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Home Recipes Chef Recipes

Easy Gluten Free Sourdough Bread Recipe

Published: Nov 5, 2013 · Modified: Jun 8, 2020 by Sandi Gaertner · 138 Comments · This post may contain affiliate links

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This easy gluten free sourdough bread recipe is made from my sourdough starter recipe, and it is so easy to make you will be surprised it is gluten free! It is a bit of work to make your first gluten free sourdough starter...but it is well worth the effort!

This sourdough bread is also egg-free, dairy-free, and so it is perfect for those with food allergies!

A whole loaf of freshly baked gluten free sourdough bread on a wooden cutting board.
Crusty and delicious!
Jump to:
  • Do this first:
  • Recipe step by step directions:
  • Is sourdough bread gluten free?
  • How can you speed up the rise?
  • Sourdough tip:
  • Baking:
  • A note on gluten free flour blends:
  • Can you shape this bread as an oval?
  • How to get crusty bread:
  • Serve with:
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💬 Comments

There is nothing better than the taste of fresh sourdough bread! It is seriously (or should I say srsly) the most incredible comfort food! I have streamlined Sadie's recipe quite a bit since she first shared her recipe with me back in 2014. Sadie used a combination of millet, sorghum, brown, and white rice flour in her original recipe.

Unfortunately, many of us don't have a lot of individual flours on-hand...especially given how hard ingredients have been to find lately.

This is the second installment in my how-to-make gluten free sourdough bread series. The first thing you need before making this gluten free sourdough bread is to make your gluten free sourdough starter. This will take you to the tutorial to get started.

This gluten free homemade sourdough bread recipe is yeast-free and absolutely worth the effort. You can enjoy homemade sourdough bread with very few ingredients! Feel free to comment or email me if you have questions, or read the comments below for more inspiration.

If you would like to try making a version of Bread Srsly's famous sourdough bread, this is a great introduction to sourdough bread.

If you love gluten free bread as much as we do, check out my delicious gluten free bread recipes. We have tested several gluten free flour blends and flours, so you have many options for making this bread!

Top view of a rectangular loaf of sourdough bread on a cutting board.
This lighter and fluffier sourdough bread was made with GF Jules Gluten Free Flour Blend

One of my readers had great success making this gluten free sourdough with Bob's 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour Blend, another with Krusteaz, and I am trying it out with King Arthur's Measure for Measure. I have added my photos of every step along the way to make this recipe easier to follow.

Making gluten free sourdough bread takes a lot more time and work to make sourdough bread without yeast. The good news is once you have a starter, it is quick to make this bread.

I encourage you to read Sadie from Bread Srsly's story about how she started her famous gluten free sourdough bread company! Her story is so romantic! Her fams affectionately call it Srsyl Bread :-).

Do this first:

Go to my How to Make a Gluten Free Sourdough Starter page and make your gluten free starter! Do this FIRST!!

A loaf of gluten free sourdough bread on a cutting board ready to slice.
This loaf was made with King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluten Free Blend

Recipe step by step directions:

We are finally ready to make a loaf of this gluten free sourdough bread! Are you as excited as I am?

A measuring cup filled with bubbly gluten free starter.

You will need ½ cup of your gluten free starter. Make sure it is bubbling and room temperature! I typically take my starter out of the refrigerator the night before I make bread. I feed it by adding some gluten free flour and water, and I let it sit on the counter overnight.

Sourdough starter and dry ingredients in a bowl.

Put the dry sourdough bread dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk together. Add water and the sourdough starter as described in the recipe card below. Mix well.

Starter dough rising in a bowl.
Sourdough starter rising in the bowl.

You want a dough that is wet like a pancake batter. Let the dough rise for 12-24 hours at room temperature.

After rising, feed the dough a little more gluten free flour and water, mix, then rise for an hour. (This will give it some extra oomph for additional rising.)

Is sourdough bread gluten free?

No, regular sourdough is not gluten free because it is made with wheat flour. If you are gluten free, you need to use gluten free flour to make your starter and bread.

How can you speed up the rise?

If you want to speed your rise a little, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. Many of my readers have used 1 teaspoon of soda powder mixed in. I added 1 teaspoon of sugar to the GF Jules mix before adding it to the bread loaf tin, and it seems to have risen higher and kept the rise through baking better.

Sourdough tip:

Put aside about ½ cup of the starter from your bowl to be used as your starter for another time. You can store it in the refrigerator and feed it 2-3x a week. You can read much more about making and feeding a sourdough starter in my How To Make a Gluten Free Starter post.

Sourdough bread batter rising another 12 hours.
The King Arthur sourdough batter doubled in size in just 6 hours!
GF Jules brand sourdough in a loaf tine
GF Jules flour blend in the pan rising.

