Weekly Wonders: GF Jalapeno-Cheddar Sourdough

I usually try to post Weekly Wonders later in the week, but I was too excited to share this new recipe. This week I'm going to tell you how to make gluten free jalapeno-cheddar sourdough bread!

In this post I explain how to make sourdough starter, so if you'd like to make your own, check it out! I've made three successful batches of sourdough bread since I started, each one getting better and better. So this week I decided to be adventurous and add in some flavorings.

The below makes one baguette.

You will need:

37.5 g potato starch
37.5 g tapioca starch
25 g sorghum flour
10 g (plus extra for crust) brown rice flour
9 g corn flour
7.5 g sugar
2.5 g salt
7.5 g xanthum gum
375 g sourdough starter (that was about 1.5 cups for me)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup chopped jalapenos (I used pickled, but maybe would use fresh next time)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 cup corn meal (for the crust)

A note about the ingredients: I modified this gluten free sourdough recipe, which tells you to weigh out the ingredients. I've found that weighing makes a difference for flours and dry ingredients, but not really for anything else, so I mixed it up a bit.

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients from potato starch through xanthum gum and whisk thoroughly.
2. Add in the starter and water and use an electric mixer to beat the mix for 5 minutes on high. This will give the bread a nice air structure.
3. Add the jalapenos, cheese, and garlic powder and mix until combined.
4. Preheat your oven to 200°F and then turn it off.
5. To form the runny, GF dough into a baguette, lay a piece of parchment paper on your counter and sprinkle it liberally with a mix of rice flour and corn meal.
6. Lay spoonfuls of the dough on the flour mix in a log shape. I usually use a big serving spoon and pile the dough together in a log about 6-8 inches long.
7. Sprinkle the dough with more of the flour mix and then use the parchment paper to roll and shape the dough into a baguette. You might need to add more flour as you roll.
8. When you are satisfied with your loaf, use the parchment paper to gently roll the bread onto a baguette pan.
9. Cover the whole tray in plastic wrap and put it into your warm oven. Allow the dough to rise for four hours.
10. Once the bread has finished rising, remove it from the oven and turn the oven on to 450°F.
11. Discard the plastic wrap and, using a pastry brush, liberally apply water to the exposed crust of the bread. You don't want it dripping, but it should definitely be wet.
12. When the oven reaches temperature, bake the bread for 15 minutes at 450°F.
13. Turn the oven down to 400°F, rotate the tray 180° (if you are baking two loaves), and bake for another 15 minutes.
14. The bread is done when the crust is nicely brown and tapping the bread gives you a hollow thunk.
15. Remove and allow to cool on a cooling rack for at least a half hour.

After four hours of rising, one plain and one jalapeno-cheddar.

Jalapeno-cheddar close up, pre-baked.

Lovely crusts.

Jalapeno-cheddar close up.

Inside the jalapeno-cheddar.

I chopped my jalapenos very fine because I was worried it would be too intense, but I think I would leave them larger next time. The flavor was there, but I missed the actual bites of pepper.

Let me know if you've done any gluten free bread experimenting, I'm always looking for new recipes.

Hope everyone had a nice Halloween!

Happy first-day of November!