All of this staying at home lately has really made me feel extra domesticated. We’ve been eating at home since mid March and I’m loving it! I decided to try my hand at sourdough bread. Before this whole pandemic thing I wasn’t really eating much bread. I was trying to be healthier and just cut it out as much as possible. When this pandemic hit, I found myself eating sandwiches every day for lunch. It’s just an easy go to! My love for egg sandwiches was revived. I forgot how good they are!
Sourdough is supposed to be much healthier since the flour goes through a fermentation process that makes it easier to digest. The Bible mentions bread often so it must not have always been bad for you, right? I’m sure it has something to do with the processing of the ingredients, etc. that has changed over the years.
Creating a sourdough starter takes some patience, but it is so worth it when you bake that first loaf of bread. I was overwhelmed when I read some of the directions from various blogs about measuring the flour and water by weight and understanding the “hydration” of your starter. Don’t be fooled, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. I followed the directions on this blog. Lisa does a great job of making you feel like anything is possible with a sourdough starter. She has some great recipes too!
After about a week of making my starter and caring for it, I made these sourdough pancakes. They were delicious, but I wasn’t expecting the strong tangy flavor. I made them a few weeks later and they weren’t as tangy. I think it has something to do with the timing of feeding your starter.
I then put my starter in the fridge and took it out to discard and feed about once a week. I wondered if I could bake bread, and read a great tip that if you put a little bit of your starter in a glass of water and it floats, it’s ready to make bread. Mine wasn’t floating. I found a great beginner recipe that also incorporated dry active yeast so that the bread would rise. I tried it out and it was pretty good. I don’t think I let it rise long enough, though. It was sort of dense. You can find that recipe here.
I really didn’t want to use the dry active yeast though. I wanted straight up sourdough so I decided to leave the starter on my counter and discard and feed every morning and evening. After a week, it floated! I then used this recipe that I found on Pinterest and it was so easy and absolutely delicious!
We’ve grown so “attached” to the starter by feeding it twice a day that we lovingly named it after our street name. 🙂
I’m hoping that I can keep the starter going for years to come and make a healthier bread option for our household. I’m still learning and experimenting with different sourdough recipes!
Life lesson: Good things take patience! Keep sowing and you will reap!
Have you ever tried to make a sourdough starter or bread? I’d love to hear about your experience! Leave a comment below!