Grease a non-stick metal 1 lb. loaf pan and coat well using a basting brush. Pour in the dough. Don’t overwork the “batter.” Let it rise 2-12 hours in the pan (go by how big it rises). It may look lumpy. Let it- don’t overwork- you are eliminating the rise for every stroke.

Note that the King Arthur Measure for Measure is a little runnier in consistency. The GF Jules has a much higher starch content and looks much fluffier!

Baking:

Bake the gluten free sourdough loaf for 45 minutes at 375º F. I noticed it hadn’t browned on top – so I brushed the top with melted butter at the 45-minute mark and then quickly closed the oven door quickly.

Hurry when gently brushing the melted butter on- the longer the oven is open, and the rack pulled out a bit – will lose a tiny bit of its rise. Once the oven is closed again, the rise comes back quickly. Bake for the full 60 minutes and then with a Probe style Roasting Thermometer showing 160-180º F in the center.

If you notice that the thermometer has a bit of residue on the probe, you can turn off the oven and leave the loaf in the oven to cool, so it finishes baking and cooling more gently to keep as much of the final baked-in rising and fluff.

Cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing with a serrated bread knife.

It was a pleasure at each step- because it was an adventure. Not everyone is that enthusiastic, I know. But, for someone whom has zero experience in gluten free baking – this brave trial was easy and enjoyable."

Dana
A sliced loaf of gluten free sourdough bread on a wooden cutting board.
Sliced so you can see how different the sourdough with GF Jules turned out.

A note on gluten free flour blends:

I have tested several different gluten free blends. I talk a lot about King Arthur Measure for Measure, which is a standard blend. I also used a very starch-heavy gluten free flour blend by GF Jules. Both performed very well.

The main difference is the texture of the bread. GF Jules was much lighter and fluffier, while the King Arthur flour blend loaf was a little more hearty, like regular sourdough bread. Both loaves baked with a nice crust. I brushed melted butter on both halfway through the baking process so they would brown.

Many of my readers have chimed in with different flours they have tried in the comments, so I encourage you to keep reading through everyone's comments. Dana loved Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Blend with this recipe.

Can you shape this bread as an oval?

I am testing different ways to do this. Sadie's sourdough recipe was really meant to be loaf style, and it is not really "formable," so I am experimenting with ways to make it work, and I will report back when I get it right.

Formed sourdough ball rising in a dutch oven.

I then put the ball of dough into a greased Dutch oven. I covered it with a towel and put it into our sunny kitchen window for another rise.

Rise in the Dutch oven got very large.
The rise got a bit out of control!

So the rise experiment in the Dutch oven with a shaped loaf got a little out of control as the rise went crazy. Total fail! I will still experiment with this to see how to handle this better and report back to you.

How to get crusty bread:

I highly recommend baking this bread with a pan of hot water to create steam. Sadie at Bread Srsly didn't do this, but I found baking with hot steam creates a really good crust to the bread.

To get steam, you can fill a shallow baking dish with very hot water and put it on the bottom rack in your oven when you turn the oven on. Keep it there the first hour your bread bakes.

You can also bake your sourdough in a Dutch oven. Keep the lid on for the first 45 minutes of baking, then remove the lid for another 30 minutes.

Once it is fully risen I remove it from the oven and heat my oven to 450. I put the loaf in and then decrease the temperature to 420 for 20 mins. This gives a beautiful chewy crust. Then I decrease my oven again to 375-400 F and bake for 30 minutes until the interior loaf measures above 205 F."

Lois
A loaf of gluten free sourdough bread on a red and white checker table cloth.
Sadie's original photo of her gluten free sourdough bread.

Serve with:

If you haven’t eaten a lot of sourdough bread or are looking for some ideas on what to serve it with, here are a few tasty ideas:

  • Roasted Chicken - Place pieces of roasted chicken and cheese (if you can tolerate dairy) and toss it under the broiler until it is hot and the cheese is bubbly. Add toppings and enjoy. So good!
  • Bread Bowl - Use this sourdough gluten free bread as a base for a bread bowl. Add in your favorite soup and gobble it all up!
  • Bread Crumbs - You can dry the loaf of sourdough bread out and turn it into bread crumbs. It will go lovely in any recipe that requires bread crumbs, and the flavor is terrific. Try this delicious Gluten Free Meatloaf recipe!
  • Dip - Serve pieces of gluten free sourdough with this Hot Cream Cheese Dip and it will go perfectly! It pairs nicely with anything cheese-based too.

If you love gluten free bread, you will want to try these Gluten Free Cheddar Herb Muffins recipes too. They are so light and fluffy. Also, these Paleo Biscuits are delicious and perfect for anyone who needs to be grain-free!

If you want to try another great sourdough recipe, give this Gluten Free Sourdough Bagels recipe a try! If you want to make incredible gluten free bread quicker, give my delicious Gluten Free Bread Machine Bread recipe a try!

