Humble Beginnings in Sourdough

July 2022 was the first time I tried making my own starter and sourdough loaf. And…

As you can see, it did not go as planned.

I mean, why is it brown?!

With about two years worth of experience dealing with bread, I decided to give up sourdough immediately. The amount of time and energy it took to fail that hard was very disheartening. The very complicated timeline and chemistry to make sourdough were overwhelming. Plus, I had a great dry-yeast recipe I had mastered and my family loved anyway. I decided to put off sourdough for days when I had the time to truly learn it.

Now, I realize, I was very rigid about following the directions in many well-known books. I was also very timid handling the dough.

After working a bit longer and comfortably with yeasted bread accompanied by real-life instruction and a solid sourdough recipe from a friend who was willing to share her very old French starter, I have lift off!

One huge difference was baking by observation and feel.

When I took the dormant starters ( I was gifted two) out of the refrigerator to try again, I decided I would forget about how long it would take to make the loaf and simply look for indicators I recognized from making bread without wild yeast. If it took a day or a week, I would just watch the starter and dough to see what happened. Plus, I could afford to ruin at least one starter so I felt brave.

I also thought about the starter as a living thing. When taking out of the fridge and “waking” it up. I figured it would be hungry— just like I would after a long hibernation. So I fed it flour and water by guesstimation and waited. Soon tons of bubbles were visible inside the glass jar.

I peeked in on the jar all day, noticing when the bubbles began to fade away. Once the bubbles were gone I tried to agitate it again. I fed it. This time dumping some of the starter to make it a bit more hungry. The bubbles returnedmore aggressively the second feed. It was time to make dough.

From there, I followed the recipe given to me but, again, without watching the clock. The loaf was ready at 10PM on the third day. I wrapped it in cloth for the morning. We enjoyed every single slice with butter and homemade pear or strawberry jam.

Sourdough is certainly not for the hurried mama. It’s a long game. One that requires frequent checking in and attention but once master, what a gift it is to all those who know you!