Super Easy Sourdough: St. Honoré Sourdough Recipe

For over ten years I have been eating gluten free. I became very accustomed to all sorts of food alternatives, including gluten free cardboard-space-bread. Needless to say, when I heard about GF people being able to eat sourdough, I was beyond intrigued. I have now made (and devoured) homemade sourdough over the past few weeks with zero of the nasty symptoms I would experience when I would eat gluten.

So in honour of this momentous occasion, I am sharing with you the sourdough recipe I use, which I have ceremoniously named after the patron saint of bakers, St. Honoré.

Here is a bit about this saint! (source: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/kitchen-saints)

St. Honoré (Feast: May 16) — Patron saint of bread, bakers and altar bread makers

St. Honoré has been associated with bread for more than a thousand years. His patronal church in Paris was the site of the bakers’ guild and many pastry shops and boulangeries are named after him. In Paris his feast day is celebrated with three-day bread festivals. The eponymously-named Gateau St. Honoré is a cream-filled puff pastry still used as a First Communion cake in France.

*Please note that I took elements of this recipe from a low-hydration loaf recipe from The Clever Carrot  and took parts from a high-hydration loaf recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen to make a beautiful mid-hydration loaf.

Before you start, ensure you have an established, active sourdough starter. I have found that a young starter didn't produce the loaves I was aiming for.

Ingredients

500 g unbleached bread flour

320 g  very warm water

12 g fine sea salt

200 g (or more!) active starter

Steps

Combine starter and water- whisk with a fork until bubbly. Add flour and salt. Mix until combined. It will look shaggy and messy- that is okay! Rest in bowl with warm cloth covering it for 30 minutes.

At the end of the 30 minutes perform a stretch and fold (I did envelope-style). Repeat a total of four times over two hours. Continue to cover with a damp cloth.

At the fourth and final stretch and fold, I then let it rest until it has about doubled in size. It will jiggle when doubled and ready.

At the end of this first rise, I fold the dough to make a loaf shape and let it rest. After a few minutes (up to 30) I shape the dough again and then put it into a prepared bowl (a cloth-lined 20cm bowl, with rice flour sprinkled in it). Put dough in seam-side up. Cover with a plastic produce bag and tie loosely. Let rest for 12-48 hours in the fridge.

Get the dough out whenever is convenient for you and flip over onto pre-cut parchment paper. Score the loaf with a simple “x” about two inches deep and almost the length of the dough.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put dough in Dutch oven and immediately reduce temperature to 400 and bake with lid on for 20 minutes. Then take lid off and bake for another 40 minutes. Optional step for a golden brown crust: bake with oven door cracked slightly open during the last 10 minutes.

Let rest on cooling rack for at least an hour before slicing. Enjoy!