Loaded Seeded Gluten-Free Sourdough Loaf

Last week was my birthday. And before you picture me elbow-deep in a fancy cake, that’s not how I roll. On my birthday, I skip the cake entirely and instead make myself a tray of cannoncini: those irresistible little Italian pastry cones filled with lemon-vanilla custard cream. Pure joy alongside an espresso.

Now, cannoncini require puff pastry. And since it’s my birthday (and I have a shred of self-preservation instinct left), I buy the puff pastry rather than attempt to make it gluten-free from scratch. Because GF puff pastry is one of those culinary challenges I’m saving for a day when I feel both inspired and reckless. What I can share is my custard cream recipe, which is already up on the blog. Find it here →

But this week’s recipe is my real birthday gift to you, to this little community of bakers and curious readers I get to share my kitchen experiments with. Thank you for being here. Now, let’s talk bread.

I always bake this loaf when I want something special to start my days. I started adding a bit of fruit kefir water to it, which gives it a bit of flavor and helps with fermentation as well. But you can skip that entirely.

Three whole-grain flours (brown rice, buckwheat, and fine corn) work together with a seed soak of flax, sesame, almonds, pine nuts and raisins (that can be replaced with your favorite mix-in). The whole thing ferments slowly over 6–8 hours, but you need to adjust it to your kitchen environment. Lately it’s been hotter here in the South of France, and at the 5 hours mark it could be already time to bake.

It slices beautifully once completely cool (and “completely cool” here means at least three hours, I’m not kidding, please wait) keeps for a few days, and freezes brilliantly. Weekend bread. All week gratitude.

Ingredients

Cup measurements assume spooned and levelled, not scooped. Always refers to grams to be more precise.

Seed soak

• Golden flax seeds 2–3 tbsp

• Raisins 3–4 tbsp

• Pine nuts 1 tbsp

• Almonds, roughly chopped 2 tbsp

• Sesame seeds 3 tbsp

• Chocolate chunks 2 tbsp

• Water, room temperature 80g / 5 tbsp + 1 tsp

Wet ingredients

• Active GF sourdough starter 150g / ½ cup + 1 tbsp

• Water (fruit yeast water if you have it) 630g / 3 cups + 2 tbsp

• Honey or maple syrup 50g / 3½ tbsp

Dry ingredients

• White rice flour 150g / scant 1 cup

• Dark buckwheat flour 150g / 1 cup + 2 tbsp

• Fine corn flour 150g / 1 cup + 2 tbsp

• Tapioca starch 85g / ½ cup + 1 tbsp

• Psyllium husks 20 g / 3 tbsp

• Fine sea salt 25g / 1 tbsp + 1 tsp

Instructions

1. Mix the seeds and nuts. In a medium bowl, mix all your seeds and nuts of choice with water and set aside.

2. Mix the wet base. In a large bowl, combine the active sourdough starter, water (or fruit yeast water), and rice syrup. Stir until fully incorporated. Add the psyllium husks and set aside.

3. Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together all three flours, tapioca starch, and salt until evenly mixed.

4. Bring together. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until the dough starts to stiffen. Add the seed soak and knead with your hands until everything is evenly incorporated. The dough will be sticky: that’s exactly right.

5. Rest. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.

6. Shape. Transfer the dough into a lined loaf tin.

7. Ferment. Cover with a plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 6–8 hours. The loaf is ready when it has grown to 1,5 times its original size and springs back halfway when gently pressed on top.

8. Bake. Preheat the oven to 250°C / 480°F. Lightly brush the surface with water and bake for 60 minutes. Cover loosely with foil in the final 20 minutes.

9. Finish. Switch the oven off. Leave the loaf inside with the door slightly open for 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before slicing, at least 2 hours.

❤️

With love,
Marta