SOURDOUGH BREAD

Makes 2 sourdough boules or 4 baguettes

Great bread takes a little work, a lot of time, a sourdough starter, and paying attention. This bread requires a few moments of your time for two days. Plan ahead and you could have great crusty bread with a dense, chewy crumb back in your life.

Morning of Day One

In the morning, remove all but 100 grams of the active sourdough starter you have built. Add 400 grams of water, 400 grams of All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend, and 100 grams of Grain-Free Flour Mix. Stir it all up well. Let the sourdough starter sit for 8 to 10 hours. This will be the strong starter you will use to make your bread.

Evening of Day One

In a large bowl, stir together the water, flour blend, and grain-free flour mix. Let this mixture sit for 30 minutes, then add:

Mix these ingredients together well with a rubber spatula, folding and mixing to make sure that everything is well combined. It will look a little wetter than typical bread dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place.

Before going to bed, fold the dough over on itself once or twice. Let the dough sit overnight.

Morning of Day Two

Ease the dough onto a clean counter. (If the dough starts to stick, sprinkle on a little of the all-purpose flour blend.) Fold the dough onto itself once or twice, then cut the dough into 2 equal pieces with a bench scraper. Roll each piece of dough around and shape into balls or boules. Dust 2 bread proofing baskets (also known as bannetons or brotforms) with some of the all-purpose flour blend. Gently lower the dough balls into the proofing baskets. Cover with a slightly damp towel and let the dough proof for 4 hours.

Prepare to bake. Preheat the oven to 475°F. When the oven has come to temperature, put a Dutch oven in and allow it to grow hot (just before smoking).

Bake the bread. When the Dutch oven is hot, pull it out of the oven carefully. Plop one of the dough balls into the hot Dutch oven and cover it immediately. Bake for 30 minutes. Take the lid off. Put a pan filled with ice cubes on the rack below the Dutch oven. Bake until the crust is dark golden brown, almost veering toward charred, and the internal temperature is 200°F. Take the bread out of the oven.

Put the Dutch oven back into the oven. When it has returned to full heat, bake the second loaf the same way. Allow the bread to come to room temperature before slicing it. That’s hard but worth it.

To Make Baguettes

Follow the same procedure here for day one. On day two, instead of forming the dough into 2 balls, use the bench scraper to cut the dough into 4 pieces. Shape the dough pieces into 4 baguettes. To form a baguette, shape one piece of dough into a rectangle about the size of a piece of paper (8 x 11) on a floured surface. Fold the top part of the dough down onto the rectangle, then the bottom half over that, as though you are folding a letter. Pat a line in the middle of the dough shape you have made, then fold the dough in half on itself again. Seal the edges, moving the dough around a bit to make this happen. Sprinkle the surface with flour. Working with your hands in the middle of the loaf, rock the loaf and slowly roll it into a baguette shape, about 12 inches long. Transfer the dough to a parchment-lined baguette pan and repeat with the remaining dough. Let the dough rest for another 2 hours.

Bake at 475°F until the crust is golden brown and the internal temperature is 200°F, about 30 minutes.

Note: Gluten-free bread does not last as long on the counter as gluten bread. It’s great the day of baking, pretty good the next day, and then stale by the third day. We bake two loaves at once, eat one for dinner and breakfast the next day, then freeze the remaining bread in slices. With baguettes, slice them in half in the middle, then slice them lengthwise. Freeze them this way for toasting later for sandwiches.