Gluten-free Sourdough, lacto-fermented zucchini loaf (savory) #1
I wanted to try using lacto-fermented zucchini in a dough, to see if its process aided the bread’s rise. To be honest, after my first attempt, I’d be inclined to say it didn’t – but I threw another one together just now to rise overnight, and we’ll see. I also put another jar of zucchini up on the top shelf, salted for fermentation, and we can try again in a few days. I’m not inclined to call this a failure yet, but it sure as shit wasn’t a success.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour mix #2 (with tweaks per prior posts) – I planned to weigh this but my helper reset the scale at a non-optimum moment
- 1 cup 5/6 day fermented grated zucchini
- 1 tsp salt
- about a 1/8 cup sugar
- 4 oz (104g) active (ie just went through a rise & fall cycle) starter
- 10g / 10g flax / chia slurry (w/ 40g hot water, whisked)
Method:
This being a first pass, I just pretty much threw these ingredients together, put ’em in a lined bread pan, and let them rise for 8 hours. They seemed to have a good volume, and the day was drawing on, so at that point I baked them in a pre-heated, ‘steamed’ (a cup of boiling water in a heated dutch oven lid) oven. 1 hour, the first 10 minutes at 220 and then the rest at 180.
The results provoked a shrug from both me and my partner. Yet another cake-y, vaguely palatable loaf, that shrug said. Slightly better texture, but only due maybe a half point. Flavour, not great, not bad. Crust, such as it had one? Uniform, at least.
Yet I remained intrigued. Could a decent bread rise from these damp, tepid ashes?
Fermented Gluten-Free Bread 