Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter (Grain-free Option)

If you love sourdough but need to avoid gluten, you don’t have to give up that wonderful tangy flavor. You can make a gluten-free sourdough starter using gluten-free flour, water, and a little time.

I’ve always loved good sourdough, so finding ways to enjoy it while eating gluten-free is especially interesting to me. And while making a starter can sound intimidating at first — all that feeding, bubbling, fermenting, and wondering whether you’re doing it right — the basic idea is actually quite simple.

A sourdough starter is a living culture made from flour and water. As it ferments, naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria become established in the mixture, eventually creating a starter that can be used in sourdough baking.

Gluten is a big health concern for many, but I still love good bread. And while this flax bread is super tasty, there’s just nothing like a good sourdough.

Since there are so many people who can’t tolerate gluten, I’ve been meaning to try my hand at making gluten-free sourdough bread. Thankfully there is a reliable way to do that.

This recipe was originally contributed by a guest writer and has been updated over the years with additional tips, troubleshooting information, and gluten-free flour options. I’ve also included information about grain-free sourdough for those who need Paleo or AIP-friendly alternatives, with notes about where those methods differ from the gluten-free starter recipe below.

Benefits of Sourdough

There are many benefits to sourdough including:

Easily Digestible

Sourdough is easier to digest than regular bread.

Fewer Nutrient-Binding Qualities

Most of the phytic acid in sourdough is broken down, reducing the effects of nutrient-binders on other foods in your diet.

Lower Glycemic Load

Since sourdough takes longer to digest, it doesn’t cause as much of a spike in blood sugar as traditional bread does.

Functions As a Prebiotic

Sourdough functions as a prebiotic, so it helps support healthy digestion.

Reduced Acrylamide

Souring the dough reduces the amount of the amino acid asparagine which is a precursor of acrylamide formation, and acrylamide is a cancer-causing ingredient found in toasted grains, including bread crusts. So with sourdough, you can enjoy your bread crust with less acrylamide.

Gluten-Free vs. Regular Sourdough

Making a gluten-free sourdough starter is the same basic idea as making a regular sourdough starter.

– Both start with flour and water.
– Both take a few days, and both get bubbly.
– The only real difference comes when you’re ready to make sourdough bread and you have to pull out all the various types of gluten-free flour.

Gluten-free sourdough starter can be made in as little as seven days using gluten-free flour, water, and a medium-sized bowl. You can use brown rice flour, white rice flour, teff flour, sorghum flour, or even a gluten-free all-purpose blend.

Is Sourdough Gluten-free?

While many think that sourdough is already gluten-free, here are the facts.

I have seen this argument many times. People claim that white flour has no gluten in it since all of the gluten is in the hull, and that whole grain flour sourdough bread is gluten-free since the enzymes break down the gluten.

Sadly, that is not the case.

White flour has between 8-11% gluten so all the gluten is not in the outer hull that is sifted away.

Not enough of the gluten is broken down by the fermentation process. The definition of gluten-free is 20 ppm or less. Sourdough is known to have 2000 ppm of gluten. Regular bread has 80000 in many instances, so 2000 is less, but it’s not gluten-free.

Please take care that if you need to avoid gluten that avoid traditional sourdough.

Grain-Free and Paleo Sourdough Starter Options

Since this post was first published, many readers have asked whether it’s possible to make a sourdough starter without grains. The short answer is yes — but grain-free sourdough starters can behave very differently from starters made with gluten-free grain flours.

That means grain-free flours should not automatically be treated as a direct 1:1 substitute in the starter recipe below.

Some grain-free sourdough methods work best with starchier ingredients, while others use a fermented liquid to help get the starter going. Because of that, the flour choice, the amount of water needed, and even the fermentation method can vary quite a bit.

Grain-Free Flours People Use

Grain-free sourdough starter is made from ingredients such as:

• cassava flour
• green banana flour
• tiger nut flour
• coconut flour

Each of these behaves differently, so results can vary depending on the method used.

Important Note

I have not personally tested all of these grain-free options in the exact starter method below, so I don’t want to recommend them as direct substitutes without that clarification. If you’re specifically looking for Paleo or AIP sourdough, grain-free sourdough is definitely worth exploring — just know that it may take a little experimenting to find the method that works best for you.

I’m leaving this information here because I know many readers need grain-free options, and I hope to test more of them in the future.

Coconut Flour Sourdough Starter

Coconut flour is one of the most interesting grain-free options, especially for people avoiding grains, nuts, seeds, and/or carbs, but it’s also one of the trickiest.

Because coconut flour absorbs much more liquid than most other flours, it does not behave like brown rice flour, sorghum flour, or other typical gluten-free flours. In other words, it should not be treated as a simple substitute in a standard gluten-free sourdough starter recipe.

Some people do experiment with coconut flour sourdough starters, but I want to be clear that I do not currently have a tested bread recipe specifically for a coconut flour starter. So for now, this is definitely a more experimental option than a standard recommendation.

One option is that coconut flour may be useful in other grain-free recipes such as flatbreads or cracker-style recipes, where additional ingredients can provide the structure that coconut flour lacks.

Can You Make Sourdough With Nut Flours?

