someone else in here knows more about it than I.

I bake sourdough rye (wholegrain Rye, salt, malt, mixed seeds and whole grains) and it's a very different beast to a wheat based bread, it does rise when proving, but it doesn't rise much in the oven.

It also has a tendancy to be sticky and wet in the middle which sounds like what you are having an issue with, I've found two reasons for this.

The first is letting it rise to long in the tin, if you let it rise more than about 1/3 of it's height it overrises in the oven and then collapses as it doesn't have the strength to support itself.

The second is the dough, it is a VERY dry dough it should look like mortar.


Now rye isn't going to be exactly the same as what you are doing but since neither have gluten they may well behave pretty similarly. possibly not the best picture but I think you can see how dry the dough is in the bowl, the loaf in the tin on the left will rise to the top of the tin but that's all.

Thank you both for your replies.I'll try out your tips.

I have a further question: if I mix olive oil or coconut oil into the batter, will that inhibit it from rising or cause a mushy interior?

How good is your sourdough starter? You didn't mention it, you are using starter right?

elle sagenev wrote:How good is your sourdough starter? You didn't mention it, you are using starter right?

Yes, I use a starter.
The last starter I made looked vibrant. What would be the criteria for it being "good?" How would I assess that? Smell? Bubbliness?

What is causing your problems is the fact that your bread has no gluten in it. The gluten in wheat is what allows the dough to trap air produced by the yeast in order for it to rise and become light.
Gluten free breads usually use xanthan gum or another additive to replace the needed gluten.
Neither of the flours you are using contain any gluten. You can make matzo crackers with a batter like that...

nigel thomas wrote:What is causing your problems is the fact that your bread has no gluten in it. The gluten in wheat is what allows the dough to trap air produced by the yeast in order for it to rise and become light.
Gluten free breads usually use xanthan gum or another additive to replace the needed gluten.
Neither of the flours you are using contain any gluten. You can make matzo crackers with a batter like that...

Xanthan gum and Guar Gum irritate my gut. Any other additive options to trap bubbles?