sourdough

Sourdough Discard Hamberger Rolls

This is my version of a recipe that was a sourdough bun recipe. I made many changes; added yeast which makes it a discard bread, changed flours, made less buns so they would be bigger and added a brief bulk rise. The sourdough starter adds a certain something even though I am not relying on it for much rise. Plus, without the yeast it would take up to 10 hours to get them to rise. I am no purist, and I don’t have the desire to spend my entire day fussing over rolls! These have great flavor and texture. Frankly they are the best burger buns I have eaten since going gf.

Notes: I made 5 but next time I will do 6 or 7 as they are quite big. I never thought my gf bun would be bigger than the burger, lol. And the flavor! They are tender and delicious. My guy tasted my bun, and it clearly was better than his store bought (not gf) hamburger bun. I love the sesame seeds on top; don’t skip that; adds flavor and they look so authentic and so beautiful.

GF Hamburger Buns

280 gms room temperature filtered water

18 gms. psyllium husk powder

130 gms tapioca starch

70 gms sorghum flour

100 gms oat flour (if you can’t do oats make that 170 gms sorghum flour)

1 rounded tsp. yeast

7gms xanthan gum

8 gms baking powder

25 gms sugar

12 gms sea salt

120 gms milk; warm 30 seconds in your microwave

60 gms room temperature sourdough starter, preferably fed within 8 hours

2 large eggs, room temperature

50 gms canola or sunflower oil

Topping ingredients: 1 small egg beaten, 1 tbsp. sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS

Add water and psyllium husk powder to a medium bowl and let stand to gel

In stand mixer bowl combine all dry ingredients; whisk briefly to combine. I don’t like to use the mixer to stir; flings flour out even at low speed; use a whisk

Add all the other bread ingredients and mix slowly for first minute than 4 minutes on medium. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place for 15 minutes. Then form into 5 or 6 equal balls on a floured board; I used tapiocas starch for the flouring. You can spray your hands with spray oil or just pour a tsp on your hands to help the dough not stick. Round the balls as best as you can; it sure is sticky. Place each in a small pan; I had some tall-sided pans and some tart pans; the walls help keep the bun from spreading too wide. Put the buns on a baking sheet and put in your oven that has been warmed for a minute or 2 so it is about 95-110 degrees. Let rise an hour; they won’t double but they should look bigger and puffy. Remove from the oven and set it to heat to 375 degrees. Put rack in middle of oven.

Topping: take 1 medium egg; beat it well to break up the white and blend it nicely. Brush on the roll tops and sprinkle each one as soon as you egg it with sesame seeds.

Bake for 55 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes; remove from pans. Let cool about 30-60 minutes; can use while slightly warm or at room temperature. Store in bread bag for a day or two or freeze in a freezer bag; use within 1 month. Enjoy!

Chocolate and Walnut Sourdough Scones

Scones, tender, flakey, full of yumminess… something I used to make years ago. Gave up on them until I attempted blueberry scones made with excess sourdough starter; it’s generally called discard. I couldn’t find a recipe for blueberry sourdough gf scones, so I took a gluten-based recipe and reconfigured it to make with a one for one blend: they were so good I made more; second try I used a different 1-1 blend; King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour Blend. I used a half cup of thick starter. I added a touch of cinnamon to complement the nuts and chocolate. They baked a bit faster than the blueberry ones probably because no frozen fruit in it: the chocolate and walnuts were at room temp. I ate the first one slightly warm…. heaven in a scone shape. Crisp outside, tender inside. Bursts of dark chocolate chip. It was another religious experience for me. The crumb was moist and as perfect as I could ask for. If you like scones you have to try this version too!

I mixed it with a spoon and then dumped it out; seemed dryish but as I gently kneaded it the dough became more fully blended, and the dry flour mix disappeared.  Trust me, it is easy to make and utterly decadent despite no fancy sweet icing.

Notes: I don’t know what you can sub for the sourdough starter. Possibly slightly thinned Greek yogurt? Or you should just make starter so you can bake these scones. There are lots of starter recipes out there. Mine is brown rice flour based but you can use sorghum or teff or almost any gf flour around. Not almond flour though…. I recently made it without the nuts; not nearly as tasty and I didn’t chill the made out scones and that inhibited their rising; definitely chill the scones on the baking sheet for 10 or 15 minutes before baking.

The dry mix with wet ingredients just added on top.
The wheel of 8 slices of dough ready to be placed on the baking sheet.
Ready for the oven!
Cooling on the rack; they sure got nice and plump!

