Description
This gluten-free and lectin-free sourdough loaf, made with teff, millet, sorghum flour, walnuts, and dry berries, is so rich and tasty. A nutty, tangy, and sweet toasted slice with butter is my favorite snack.
Ingredients
FOR THE PREFERMENT (make the night before, right before you feed the starter)
- 10 grams starter
- 30 grams of water (spring, filtered, non-chlorinated)
- 35 grams of flour mix (for this bread, equal quantities of sorghum, teff, and millet)
THE WET MIX
- 17 grams psyllium husk flakes (not powder)
- 440 grams of water (spring, filtered, bottled, no chlorine, no tap, and don’t use reverse osmosis water)
- 10 grams organic, raw honey, preferably local
- 6 grams extra virgin olive oil
- 75 grams sorghum + millet + teff preferment (made the night before)
THE DRY MIX
- 230 grams flour (76g sorghum + 76g millet + 77g teff)
- 70 grams starch (tapioca flour)
- 6 grams non-iodized good quality fine salt
ADD-INS
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (raw)
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup unsweetened dry cranberries, tart cherries, or aronia berries, soaked for 5 minutes in warm water and chopped to the size of raisins if they are bigger; drain before use
Instructions
MAKE THE PREFERMENT
- Mix all the ingredients the night before (you will prepare the dough in the morning)
THE MIXING METHOD
- In a glass or plastic bowl, combine 420g of the water, psyllium husk flakes, honey, and extra virgin olive oil. Mix well and set it on the side. Once the psyllium husks absorb the water, this mixture will have a gel-like texture (it needs about 5 minutes).
- In the meantime, combine all the dry ingredients in a glass bowl.
- Now add the preferment to the psyllium husk gel. Add the remaining 20g of water to the preferment jar, shake and add pour the content to the psyllium husk mixture (this is to make sure we use all the preferment). Mix well with a spatula or wooden spoon.
- Add the preferment gel mixture to the dry ingredients bowl, add the walnuts and cherries, and incorporate as much as possible with a spatula or wooden spoon. Start mixing with your hand until the dough is homogeneous and has no lumps. The dough is soft and sticky.
- Now you can start mixing with the silicone or plastic dough scraper, scraping the dough from the sides of the bowl, and folding it into the center. Rotate the bowl and repeat with the same movement, for about 30 seconds. Please watch the video in the post above for a visual guide.
- Cover the bowl with a plastic cover, then wrap in two extra big plastic bags and tighten the bags. From now on the fermentation starts. I keep my bowl on the kitchen counter. Ideally, it needs a place where the temperature stays constant throughout the process.
BULK FERMENTATION
- Let it ferment for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature and humidity in your house. At about 20 degrees Celcius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), it can take 2 hours. If it’s hotter than that, the time will decrease. At about 72-74 degrees Fahrenheit, my bulk fermentation takes about 1 hour. My sweet spot when I made this recipe (January), was 1h 20 minutes.
SHAPING THE DOUGH
- The videos will be the most helpful here, please watch them. Gently invert the dough on a working surface, dusted with just a tiny bit of flour. Gently lift one-third of the dough and fold it on top of itself. Then fold it one more time, so now what was on the bottom on the working surface is on the top. Now you will shape the dough and seal the bottom part, as seen in the second video in the post above.
PROOFING THE DOUGH
- Dust the lining of the Banneton or the towel with flour. Now that the dough is sealed and shaped, gently transfer it to the proofing basket with the sealed side facing upward (the smooth face down), as shown in the second video. Dust the top with flour, and cover with plastic wrap or wrap it in a towel. Because my house is pretty dry, I spray a little bit of water on the towel. I cover it in the plastic wrap, and then in two plastic bags that I tight very well. Again, you might not need these extra steps in your house. The proofing time will about the same as the bulk fermentation. At 72F, it might be 1h or a little more. Right now, when I created this recipe in January (at my parents’ place where it tends to be around 70F), I need 1h 20 mins. Whenever I use teff flour in my bread, fermentation time, in general, tends to lower (read more about my fermentation times and experience in the post above).
- PREHEAT THE OVEN: to 250C/480F for about one hour before baking, with the Dutch oven and the lid inside the oven.
SCORING AND TRANSFERRING TO THE OVEN
- When the dough is proofed, and your oven and cast iron are preheated, gently invert the dough from the basket to the middle of a parchment paper sheet.
- Dust the dough with flour (any of the flours you are using, I prefer sorghum or millet) and gently spread it on the surface of the dough with your palm. Have the razor ready for scoring. For this bread, I particularly love the scoring type called ‘window’.
- Now it’s time to carefully remove the cast iron and the lid from the oven, closing the door quickly. This is when you need to work pretty fast but be careful not to burn yourself.
- Make the scoring of your choice using the razor or the scoring blade (please check my suggestions in the post; keep it simple and easy in the beginning). After scoring, the dough needs to quickly go into the cast iron, covered, and into the oven.
- Lift the dough with the edges of the parchment paper and gently lower it into the cast iron. Spray the dough with water to create steam , cover it with the lid, and put it back in the oven. Alternatively, you can throw two ice cubes into the pot, but not on top of the bread, somewhere next to it, on the outside of the paper.
- Bake covered for 40 minutes.
- After 40 minutes, carefully remove the lid (leaving the lid inside the oven, to maintain the temperature) and bake for 40 more minutes (because ovens are different, I recommend checking the bread after 30 minutes, and if the crust is done, remove the bread from the oven). Alternatively, you can slightly lower the temperature in the second part of the baking.
- Take the pot out, and carefully remove the bread. You can check the bottom for the hollow sound.
- Let the bread rest on a cooling rack for at least 5 hours. I know it can be tempting, but don’t slice it earlier than 5 hours, as you will ruin the texture. For the best crumb, I recommend letting it rest overnight.
- Store the bread for 2 to 3 days at room temperature, in a paper bag, or wrapped in a cotton towel. The first and second day is great fresh, but from day 3 I prefer it toasted. I actually love it toasted, even when is fresh. You can also slice it, separate the slices with parchment paper and freeze it. I thaw it in the toaster.