A reader photo of Veronica's baked sourdough loaf in a baking tin.
Veronica R's baked sourdough loaf

I made mine with Krusteaz Gluten Free 1 to 1 flour, and it turned out great. I will definitely be making it again. Thanks for the tips on buttering the top and baking with water/steam. The crust is perfect."

Veronica R.

📖 Recipe

sliced sourdough bread loaf on a cutting board

Gluten Free Sourdough Bread

Sandi Gaertner
An easy loaf style gluten free sourdough bread recipe. This is a recipe from Sadie at Bread Srysly.
5 from 4 votes
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Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 45 mins
Rise Time 12 hrs
Total Time 13 hrs
Course Gluten Free Bread Recipe
Cuisine American
Servings 12 slices
Calories 76 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups gluten free flour blend * see note
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ cup sourdough starter
  • water by feel

Instructions
 

  • Put dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk together.
  • Add water and sourdough starter.
  • You want a dough that is wet like pancake batter.
  • Let the dough rise for 12-24 hours at room temperature.
  • Put some aside to be used as your starter for another time.
  • Put in a greased loaf pan and bake at 350-400 for one hour.
  • Cool completely before slicing.

Notes

  1. Use a flour blend that works well with yeast. I like to use Cup4Cup, Pillsbury, or Authentic Foods Multiblend.
  2. Note this is a recipe that came from Sadie. I highly recommend you read the full post and reader comments for all of their tips.

SPECIAL NOTE

Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn't test, you may need to adjust your moisture levels in your baked goods.

Nutrition

Serving: 1sliceCalories: 76kcalCarbohydrates: 16gProtein: 2gFat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.1gSodium: 194mgPotassium: 0.04mgFiber: 2gSugar: 1gCalcium: 13mgIron: 1mg
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Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Chita Drinkard

    March 12, 2023 at 11:26 am

    5 stars
    Just finished my first gluten free loaf using your recipe (waiting for it to cool)! So excited! I have a recipe clarification question: after the 12-24 hour rise, do you then add more flour and water for a final rise? And do you add sugar or soda in the first rise or the second? Thanks! (I used Bob’s gluten free 1:1 flour)

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      March 15, 2023 at 11:43 am

      Hi Chita, sorry for the late reply. We lost power and probably won't get it back for 3 more days here in the SF Bay Area. I would add the sugar in the first rise. Add flour as needed for texture.

      Reply
  2. Jazz

    December 01, 2022 at 6:23 am

    Have you ever tried this with caputo gluten free flour? It’s an amazing new flour I found from Italy and I wonder if you could get the loaf to form better with this flour. I’m just following your recipe for the first time and don’t have enough experience to try yet! But I’d be curious since it acts so much like normal flour when it bakes!

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      December 01, 2022 at 9:49 am

      Hi. Unfortunately, my stomach doesn't do well with wheat starch so I am not able to test this flour blend.

      Reply
      • GM

        January 03, 2023 at 11:57 am

        Antimo Caputo gluten-free flour (and it says "Fioreglut") is what I think Jazz was asking about. I see they sell it on Amazon for gluten free pizza crust, pasta and breads.
        And I LOVE your recipes!
        Thank you for all of them.
        GM

      • Sandi Gaertner

        January 03, 2023 at 3:55 pm

        Just a note that the Caputo is not safe for those with a wheat allergy. There are some with Celiac, including myself, who can't eat wheat starch.

  3. Rebecca

    November 12, 2022 at 12:22 pm

    This is really good and dense! My only problem is that I forget it needs a long rise. 😂

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      November 12, 2022 at 12:25 pm

      I am glad you enjoyed this recipe. Let me know how it goes next time with a longer rise.

      Reply
  4. Robyn Yount

    July 22, 2021 at 6:01 am

    Question. Is there a way to make this a cinnamon sourdough bread loaf? I have my grandfather's recipe but it calls for yeast and since i have found out that I have celiac and can no longer make his German sourdough it breaks my heart. His you do have to roll out so just wasn't sure if I needed to add more flour and the baking instructions. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      July 22, 2021 at 6:56 am

      Hi Robyn, My gluten free sourdough recipe makes more of a loaf-style bread and it isn't that workable by hand. My best thought to add cinnamon and sugar is to put 1/3 of the dough into the pan, add cinnamon, top with some dough and repeat to get cinnamon layers. There is a gf sourdough FB group you may be able to get better help with a loaf that you can shape.

      Reply
    • Lisa

      August 21, 2022 at 7:18 pm

      I have made this bread several times now and really like it but for some reason the inside of my loaf is always sticky. Do you have any idea why?

      Reply
      • Sandi Gaertner

        August 22, 2022 at 7:37 am

        Hi Lisa, can you give me more details? What flour did you use for your starter, what gluten free flour blend are you using to make the bread? How long are you baking it, etc?

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