Angie’s Chocolate Chip and Walnut Sourdough Scones (makes 8)

Ingredients:

200 grams 1-1 Gluten free flour blend; I used King Aurthur Measure for Measure

50 grams almond flour

100 grams granulated sugar

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

7.5 Tbsp of cold butter

3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

heaping 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet if you like them better.

½ cup sourdough starter (Use the discard if you are creating discard)

1 large egg

1/3 c cold whole milk

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter or 2 knives. Until it is tiny pebbles of dough and butter.

Add the egg, starter and ¼ c of the milk. Mix to break up egg and start the blending process. Add in the chocolate and nuts and continue stirring. As it gets to be a thick dough dump it out on your breadboard with all the dry bits and hand knead it to coalesce it into a thick dough. Form it into a large disc; about 8-9 inches across. Cut into 8 wedges; cut in half, then quarters then again into eighths. Spread them out on a cookie sheet that you have sprayed with cooking spray. Put the sheet in a cold place to chill while you heat the oven. Heat to 355 degrees.

Put the sheet in to bake. If you have a convection cycle they will be done in about 22 minutes; the outside needs to be light brown, bottom browned and they look done. If you don’t have convection they will likely take a few more minutes.  Let cool on pan for 5 minutes and move to a rack. They cooled rapidly and I couldn’t resist eating one. Plain. Now I am not hungry for supper. I just want more scones.

Enjoy! I think they will freeze nicely; vacuum sealing would be a good way to go about it.

Discard Sourdough Bread Made with a Preferment

This is my new favorite bread recipe. You need to make a gf starter; lots of directions online. its not that difficult and you can buy a freeze dried one on-line. I prefer one made with brown rice flour and it needs to be at least 2 or 3 weeks old before using it. The weeks of forming it include lots of discarding a portion of it in efforts to get rid of harmful or poor tasting bacteria. I suggest you read up on the process, so you have a good idea of the process before you make one.

This is a pretty easy bread recipe for a beginner. You do need these assorted flours but trust me, if you have to eat gf you are probably sick of expensive and flavorless store breads so buying these flours is well worth it. I keep the sorghum, brown rice, millet and psyllium husk powder in the freezer, so they each stay fresh. You should put them in a freezer bag if their container is flimsy.

You could probably use a portable mixer, but a stand mixer is best. I use a scale to weigh most of my ingredients, necessary for exacting measurements. They aren’t that expensive and if you bake much, one is a necessity. My recipe is a take-off of one by Gluten Free Gourmand. I added the preferment step to my version to increase flavor and improve texture.

The preferment is a fancy term for a mixture of the sourdough starter, flour and warm water that stands around for 4 to 24 hours, some people let it stand even longer. Its purpose is to add sour flavor to the bread; without it your bread will be a bit bland, and it also can help the texture especially if you use an active starter (fed with flour and water that day so it is bubbly and active). I find the use of the preferment step makes this bread deliciously sour and with a lighter texture. It isn’t hard to do; I actually use a 32 oz yogurt container with a lid and just leave it sit for that day to get sour; simply dump the entire contents, including any separated liquid, into the bread dough mixture. Super easy and it definitely improves flavor and texture.

There is no tricky kneading or shaping of this bread. I roll it into a tube shape and bake in a metal loaf pan so I have the traditional bread shape for use in sandwiches. This bread made great grilled cheese or panini sandwiches. I slice up the loaf the day after baking it and freeze it in a freezer Ziplock; defrost in microwave for 50-60 seconds and you are ready to toast it or make a grilled sandwich! You can make it in a round or oval boule if that floats your boat; you might want to use a banneton to shape it as it rises and a cast-iron Dutch oven to bake it in. I generally like the boule recipe on Bakerita.com for that sort of sourdough but this recipe below could be shaped, risen in a mold called a banneton and baked in a boule. My Dutch oven is oval, so I tend to make oval loafs in it; they slice in nice slices which are mostly the same size.

Discard Sourdough Bread Made with a Preferment

Preferment:

200 gms (grams) active starter

80 gms sorghum

100 gms warm water (95-115 degrees)

Mix in a plastic lidded container and let stand for 24 or more hours

Dough directions – Ingredients:

Mix in stand mixer bowl

65 gms potato starch (you could do 115 gms potato starch and leave out the cornstarch)

50 gms cornstarch

40 gms millet flour

40 gms tapioca flour

9 gms sea salt

20 gms psyllium husk powder

Mix well and add 1 tsp active dry yeast

Add 280 gms warm water and the preferment. Mix with beater of stand mixer for 1-2 minutes until well blended. I have a beater with a built-in scraper; use it or a separate scraper to push all dough together into a rough ball. Cover with a damp lint free kitchen towel and put in a warm place for 60-90 minutes. I leave the beater in the bowl for this first rise.

