Gluten Free Teff Sourdough

Once in awhile I buy the Thuro teff sourdough loaf from the co-op for toast and fancy breakfast eating. It's dark and tastes grainy from the teff, and doesn't have weird stuff in it. It is not cheap ($10 I think?) but it is tasty. I recently got a bit nostalgic about baking bread, and also got curious about making my own sourdough after looking at Thuro's ingredient list. Internet research revealed that teff is one of the easiest flours to ferment, so I had a go at it the past few weeks.

It turned out delicious! As good as Thuro's, even better because I get to eat it fresh. Yum. It's nice and chewy - definitely not light and airy - more of a dense, rye seeming bread. I really like it.

I followed these instructions for making my starter, and found the photos helpful to reassure me that I was on the right track. All you do is put teff and water in a clean mason jar and set it in a warm location. Then you "feed" it more teff and water each day, or every other day. My bread recipe called for 4 cups of starter, so I just added about 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 c water every day or two until I got to the right amount. It had a nice fermenty smell, and often the liquid layer that separated from the rest was a dark brown.

My bread recipe was from an internet search, with ingredients that most resemble the Thuro loaf. The link is useful for first time making of this bread to see photos of consistency and to get a feel for the right texture (to know when to add more flour or water). This is because starter is really inconsistent, so you are going more for a texture than exact amounts of flour.

The recipe includes psyllium husks (to bind the flours), which you can buy in bulk at the co-op, and ground chia seeds (also a binding agent). I had not previously ground chia seeds - they get fluffy! I did it in a coffee grinder, which worked great. This also makes a bigger loaf that you can buy, and it really is quite gleeful to make myself. I can't wait to make more, and maybe I'll try a little buckwheat flour in the bread with the teff.

Starter:
50 grams teff flour
100 grams water
*I have a scale so weighed these out; it is about 1/2 cup of each.

1) Mix the two ingredients together in a grease free bowl.
2) Transfer the mixture into a grease free glass jar and then cover with a lid. The lid doesn’t have to be airtight.
3) Let the jar sit in a room with temperature between 63-77℉ or 17-25℃ for 18-24 hours.

Teff sourdough loaf: makes 1 9x5 standard loaf
4 cups gluten-free sourdough starter, active and bubbly (mine was only subtly bubbly)
1/2 cup warm water, + more as needed to achieve desired consistency
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp maple syrup or agave
4 Tbsp ground chia seeds
4 Tbsp whole psyllium husks
1 to 1-3/4 cups teff flour (or any combination of whole grain gluten-free flours)
1/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot powder

Prep:
1) Place starter in large mixing bowl. Whisk in the liquids and salt (warm water, salt, olive oil, maple syrup).
2) Next, whisk in the ground chia and psyllium husks.
3) Add the flours (Avoid letting the mixture sit more than a minute or two, as the chia and psyllium start bulking the dough up quickly!)
4) Mix them all together with a strong large spoon until dough is thick and still drips off the spoon. This is where you need to get the right texture and it is worth checking the photo in the link.
5) Oil a 9×5 bread pan and pour your dough into it. Level the bread out. Cover with parchment paper or a cookie sheet.
6) Place in a warm place so that it can rise for 3-6 hours. For me, this is near the stove. If the environment is warm, it should rise in about 3 hours. If it’s pretty cool, it could take up to 8 hours to rise. My dough only rises a little bit, which is what the recipe author experiences too. (And must be common, because even the Thuro loafs are squat.)

Baking:
7) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the bread until it reaches an internal temperature of 205 degrees. *This is important, and is worth having a thermometer for. Apparently baking bread is quite variable, but internal temp is the way to go for consistent done-ness. It took about 2 hours for my loaf to get to 205, and the edges pulled away from the sides and got more dark.
8) Let it cool on your counter for 10-20 minutes. Then remove it from the pan by running a large spatula around the perimeter of the pan to loosen it. Slide the spatula under the bottom of the bread to gently loosen it from the pan. Mine came out easily when I tipped it. Allow it to continue cooling on a clean cutting board or a wire rack.
*The recipe author suggests slicing it when fresh for better storage, which is what I did. I froze most of the loaf/slices, but left out a few pieces to eat fresh/store in the fridge.

With soft boiled eggs

With nutritional yeast and butter! (PB&J behind)