Discovering the World of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking
My Gluten-Free Sourdough journey started in 2023 after I actively researched and shared recipes in the Resepi Gluten Free ASMRDHIA group.
Somehow, I felt divinely guided to delve into the world of gluten-free sourdough because my son dislikes commercial yeast in bread, cakes, and biscuits.
Commercial yeast is too strong, with a smell and aftertaste that stings the nose, which made me eager to find a way to make recipes without using any commercial yeast.
And that's how my awareness about gluten-free sourdough started to open up.
At that time in Malaysia, not many people knew about the existence of Gluten-Free Sourdough (GFSD). Maybe a few people had been doing this GFSD, but no comprehensive awareness was made, and there were no references from Malaysia itself. The only references we had were from outside Malaysia.
Meanwhile, overseas, there has been GFSD since 2008.
When I saw a TikTok video about a doctor mentioning GFSD, I was intrigued, although only momentarily.
Then, a group participant shared her GFSD Bread using a brown rice starter.
I was impressed when I saw that, and all the hints that God gave me prompted me to do deeper research into what GFSD is all about.
For beginners, it might be a little bit hard to understand the art of sourdough making. I also, at that time, kept on reading to understand the way.
And from there, I conducted research and developed a step-by-step process to deeply understand the concept of real GFSD. I read notes from group participants and listened to their recommendations. Then, I created new mappings by myself, following my instincts at that time.
So, the journey began. I started to do more research and used 100% rice flour, Jati brand. The idea also came from group participants. The flour is cheap but a good start.
I used a 1:1:1 ratio from day 1 to 14.
Thanks to the group participants who served as my inspiration and widened my ideas, allowing me to research GFSD.
From the rice flour research, I continued to research many other gluten-free flours.
Each experience was meaningful and outstanding.
There are many methods for making sourdough out there. However, I justified and set the maximum duration for starter preparation at 14 days, following the approach of international bloggers. This is to make it accessible for everyone to study.
The GFSD starter that's ready to use doesn't really need 14 days actually. From my experience, on days 5, 7, and 10, my starter was already ripe on different days. I did a lot of experiments, many things that I faced. And everything I faced, I shared the tips, tricks, and techniques in my second group named Gluten-Free Sourdough ASMRDHIA.
For me, every piece of knowledge and idea that I got, I need to jot it down and share it with people.
I like to raise awareness, so in those groups, I started my steps to show people the way and give them guidance to make GFSD starter together. Congratulations to all group participants who made use of the knowledge.
There are many ways to make starters out there. Too many to explain. So, I came up with my own way and ideas to make it easy for people to understand.
As of today, I have experimented with dozens of starters, and I will continue to do so one by one.
There is slow progress sometimes, and also, there is fast progress because I tweak and hack the way. And also, I tweaked the ratio (mixture) so that I can get the result that I want.
From that experiment, I found a way to make a windowpane and the dough elastic for gluten-free bread. The international community doesn't know about this technique. They often say that it's normal if GFSD bread is chewy and dense. However, I have already discovered the way to make the GFSD bread soft and bouncy like a sponge.
If you think gluten is necessary to create a windowpane, you're wrong. Windowpane for gluten-free dough is not the same as windowpane for gluten. Windowpane is the benchmark to get the spongy soft bread. I already made it with sticky dough and non-sticky dough. All the research and techniques, along with full-length videos, are in my GFSD Malaysia Masterclass.
In 2023, I also studied the nutrition concept PCNM by Doctor Norman. My eating lifestyle is the same as Dr. Norman's as he always raises awareness among people.
In 2024, the PCNM course ended, and I gained many knowledge in remedies using food. And sourdough is one of the branches that are interesting to explore because the benefits are so outstanding.