Add these three things: 75 gms tapioca flour, 1 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, Blend well with the stand beater. Turn out onto lightly floured bread board, form into a log; I like to roll it back and forth to smooth the bumpy surface. Place in a metal baking loaf pan sprayed with gf cooking spray. Cover with the damp cloth and put back in the warm place for 60-90 minutes. It should have risen some but doubtful it will double. I like it to be puffy but not too puffy or it might become over risen, not good!

Preheat oven to 450 degrees when the bread is close to ready for baking. While it heats put a low pan of hot water in the oven so it comes to a boil while in your oven. I like my baking shelf set in the middle slot. Bake the bread 30 minutes covered loosely with aluminum foil and then 20 minutes more without the foil. Remove from pan within 5 minutes and cool for a minimum of 4 hours; I like more than that. I often bake this in the later afternoon to evening and then cut it in the morning. Enjoy!

Blueberry Sourdough Scones

Scones, tender, flakey, full of yumminess… something I used to make years ago. Kinda gave up on them, had made some but sort of heavy. So, I assumed all scones were generally pretty sad when made gluten free. Well, last summer I attempted them and made a batch with leftover sourdough starter which is generally called discard. I had created the starter last week using brown rice flour and had made a tasty loaf of seeded white sourdough bread in my 8.5 x 4.5 tall, sided loaf pan. So, I was looking for a way to use up the excess sourdough starter. I couldn’t find a recipe for blueberry sourdough gf scones, so I took a gluten-based recipe and reconfigured it to make with a one for one blend: specifically, Bob’s Redmill 1-1 Blend. I used a half cup of thick starter. I left out the recipe’s lemon ingredients as I just wanted blueberry and scone as the flavors. I also returned the dairy back to real dairy like actual butter and milk.

 I ate the first one when it was just to room temperature. It was like heaven in a scone shape. Crisp outside, tender inside. Bursts of blueberries rendered me speechless. It was somewhat of a religious experience for a baker like me. I have never eaten such a tender delicate gluten free baked item. The crumb was moist and as perfect as I could ask for. You have to try this! I don’t know what you can sub for the sourdough starter. Maybe Greek yogurt? Maybe you should just make starter so you can bake these scones. 

I used a gram scale to measure the dry ingredients and it gives very exacting measurements, so I highly recommend using one.

Frozen blueberries work so well; because they keep the dough chilly as you mix it with a wooden spoon and then kneading it with (clean) bare hands.  Trust me, it is easy to make and utterly decadent despite no icing or chocolate or nuts. I made it with some nuts and chocolate the next weekend. Fabulous! The recipe is somewhere on this site… You could try some other types of frozen berries. Let me know how it turns out!

Since then, I have made them a few times and I kind of like making a big square of the dough and cutting it into 12 small squares; smaller is more what I like in a serving. I do freeze them; generally best eaten in less than a month. Just bake them a couple of minutes less.

As I am about to mix it together.
Ready to bake scones.
Just baked scones still on sheet from oven

Angie’s Blueberry Sourdough Scones (GF of course)

Ingredients:

200 grams 1-1 Gluten free flour blend; I used Bob’s Redmill

50 grams almond flour

100 grams granulated sugar

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

7.5 Tbsp of cold butter

1 heaping cup of fresh or frozen blueberries

½ cup sourdough starter (Use the discard if you are creating discard)

1 large egg

1/3 c cold whole milk

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter with a butter cutter or 2 knives. Until it is tiny pebbles of dough and butter.

Add the egg, starter and ¼ c of the milk. Mix to break up egg and start the blending process. Add in the frozen berries (or fresh) and continue stirring. As it gets to be a thick dough dump it out on your breadboard with all the dry bits and hand knead it to coalesce it into a thick dough. Form it into a large disc; about 8-9 inches across. Cut into 8 wedges; cut in half, then quarters then again into eighths. Spread them out on a cookie sheet that you have sprayed with cooking spray. Put the sheet in a cold place to chill while you heat the oven. Heat to 355 degrees.

