Bettes’ Modified Sorghum Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
WET:
1 whole egg & 2 egg whites
1/3 c. ground chia seeds
2 c. lukewarm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tsp. black or apple cider vinegar
2/3 c. sourdough starter (I used a cup) see my other recipes for sourdough starter
6 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
DRY:
3 c. 1:1:1 flour mix described above
1 c. sorghum flour
1/3 c. cashew meal
1/3 c. sugar (its a lot!) I used 1/4)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp. modernist pantry gf stick stuff (I forget the name)
1 tbsp. sunflower lecithin (soy will do)
1/3 c. ground oat flour (gf of course!)
1 tbsp. methyl-cellulose (optional) but recommended see modernist pantry they have TONS of kinds
Description
A slightly sweet, light and airy sandwich bread. I was surprised at how well the thing rose. I did find that the nice bread pan from modernist pantry (its made out of silicon) makes a wonderful loaf. I also used a convection oven, and a vitamix to mix up the wet ingredents. Its also important to use a coffee grinder to grind the chia well. The basic mix for the flours are 1:1:1 of brown rice to tapioca starch to potato starch. I also add the xanthan or methulcellulose to the dry mix. I use chahoika high protein brown rice and mill it myself.
Directions
The night before mix the wet ingredients in a blender for about 30 seconds on high. Put them (except for the yeast, add that the next day) in the fridge overnight to ‘bloom’ and get some nice flavors.
I like to mix the ‘dry’ either the next day or overnight. I just put in the fridge, be sure to let it ‘get up’ to room temperature before you start the mixing process. Same for the wet ingredients. Ideally the wet ingredients should be ‘lukewarm’ or about 105-110°F.
Turn on your oven proof cycle for 100°f (your oven does have a proof cycle right) or just turn it on for a minute, let it cool a bit and when it hits ‘100’ you are ready.
Meanwhile in a nice big and powerful mixer (a kitchen aid does nicely) with the flat hook, first add the wet, and gradually add the dry on setting 4 of the kitchen aid. Keep beating and adding until all the dry components are added. Mix for 3-4 mins. The dough should look like thick cake batter. Don’t forget to add the 1 tbsp yeast. I like to ‘proof’ my yeast by putting it in a 1/4 c. Measuring cup filled with some water and about 1-2 tsp sugar. The water should be warm, and the yeast should foam after about 15 minutes. Add this to the mixer (I guess you could do it near the beginning but I forgot and it worked fine).
Put in the nice modernist pantry (or a more inferior regular metal or glass loaf pan) silicon (its ugly bright orange) mold, (I also like to pam spray the silicon mold). Fill about 1/2 full of the dough. Supposedly this recipe should make 2 loaves, but it seems like it really makes about 1.5 loaves. I save the extra and freeze for something else. Let rise 60 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Once this is done, take the loaf out of the proofing oven, and set convection temperature to 400 (actually 375 if you don’t have the automatic offset) and let the oven preheat until it beeps at you. Once this is done, in the center on a wire rack put the loaf pan and DO NOT cover for the first 10 minutes. For the remaining 40 minutes I recommend putting a tent of tinfoil on the top with reflective side facing inwards. Once the baking time is done rap the loaf with your knuckle. If it sounds hollow its done. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack overnight or until you can’t stand it and need a slice right away.
Notes
This was a surprisingly good sandwich bread, very airy for GF.