Sourdough Madness!

Hello dear friends,

 For some time I have been thinking about trying my hand at making sourdough bread.  I studied the King Arthur Flour website and Pinterest but to be honest the process seemed complicated and labour intensive.  I read that keeping a sourdough starter is a bit like keeping a pet as it needs frequent feedings.  I also learned that many people actually name their sourdough starter.

As with so many people I am now working from home so I thought I would try making my own starter.  Below is a photo of "Sally"! I have learned however that our old stone house is too cold to create a sourdough starter.  I have also learned that it takes a lot of flour to make the starter and get it to the point where it is possible to bake bread with it.  After a week of feeding the starter, not seeing any activity, fretting over how much flour I was using and then feeling that the sourdough "discard" was taking over the farm I am finally seeing the beginnings of success!

Our secret was to use a seed starting heating mat, place the starter on a metal rack on top of the mat and then covering it with a box.  It is quite a lot of work but rather than dwell on the labour part I thought I would share with you some of the results!

The sourdough starter begins with one cup of whole wheat flour mixed with one half cup of water.  Mix it thoroughly and place it in a jar while waiting for magic to happen.  Or in our case, to not happen.  😓  Every day the starter must be "fed" by removing all but one half cup of the mix and "feeding" it with one cup of unbleached all purpose flour and one half cup water.  This process is repeated for several days.  As you can imagine this uses a lot of flour and although I have a supply of flours at home as I love to bake it is currently in very short supply at the shops.  

The portion of starter that is removed each day is referred to as "discard".  There are many recipes available on line to use up sourdough discard so it doesnt need to go to waste.  The first recipe I tried was sourdough pizza crust.  I learned that sourdough pizza is well suited to strongly flavoured toppings.  So we tried pizza with Asiago cheese, spinach and spicy Italian sausage.  It was delicious!  The photo doesn't do it justice.

Each new feeding creates more discard.  Next up was a recipe for rustic sourdough pasta.  It was really very simple calling for a mixture of starter, flour and eggs.  I rolled it out as thinly as possible, used a pizza cutter to cut it into little strips and boiled it for a few minutes.  It was scrumptious with a chewy texture.  I prepared it with a bottle of store bought pasta sauce, leftover Italian sausage and spinach from the pizza, and the rest of the Asiago cheese.  We loved it!

I see why professional food photographers use plain white china.  This is my old set of Villeroy & Boch kitchenware.  The pattern is no longer available but I love it.  It does distract a bit from the beauty of the dish though.  :)  

I forgot to mention sourdough discard waffles!  Scrumptious served with butter and maple syrup.

Finally yesterday I was able to bake some bread.  As with everything I am sure that practice will make the process perfect.  I baked 2 boules and while they were quite acceptable I think that my efforts will need some improvement.  The bread was quite heavy and the crust didnt "shatter" which seems to be one of the characteristics of a great sourdough loaf.  

I also tried a sourdough sandwich loaf.  It looks great!  We will try this today when I make turkey sandwiches.

After two weeks of trial and error (and lots and lots of flour) I now have a starter that is bubbly and has been rising.  It will need regular feedings if I want to bake lots of bread or it can be stored in the refrigerator and feed weekly.

I was astonished to find daily articles about the number of people that are baking sourdough breads while staying at home. Baking has enjoyed quite a resurgence! Perhaps in part because the supply of so many items at the grocery store is unpredictable.  I have only just seen toilet paper at the shop in town! But we have all experienced the anxiety of seeing entire shelved devoid of products.  Many of us have noted that it is difficult to purchase flour and other related items that are used in baking.  I do find baking relaxing and there is a certain feeling of security in being able to create something from scratch.

Dear friends, I hope that you enjoyed this little sourdough journey.  I am looking forward to baking a few times a week and creating new foods for us to try.  I hope that you are all staying safe at home and that you and those you love are all healthy and well.