Gluten Free Sourdough Challah (2024 edition)

Gluten Free

Dairy Free

As of last year this is the best and most current sourdough challah recipe I'm making. For Gluten free challah to be hamotzi it need 1/3 -1/4 gluten free oats (one of the five grains). Remember that non-gluten free oats are contaminated with wheat. This process starts with creating a sourdough starter (see recipe below) which take 3-5 days to fully ferment, once you have an active starter you need to feed it daily. (You can rest it for weeks in the fridge once you have an active starter).

A note on water: Most tap water is treated with either chlorine or chloromine, which has the property of killing yeast organisms. So if you want to make sourdough starter you need to find a non treated source. The obvious fall back is purchasing a gallon of distilled water.

Things You'll need for this adventure:

• A mold to bake the gluten free Challah
• a canning funnel
• 3-4 wide mouth quart canning jars with lids
• a 4 inch square piece of cloth
• non-clorinated water (about a gallon)
• 3/4 cup measure
• a large stirring spoon
• a stand mixer, or a large bowl, wooden spoon and elbow grease
• an oven that can be set to proof or you can slightly warm for an 4-8 hour rise
• Lots of Bob's Redmill 1:1 blue baking flour
• Gluten free oat flour

The recipe begins with the creation of a levain, which is creating a large sourdough starter to be used the next day in the creation of the final bread. remember that sourdough rising times are measured in hours so 4-8 hours of rising time is needed before a 1 hour baking time. So this is what a levain looks like when you first create it:

This is what it looks like 12 hours later:

So the night before you want to make your sourdough you make the levain:

levain ingredients:

• 1/4 cup starter
• 1/4 cup Gluten Free oat flour
• 1/2 cup bob red mill’s 1:1 (blue package)
• 1/2 cup of water (chlorine free)

Place it in a quart mason jar, mixing it all together, making sure that all the flours are fully wet, and secure with a lid, and let it rise overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 90-95 degrees or use a proof setting if you have it. In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl:

Sourdough Recipe:

• add all of the Levain
• 2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup Gluten Free oat flour
• 1 cup + 2 tbls chlorine free water
• 1 1/3 cup Bob Red Mill's 1:1 Blue package (+ 2 Tablespoons)

Put it in the stand mixer with paddle and mix for 8 minutes, if it’s too watery add a few tablespoons of 1:1.

Once it's complete, you can add it to a full sized bread mold (recipe makes 1 full sized challah, so double it if you want 2 full sized challahs), or it make 2 1/2 sized challahs, or 4 challets. Spray the bread molds with olive oil and add the dough.

Let the dough rise in a warm oven for 4-8 hours it should double in size:

Bake at 375, check after 50 minutes for small loaves 50-55 minutes for medium size loaves, large loaf is 55 minutes!

Out of the oven:

Final Challets:

Sourdough Starter:

Day 1: Add 1 cup of Bob's Redmill 1:1 flour to a quart wide mouth mason jar, add 1 cup of chlorine free water, mix until no dry flour exists. Cover the top with a 4 inch cloth and place the metal band over the top and screw it in. Place it in a warm kitchen for 24 hours.

Day 2: Measure 3/4 of a cup of Bob's Redmill 1:1 flour and put it in a bowl, remove 3/4 of a cup of starter from the previous days mason jar. Add it to a new quart mason jar, add 3/4 cup of chlorine free water, mix together and place the cloth and band on the mason jar. Place it in a warm kitchen for 24 hours.

At some point you should see large bubbles form all throughout the dough. This means your starter has fermented and is ready to use.

You should feed it every day, or if your not going to use it for a while, freshen it up (see Day 2), and cover it with a tight lid and refrigerate it until the day before you want to use it.

What to do with the leftover starter? Add 1 tsp of baking power and 1 tsp of salt and make a sourdough pancake!