2-Ingredient Buckwheat Sourdough with Milk Kefir - An Experiment

After successfully making a simple 2-Ingredient Buckwheat Sourdough Bread with Kombucha, I wondered whether milk kefir would work just as well.  Both contain various yeasts and lactic acid bacteria, so it seemed like a logical experiment. The result was an edible two-ingredient loaf, although it behaved quite differently from the kombucha version.

Sourdough is essentially flour and water that have been fermented by yeasts and lactic acid bacteria before being baked.  Many species of yeasts and bacteria live in my kombucha.  Milk kefir also contains yeasts and lactic acid bacteria, so I wondered whether it could ferment buckwheat in a similar way.

I have also tried making sourdough bread again using only two ingredients.  I used buckwheat again, and this time I used milk kefir instead of kombucha.  Making this loaf was very simple.  

Like traditional sourdough, this loaf relies on naturally occurring yeasts rather than commercial baker's yeast, and having no wheat flour it is entirely gluten free.

Milk kefir successfully fermented the buckwheat, but the loaf was denser and had larger air pockets than my kombucha version.

Sourdough buckwheat and milk kefir bread - looks good

The amount of effort was low, and the amount of time I was actively doing anything was low.  It did spend some time soaking, and fermenting, but I wasn't standing there watching it or anything like that so the time wasn't really noticeable.

While the taste of this buckwheat sourdough bread made with milk kefir was nice enough, I much preferred the taste of the loaf I made using kombucha. 

The texture of the loaf I made using kombucha was nice, it was like bread.  The texture of the milk kefir loaf was more dense, and I didn't like it much.  As you can see, it did bubble as it fermented/baked, but the bubbles were not evenly spread throughout the loaf.  Large caverns like this are common if the sourdough liquid is under fermented.

I didn't follow a recipe, much like my previous attempt where I used kombucha I made it up as I went, and I wrote it down so I could remember in the future.  I will share the recipe I used below.

Buckwheat milk kefir sourdough loaf

2-Ingredient Buckwheat Sourdough Bread with Milk Kefir Recipe

This isn't a perfected recipe.  It's simply what I did when I made this loaf, written down so I can try it again and change things next time.

Ingredients:

2 cups raw buckwheat groats 

1 cup milk kefir liquid

Instructions:

1) Soak 2 cups raw buckwheat groats in water for 6 (or more) hours. 

2) Drain liquid, but do not rinse.

3) Blend the soaked buckwheat into a smooth batter.

4) Add 1 cup of milk kefir liquid.  Blend until mixed together.

5) Pour into a glass or ceramic bowl, cover with a cloth or loose lid to keep insects out while allowing gases to escape, then leave overnight to ferment.

6) Line a bread tin with baking paper.  Add the buckwheat/kefir dough.

7) Bake in oven around 180C for an hour or so until the loaf is cooked through. 

You will also need to make milk kefir to try this recipe.  I make my own milk kefir using traditional grains.  

If you are interested you can read my milk kefir beginners guide.  

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.  If you buy through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.  

If you want to try this yourself, I sometimes sell traditional milk kefir grains, or if I don't have any you could buy kefir grains from NourishMe Organics, or dry starter culture through Bacillus Bulgaricus.  I haven't tried their kefir starter, but the other cultures I bought from Bacillus Bulgaricus have all worked well for me. 

Soaking buckwheat in water

This loaf was not all that great.  The crust looked nice, but the inside looked odd.  The loaf was very dense.  The taste was ok though.

Overall I count this as a win.  I made a fun sourdough loaf without following a recipe, it tasted ok, and I learned from the experience.  

Two ingredient buckwheat sourdough loaf

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make sourdough with milk kefir?

Yes. I made this loaf using only raw buckwheat groats and milk kefir.  It fermented and produced an edible loaf, although the texture wasn't as good as the version I made with kombucha.

Can milk kefir replace sourdough starter?

It can ferment a buckwheat batter, as I found with this experiment, but I wouldn't say milk kefir is the same thing as a traditional sourdough starter.  My loaf fermented, but it behaved differently from a conventional sourdough and from my kombucha version.

Is buckwheat sourdough gluten-free?

Buckwheat is naturally gluten-free, so this recipe is gluten-free provided all ingredients are free from gluten contamination.

Can I use roasted buckwheat?

No.  Use raw buckwheat groats.  Roasted buckwheat (kasha) behaves differently and won't produce the same result.

Why was my loaf dense?

I'm not completely sure.  In my case, I suspect the fermentation could have gone longer.  The baking temperature may also have played a part.  I plan to change both next time and see what happens.