Nut flours such as almond or cashew flour can be used in some grain-free fermented breads, but they don’t behave like grain-based sourdough flours and aren’t a simple substitute in the starter recipe below.

Some grain-free methods combine nut flours with a starchier ingredient and use a fermented or probiotic liquid, such as sauerkraut juice, to help start fermentation. Because the ingredients and methods vary quite a bit, I haven’t found one reliable, universal method for making a sourdough starter from nut flour alone.

If you’re experimenting with nut-flour sourdough, I recommend following a recipe specifically developed for that combination rather than substituting nut flour into a traditional gluten-free starter recipe.

Note: Tigernut flour is sometimes included in grain-free sourdough recipes, but despite its name, tigernut is a tuber, not a nut.

Sourdough Recipes

Gluten-Free Sourdough Recipes

The following are a variety of gluten-free sourdough bread recipes for you to experiment with.

Keep in mind that every recipe will be different, calling for different types of flour and possibly using yeast. I’ve included several sources so that you can find something that suits you!

• Gluten-Free Brown Rice Sourdough
• Artisan Style Sourdough
• Sourdough Bread Boule
• Rustic Gluten-Free Sourdough
• Bread Srsly’s Sourdough
• An excellent bread recipe, plus recipe adaptations in Sourdough A to Z by GNOWFGLINS
• Bread Machine Sourdough – note that you can try to adapt regular recipes to the bread machine, but here’s one that is done for you.

Any of these recipes would be great topped with butter or Homemade Nut Butter. Mmmmmm.

Grain-free Sourdough Recipes

Here are some sourdough recipe for you to try after you have your sourdough starter ready to go:

• Grain-free Sourdough by It Takes Time
• Grain-free AIP Sourdough Recipe

There are other grain-free sourdough recipes out there but those that call for a nut base will need a different method for fermenting due to them needing something to jump start it (like sauerkraut) rather than just the starch. This recipe is an example of that. I hope to have some additional recipes for you in the future.

What You’ll Need

To make gluten-free sourdough starter, you’ll need:

• gluten-free flour (see the Grain-Free and Paleo Sourdough Starter Options section above for grain-free methods)
• water
• a jar (or bowl)
• a cover
• something to secure the cover

How to Make the Starter

Following are some images and some brief info about how to do this. Full instructions are below.

Combine gluten-free flour and water.

Feed the starter for several days.

When your sponge looks like photo #8, you’re ready to make sourdough bread!

Recipe Notes and Substitutions

• Ingredient Amounts: The amounts we give in the ingredient list are the amounts you will need if you only feed the starter twice a day, which is the least number of times you should feed it.  So if you feed it more often, you will of course need more flour and water.
• Flour: Different gluten-free flours behave differently in a sourdough starter. Brown rice, sorghum, teff, and other whole-grain gluten-free flours are commonly used. The hydration may need to be adjusted depending on the flour.
  Grain-Free: Grain-free sourdough starters are possible, but the flour, hydration, and fermentation method can vary. See the Grain-Free and Paleo Sourdough Starter Options section above before experimenting with a grain-free version.

Troubleshooting Your Starter

Here are three of the most common things that you might notice while watching your starter and what they mean:

Too Much Starter 

If after a few days the starter begins to outgrow the bowl, pour some off to make a batch of sourdough pancakes. Leave at least 1/2 cup of starter in the bowl to continue feeding.

Liquid At the Top

Liquid may or may not collect at the surface of the starter. Either case is normal. (FYI: the liquid contains more lactobacillus and gives the bread its sourdough taste.)

No Bubbles

If you do not see bubbles at the top or at the sides of the starter, add a third feeding. Try to keep the feeding intervals equal. For example, 6am, 2pm and 10pm are all equally apart at 8 hours.

One thing you can do in this case is add one to two tablespoons of water kefir, dairy kefir, kefir whey or kombucha in place of the water for just one feeding. Since you are adding more bacteria “goodies” to the mix, you are boosting fermentation action.

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FAQs

How Long Should You Feed Your Starter?

After the initial period of making the sponge, etc., your starter is officially in maintenance mode. Then you can feed it as often or as little as you like.

1. At the very minimum, you can keep it in the fridge and feed it weekly. However, it’s not recommended to have it in the fridge until after it’s 4 weeks old.
2. You can keep it on the counter and feed it daily, and use anything you don’t need for recipes.
3. You could feed it daily with as little as 1 tablespoon of water and flour to keep it fed but not produce a lot of starter.

How Long Can You Store Your Starter?

You can keep it for quite a while provided you feed it daily. You will, however, need to revive it when you want to use it again.

• Three and a half days before baking, remove the starter from the fridge and bring it to room temperature (let it rest for about 1/2 a day.
• Feed with equal parts flour and water.
• About 1/3 of a day later, feed the starter again.
• Once you have foam and liquid rising to the top of the starter, you can use the starter for bread. If you don’t have that after 4-6 hours, keep feeding daily until you do.

A Great Gluten-free Sourdough Starter You Can Buy

I know how it goes. It’s exciting to think about doing everything yourself, but then you just might not get around to it.

If that’s how you’re feeling after reading this post, you can just buy this Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter and have it all done for you. This would make a great backup to have in your pantry too!

Both this packaged starter and your own homemade version are fabulous jumping off points for tons of healthy creativity in the kitchen.