Put the sheet in to bake. If you have a convection cycle they will be done in about 25 minutes; the outside needs to be light brown, bottom browned and they look done. I tried 18-20 min but that wasn’t enough. I think my total was 26 minutes. If you don’t have convection they will likely take a few more minutes.  Let cool on pan for 5 minutes and move to a rack. I got distracted and just left the pan of scones on the rack! They cooled rapidly and I couldn’t resist eating one. Plain. Now I am not hungry for lunch. I just want more scones.

Enjoy! I think they will freeze nicely; vacuum sealing would be a good way to go about it.

Blueberry Rhubarb Sourdough Scones

Scones, tender, flakey, full of yumminess… something I used to make years ago. I had made some several years ago but they were sort of heavy. So, I assumed all gf scones were generally pretty sad until last spring when I attempted them with leftover sourdough starter, generally called discard. I had created the starter using brown rice flour and was looking for a way to use up the excess sourdough starter. I couldn’t find a recipe for blueberry sourdough gf scones, so I took a gluten-based recipe and reconfigured it to make with a one for one blend: specifically, Bob’s Redmill 1-1 Blend. I used a half cup of thick starter.

A week later I made the recipe again but added finely chopped rhubarb stalks (never the leaves; poisonous) and made them somewhat smaller and a different shape. Made with real dairy like actual butter and whole milk.  I ate the first one when it was still warm. It was heaven in a scone. Crisp outside, tender inside. Bursts of sweet blueberries and tangy rhubarb gave the perfect taste experience. It was just as good as the blueberry ones from this spring, maybe even better. I have never eaten such tender gluten free baked items as these sourdough scones. The crumb was moist and the texture perfect and they are red, white and blue, patriotic! A great breakfast or company treat that no one will believe are gluten free.

I cut them in more of a square shape, so I got 12 squarish scones, a bit smaller than the 8 wedges that are commonly done but I wanted smaller as those big wedges are just a bit too much for my afternoon snack! It is hard to make skinny long wedges plus I didn’t think they would freeze well; break up. These rectangular ones are quite sturdy considering how delicate the crumb is.

I don’t know what you can sub in for the sourdough starter. Perhaps some plain Greek yogurt? Maybe you should just make starter so you can bake these scones.  You could use vegan butter and I think it will be delicious!

I didn’t take any pictures except of the done cooling scones; wasn’t thinking about this blog, I guess. Next time I make them I will take a few.

I don’t know what flavor I will make next, but I do know there will be many next times. Frozen blueberries worked so well; keeping the dough chilly as I mixed it with a wooden spoon and then kneading it with my bare hands. So, other frozen fruits are in my freezer…. Trust me, it is easy to make and utterly decadent despite no icing beyond a couple teaspoons of sugar sprinkled on top. I may make it with some with cut up frozen strawberries next week!

Angie’s Rhubarb and Blueberry Sourdough Scones (GF of course)

Ingredients:

200 grams 1-1 Gluten free flour blend; I used Bob’s Redmill but King Arthur 1-1 blend works well too

50 grams almond flour

100 grams granulated sugar

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

7.5 Tbsp of cold butter

1 cup of finely chopped rhubarb; 1/3 inch size is good

1 half cup of fresh or frozen blueberries

½ cup sourdough starter (Use the discard if you are creating discard)

1 large egg

1/3 c cold whole milk

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter with a butter cutter or 2 knives. Until it is tiny pebbles of dough and butter.

Add the egg, starter and ¼ c of the milk. Mix to break up egg and start the blending process. Add in the chopped rhubarb and the frozen blueberries (or fresh) and continue stirring. As it gets to be a thick dough dump it out on your breadboard with all the dry bits and hand knead it to coalesce it into a thick dough. Form it into a large square about 9 inches across. Cut into 12 squares; cut in three strips; then across to make 12 squares or rectangles depending on how square your original rolled out dough was. Spread them out on a cookie sheet that you have sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle with 2 tsp. of granulated sugar or chunky sugar if you have some. Put the sheet in a cold place to chill while you heat the oven. Heat to 355 degrees.

Put the sheet in to bake. If you have a convection cycle they will be done in about 20 minutes; the outside needs to be light brown, bottom browned and they look done. I tried 18 min but that wasn’t enough. If you don’t have convection they will likely take a few more minutes.  Let cool on pan for 5 minutes and move to a rack. They cooled rapidly and I couldn’t resist eating one while it was warm. So tasty and I loved how patriotic my scones look!

Enjoy! I they freeze nicely; vacuum sealing would be a good way to go about it if you are freezing for more than a week.

First posted in 2022.