So, welcome to my nightmare:> This adventure your about to undertake is at best a crazy science experiment. Why, because baking is just that, an experiment. Sometimes it comes out right and other times it just blows up in your face and becomes chicken food, and thats baking with normal flours. Now you want to use gluten free flours and its time to take the gloves off and go back to the starting board.
So, you got the packet of g.f. starter: did you follow the instructions to bring it back to life...if not, here they are again:
put powder into a clean bowl, I use a measuring cup, that way I can see the active bubbles when it is alive:> add a little warm water to disolve the powder. add gluten free flour, I used cup4cup all purpose baking g.f. flour, but, maninis gluten free multi purpose flour, or pamela’s ultimate baking and pancake mix works great also. (both available on amazon.com) can you use other flours, of course, this is an experiment, but our recipes use only those two flours. how much? about two very large tablespoons full and enough water to make it look like very thick pancake consistency. cover your bowl with cling wrap or a lid. put in a warm place, i like the t.v. cabinet, but the oven with the light on works great also. you should see bubbles the next day in the body of the mixture...yeah, its alive...now move it to the kitchen counter... add two more heaping tablespoons of g.f. flour for the next 4-5 days and enough water to make that thick pancake consistncy... it should start to smell sour... by the time you make bread you want 1 cup of starter to use and some left in the bowl to keep feeding... the night before making bread, generously feed the 1 cup of starter with flour and water, but make it thicker than ususal..
take the left over starter and feed it as normal
NOTES: we don't use metal bowls or utensils, I don't know why, but everything says not to.
the starter will store in the fridge for a long time, 3-4 weeks or longer without a feeding, the cold puts the beasties into suspended animation, so you want to place about a cup of starter into a glass jar with a lid, that has holes punched into it, and place that into the fridge...DO THIS RIGHT AWAY, that way you don't forget and bake with your only starter , leaving you with nothing .
Take your starter out of the fridge 3-4 days before you want to bake bread, feed it every day and pull off your cup for storage and bake with the rest.