Sourdough Bread!

Today, and Yesterday, and the Day Before…

I finally got the starter that Pam gave me fed enough, awakened, cajoled, and patted on the head so that I thought it might be willing to work for me. These little masses have to be handled more precisely than a fancy show horse. I know they can be revived after neglect, but they won’t work for you without you following a whole ream of instructions. The amount of advice and numbers of questions, and plethora of troubleshooting articles on the internet shows I’m not the only one trying to get the timing, grams, proportions, order of operations, containers, rising times, textures, and bubble displays just right. 

Well, I didn’t get them all just right, but I made some bread. One loaf after hours and days and nights, and an early morning check of bubbles. It wouldn’t win any prizes at the county fair, but it was edible and Better Half was enthusiastic. I said I’d try again next week. Maybe in ten years I might get the system learned. (My own breadmaking, with yeast, up to this time was start to finish in three hours, including rising, with lots of latitude for this much of this and about that much of that, and I feel like adding this or this and that. Oh, well, new adventures.)

I know, the “ears” aren’t right, might be under-proofed (I was trying hard not to over-proof), and maybe too dense. But it wasn’t gooey (though I had to restrain hubby from eating it fresh out of the oven - it did smell good), and the crust was crisp, but maybe too crisp. Experience will tell. 

So, number one. It’s probably like paintings: the first 100 don’t count, just practice pieces.