Gluten Free Sourdough Fruit Buns
It’s been a while since my last post, the miracle that are these fruit buns had to be blogged so I can come back here for the recipe to make them again sometime.
These gluten free sourdough fruit buns are the result of trial and error over a couple of weeks when I was on a mission to find a successful, homemade, gluten free recipe for a bread product. I do not have a gluten free diet, I very much like gluten and the tasty bread products it produces. However, when one of my offspring had an emergency department level of persistent stomach cramps after eating chinese takeaways, which stopped re-occurring when gluten was taking out of their diet, I started experimenting with a brown rice flour sourdough starter. I started off making loaves of gluten free bread as the wee lad really missed having sandwiches. We found a mix of flours worked best and a combination of sorghum, buckwheat, millet and corn flours worked best for a palatable, tasty, and “normal” bread-like textured loaf of gluten free bread. Whilst this seemed like mission complete, it was not until I made fruit buns that I got the ultimate gluten free baking compliment…”I can’t tell it’s gluten free, in fact I’d go so far as to say these are better than non gluten free fruit buns.” Yes, ok it was my partner saying it and yes you will all suspect he is biased, but he has learnt from past experience to tell the truth and be honest with his opinions on my cooking because if you say you like it, I might just keep making it for you….*cough* lentil flatbreads *cough.* For the record, I don’t mind lentil flatbreads, I think they are great vegan side to a good vegan curry; but they are just not my partner’s ‘cup of tea.’
Tips and tricks
When you mix together the dough it seems really tough to do by hand. I use an electric beater with dough hook attachments. I even mix in the sultanas or raisins into the mixture using the electric beater. A stand mixer with dough hook attachments could be used instead.
I place a bowl of water in the oven to keep the moisture in the oven high during baking. A steam oven could be used instead.
To make gluten free sourdough starter, I started with brown rice flour. For first 3 days, discard half and feed 50g brown rice flour and 50g filtered water. Once it is super active, you can use it to make tasty gluten free bread products then discard about half and add brown rice flour and water, enough to make a thick paste, to feed the starter. Once you have a healthy starter you can leave it in the fridge so you only need to feed twice a week – be sure to take it out of the fridge a day before you intend to use it to get it all bubbly and active again.
Be sure to use psyllium husks rather than psyllium husk powder.
Gluten Free Sourdough Fruit Buns
Serves 10