Joining the Sourdough Bandwagon

Getting Dough: Sourdough

If you’ve got 48 hours, go for it

When the pandemic first began and the subsequent quarantine period was in full force, I began to notice something on my social media platforms: LOT OF BREAD. Specifically, sourdough. I like to bake, and I like watching shows about baking, and if there’s one thing i’d always told myself, it’s that making sourdough bread looked like torture. It was the hours / days it would take to prepare a sourdough started, followed by the many more hours of kneading, and folding, and proving, and rising… who has time for all of that? Turns out, I do.

This past weekend was cold, and raining, and actually felt like winter. It felt like my bones were screaming “make bread and soup, NOW!”. Who am I to ignore me? So, if you feel a need to do the same, here’s some info about my first time making sourdough bread.

I got my started from Breadtopia. Here’s the link to the specific starter I bought, and here’s the link for how to revive it.

• When I received my starter in the mail, I followed the instructions and began reviving it right away. You have to do this because it is a live culture and if left for too long, it will die.

• I fed the starter twice in a space of 18 hours and by this point, it was very lively and ready for use.

I searched online for many different recipes and decided on a recipe from Alexandra’s Kitchen. I liked the recipe because it was called “Easy Sourdough Bread (whole Wheat-ish”. I was drawn to the word “easy”. Also, it came with lots of pictures and videos. Here’s the link to Alexandra’s Sourdough.

So, how did I do? To be honest, I was surprised that my bread turned out… PERFECT! I don’t k now why, but I was not optimistic during the process. I’d seem many people post about their bread baking disasters, and I’d seen enough Great British Bake Off to know that the slightest temperature change in your home could lead to disaster. Check out my very first venture into the Sourdough world:

Final Thoughts:

• Would I do this again? yes (I too am surprised by this answer)

• How long did it take from “starter” to finish”? About 42 hours (I actually skipped a step that said to let it rest for 6 more hours).

• How did it taste? Absolutely wonderful.

#LTIL