Milk Kefir vs Kombucha for 2-Ingredient Buckwheat Sourdough

Having now made two versions of this simple buckwheat sourdough, one fermented with kombucha and the other with milk kefir, here are my observations.

Feature	Kombucha	Milk Kefir
Ingredients	Raw buckwheat + kombucha	Raw buckwheat + milk kefir
Ease of preparation	Very easy	Very easy
Fermentation	Good rise	Fermented well but appeared to need longer
Texture	Light, bread-like loaf	Dense with large uneven air pockets
Flavour	My favourite	Pleasant, but less appealing to me
Appearance	Even crumb, good looking loaf	Good crust, but large internal cavities
Would I make it again?	Definitely	Yes, but with a longer fermentation time and possibly a hotter oven

Related Fermentation Articles

If you enjoy experimenting with fermented foods, you might also find some more of my blog posts helpful: 

• Filmjölk vs Kefir - My comparison after making and drinking both regularly
• Making Milk Kefir at Home - Everything beginners need to know to keep healthy kefir grains.
• Farmer's Kefir Cheese (Tvorog) Recipe - A simple recipe to make Tvorog traditional farmer's cheese using milk kefir
• Easy 2-Ingredient Buckwheat Sourdough Bread Without a Starter - My experience making gluten free sourdough using kombucha and buckwheat

Final Thoughts

I have a feeling that this loaf could have been much nicer with a longer fermentation time.  I've also been told that baking at a higher temperature might produce a better result, so those are two things I'll try next time.

The milk kefir definitely fermented the buckwheat, but I preferred the lighter texture and flavour of the loaf I made with kombucha.  The kefir version was quite dense and had some very large air pockets, although it was still perfectly edible.

Overall, I count this as a win.  I made a two ingredient sourdough style loaf without following a recipe, it tasted ok, and I learned something from the experiment.

That's one of the things I enjoy about these little kitchen experiments.  Even the imperfect results are usually edible, or if nothing else my chickens will eat them and turn them into eggs.  Sometimes the failures teach more than the successes.

Next time I'll try fermenting the buckwheat for longer and baking it at a slightly higher temperature. That's part of the fun of working with living cultures, there's always something new to try.

Easy 2-Ingredient Buckwheat Sourdough Bread Without a Starter

My Simple Experiment Making Buckwheat Sourdough Bread with Two Ingredients and No Starter

You can make a simple buckwheat sourdough bread using only soaked buckwheat groats and home made active kombucha.  I tried it as an experiment and it fermented successfully without a traditional sourdough starter or commercial yeast.

Sometimes the best kitchen experiments start with a simple question.  I already had kombucha continuously brewing, a bag of buckwheat in the pantry, and I knew both kombucha and sourdough rely on live yeasts.  That got me wondering: could I make buckwheat sourdough bread using just those two ingredients?  There was only one way to find out.

In its simplest form, sourdough is a mix of yeasts that have partially digested some flour, and this mixture is baked to make bread.  

I then started thinking about the living cultures I keep that contain yeasts.  I make milk kefir, I have filmjölk, and I brew kombucha, two of which contain (among other things) many species of live yeasts.  While commercial baker's yeast is typically a single species, sourdough cultures often contain a diverse mix of wild yeasts and bacteria. 

At this point in time I am not loving wheat.  While I have had enough of wheat for now, I am particularly fond of buckwheat.  I eat buckwheat for breakfast every day.  I began to think if I have many species of living yeasts, and I have buckwheat, why not try to make sourdough buckwheat bread.

I figured I could get some buckwheat, mix with kombucha, make it into a dough, let it ferment for a while, and bake it into a sourdough bread.  Sounds simple enough, surely nothing much could go wrong.  Worst case scenario it would taste bad, and I would feed it to the chickens.

I gave making buckwheat sourdough bread a try, and it worked well.  I was almost surprised at how simple the process was and how good the bread turned out. 

Buckwheat sourdough bread

I Made Up My Own Recipe

After trying this I looked on the internet for sourdough buckwheat recipes.  In hind sight I should have looked for recipes first just in case this wasn't just common sense.  

It didn't matter too much in this case because it seems I was on the right track, there are a bunch of recipes on the internet that do pretty much what I tried.  

Sourdough certainly has its complexities, but for a simple loaf like this, common sense gets you surprisingly far.

Sourdough buckwheat bread - first attempt

My recipe did not make enough dough.  Given the size of my bread tin, it would have been better using 2 cups of buckwheat and 1 cup kombucha.  I also think had I left it to ferment longer it would have been fluffier.  Other than that, I could not be happier with this attempt.  

