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Gluten-Free Dutch Oven Bread

by Matt Kennard

A scratch blend, one rise, and a hot Dutch oven. No gluten to develop, so the psyllium does the structural work and the mixer does the kneading.

Serves
one loaf
Active
25 min
Total
about 4 hours including the cool
Pan
5-quart or 7-quart Dutch oven
Oven
400°F / 204°C
BakedGluten-freeWeekend project
Jump to recipe

The ingredient list above is the 5-quart loaf. Both sizes are below, because this is one of the few things that does not scale by a factor: more dough drives more moisture out through the same crust in the same time, so the larger loaf needs its own weights rather than a multiplier.

| Ingredient | 5-quart | 7-quart | |---|---|---| | Sorghum flour | 155 g | 209 g | | Millet flour | 155 g | 209 g | | Tapioca starch | 190 g | 257 g | | Psyllium husk, ground fresh | 22 g | 31 g | | Xanthan gum | 5 g | 7 g | | Fine sea salt | 12 g | 16 g | | Instant yeast | 10 g | 14 g | | Honey | 20 g | 27 g | | Warm water, 110F | 650 g | 878 g | | **Total dough** | **1,219 g** | **1,648 g** |

Do not go past the 7-quart column. The reasoning, and the rest of what is true of gluten-free baking generally, is in the [gluten-free guide](/learn/gluten-free).

Ingredients

one loaf

Method

  1. Prep flush in the bowl

    Prepare the sling. Crumple two sheets of parchment into balls, flatten them out, and lay them in a 4- to 5-quart bowl in a cross, with flaps hanging over all four sides. The crumpling is what makes them sit flush instead of fighting you.

  2. Prep 5 min · a real foam layer

    Start the yeast. Whisk the water, honey and yeast together and leave 5 minutes, until there is a real foam layer.

  3. Prep 30 sec · combined

    Blend the dry. Paddle attachment, not a dough hook. Mix the flours, starch, psyllium, xanthan and salt on low for 30 seconds.

  4. Prep 3-4 min · cohesive, clay-like, pulling away from the bowl

    Mix 3 to 4 minutes on medium. Stream the yeast liquid in on low, then go to medium. It looks like loose batter at first. Around minute three the psyllium and xanthan gel, and by minute four it is a cohesive, clay-like dough pulling away from the bowl. Stop there.

  5. Rest 30 min · shapeable clay

    Rest 30 minutes. Cover the bowl and leave it. This is not optional: the psyllium is still taking up water, and the dough goes from slack and tacky to shapeable clay. Skip it and you will add flour to fix a dough that was never wrong, and the loaf will be dense.

  6. Assemble a smooth dome

    Shape in the sling. Scrape it into the center of the parchment cross and smooth it into a dome with wet fingers.

  7. Prep the dome holds

    Check the dome holds. It should keep its shape. If it slumps, give it another five minutes and look again.

  8. Rest 40 min · risen, one rise only

    Proof 40 minutes, covered, somewhere around 75 to 80F. One rise only.

  9. Heat 20 min · 400F

    Preheat at the 20-minute mark. Empty Dutch oven, lid on, middle rack, 400F.

  10. Prep one quarter-inch slash

    Score it. Dust with millet flour, then one confident quarter-inch slash across the dome.

  11. Assemble in the pot, parchment and all

    Transfer by the sling. Lift by all four flaps and lower it in, parchment and all.

  12. Bake 45 min · covered, 400F

    Covered, 45 minutes at 400F.

  13. Bake 45-55 min · deep mahogany and blistered

    Uncovered, 45 to 55 minutes, until the crust is deep mahogany and blistered.

  14. Bake 208-210F in the center

    Check the center: 208 to 210F. Under that, keep going in 5-minute steps.

  15. Rest 2-3 h · cool through, uncut

    Cool at least 2 hours, on a rack, uncut. Three is better on the larger loaf.

If it's not right

What you seeWhyWhat to do
Wet or gummy in the middle Pulled before 208F, or cut before it cooled. Bake to the internal temperature, then leave it alone for two hours.
Dense and tight Shaped before the rest was up, or extra flour went in to fix a dough that only looked wrong. Give the psyllium its thirty minutes and add nothing.
Collapsed in the oven Over-proofed. Forty minutes, one rise.
Pale crust Not enough time uncovered. Bake to color, not to the clock.

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