You can't do that with batter!

Over the past few months I have been working through the bread making books in the State library (Tasmania). I have added a few of the best to my own library. I find it fascinating to gain insights from bakers of regular bread and pastry. Every now and then I pick up an insight worth experimenting with in gluten free baking. Most bakers who dabble with gluten free bread insist that the dough should be a batter. Now, you can't do much with batter. But if you make dough, even sticky dough, you can use some basic kneading techniques. With gluten free dough you are not trying to develop the gluten, so kneading is no where near as demanding. A little kneading is useful for improving the structure of the crumb. In regular bread making wet doughs, like ciabatta, must be handled gently. Some bakers use a dough scraper to stretch and fold the dough. That technique works quite well with some of my wetter gluten free doughs.

Today I use one of my new bannetons with a buckwheat and rice sourdough. Until recently I have used a cloth lined dish to proof sourdough. So it was fun to start using a banneton. The loaf in the photo is today's buckwheat and rice boule, made on a buckwheat and rice starter. Now, you can't do that with batter!