My super simple buckwheat sourdough recipe 

(next time I will double the ingredients).

Ingredients:

1 cup raw buckwheat groats 

1/2 cup kombucha liquid

Instructions:

1) Soak 1 cup raw buckwheat groats in water for 6 (or more) hours. 

2) Drain liquid, but do not rinse.

3) Put buckwheat through blender until it becomes liquidy.

4) Add 1/2 cup of kombucha liquid.  Blend until mixed together.

5) Put in something that is not metallic, cover to keep out insects but still lets in air.  Leave overnight to ferment.

6) Line a bread tin with baking paper.  Add the buckwheat / kombucha dough (this could be left to rise for fluffier bread).

7) Bake in oven around 180C for about an hour. 

Buckwheat kombucha slurry from step 5

This post contains affiliate links.  If you buy through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.  I only recommend products that I use myself or would happily use.

If you'd like to try this recipe yourself, you'll need raw buckwheat groats.  I am based in Australia and usually buy raw buckwheat groats because they work well for breakfasts, sprouting, and experiments like this sourdough bread.  

For US and international readers, these are the raw buckwheat groats I would recommend.  

You will also need active kombucha.  I used homemade kombucha from my continuous brew system.  If you're interested in brewing your own, I explain the process in my continuous brew kombucha guide.  Making kombucha costs me under 20 cents per liter to make at home, so it is far more cost effective than buying it. 

To brew kombucha, you will need active Kombucha SCOBY, I offer them when I have extra, and I can post throughout Australia.  If I don't have any, I highly recommend either Bacillus Bulgaricus, who can post to over 100 countries, or NourishMe Organics who can only post throughout Australia at this stage.

Ready for baking - I could have let it rise first

It had some bubbles, but would have been fluffier had I left it longer

The End Result Was Good

The bread looked nice, smelled ok, and tasted good.  

The bread it made was a bit thin as I did not use enough ingredients for the size of the bread pan.  It may have been even nicer if it was fluffier.  

You can see some little holes, these are from the bubbles while it fermented.  Had I left it in the bread tin for a few hours it would ferment more and be more fluffy.

Buckwheat sourdough loaf

It was so thin that it ended up looking more like brownies than bread.  As it was so thin, and looked like a brownie, I sliced it into little pieces instead of traditional bread slices.  This seemed to work well.

I put some butter between each of these little pieces.  The loaf was warm when I added butter, and it melted the butter into the bread.  Most of the butter was soaked into the bread.  I imagine this type of bread would work well with honey comb. 

I put butter between these slices and let it melt in to the bread

I had a little bread left over that I ate the next morning.  It may be my imagination,  but it seemed fluffier.  I liked it more the second day. 

Other than wanting to double the recipe as the loaf produced was too small, the only down side I can see to this recipe is the price.  It's too expensive to make this more than once in a while, especially if I use 2 cups of buckwheat. 

Buckwheat sourdough bread

Related Fermentation Articles

If you enjoy experimenting with fermented foods, you might also find these guides helpful:

• How to Make Filmjölk at Home - A simple guide to culturing Swedish fermented milk with just two ingredients
• Filmjölk vs Kefir - My comparison after making and drinking both regularly
• Making Milk Kefir at Home - Everything beginners need to know to keep healthy kefir grains.
• Farmer's Kefir Cheese (Tvorog) Recipe - A simple recipe to make Tvorog traditional farmer's cheese using milk kefir
• What Happens If You Ferment Filmjölk for 4 Weeks - my experiment pushing the limits of filmjölk 
• Two Ingredient Buckwheat Sourdough with Kefir - My experience making gluten free sourdough using milk kefir and buckwheat

Final Thoughts

I thought it was good fun to make buckwheat sourdough bread.  Next time I used milk kefir instead of kombucha, if you are interested in how that turned out please go and have a look.  

I plan on making this again.  With a slightly larger batch and a longer second rise, I think it has the potential to become a really enjoyable homemade loaf.  Even if it never replaces everyday bread, it was a fun experiment and another reminder that fermentation often rewards curiosity.

Frog bread

I stumbled onto a recipe to make frog bread. I thought it would make the perfect lunch time surprise at preschool. So set about the enormous task of making 4 bread doughs, adding colouring to them, splitting, shaping and laying in the correct order to create the awesomeness of the picture directly below.


On our diet we can only use natural coloured food dyes. Things rose oddly and so my frog bread was far from idea. Hmmm I would like to try it again one day though.




ETA: the recipe I used no longer exists on the web so the link has been removed and a picture added instead. It was just a regular bread dough recipe so whatever you normally use just add food dye.