Getting into Sourdough
Alright, so I decided I wanted to try making my own bread. Not just any bread, but that sourdough stuff everyone was going on about a while back. Looked tricky, but I thought, how hard can it really be? Just flour and water, right? Ha.
First Steps and Stumbles
First thing was getting a starter going. Saw a bunch of guides online. Mixed flour and water in a jar, left it on the counter. Supposed to feed it every day. Okay, did that. For a few days, nothing much happened. Then it got bubbly. Success? Maybe. Tried making bread with it. Total brick. Flat, dense, tasted weird. Definitely not right.
Went back to the drawing board. Maybe my starter wasn’t strong enough. Kept feeding it. Tried different flours, different feeding schedules. Read somewhere about using pineapple juice at the start? Skipped that, seemed weird.
The Actual Baking Bit
Okay, starter seemed more lively after like, two weeks. Smelled kinda like yogurt, but strong. Decided to give the bread another shot. This involved a whole process:
- Mixing the dough – sticky mess. Flour everywhere.
- Stretching and folding – felt like wrestling an octopus. Supposed to build strength? Felt like I was just making it angry.
- Bulk fermentation – leaving it alone for hours. Hardest part. Just waiting.
- Shaping – trying to make it into a nice round loaf. Mostly ended up as a weird blob.
- Proofing – more waiting, this time in the fridge overnight.
- Baking – finally! Used a heavy pot, preheated it like crazy. Scoring the top was tricky, my knife kept dragging.
What Went Wrong (Again)
Second loaf was better than the first brick, but still not great. The bottom was nearly burnt, the inside was kinda gummy. The crust was okay, I guess. But it didn’t have that ‘ear’ thing all the fancy pictures show. Still pretty frustrating. Seemed like a lot of work for a kinda okay loaf of bread.
Realized I was probably messing up the timings. Over-proofing? Under-proofing? Who knows. And the hydration – maybe too much water for me to handle as a beginner. It was just so sticky all the time.
Getting Somewhere
Didn’t give up though. Kept trying. Started measuring stuff more carefully. Watched the dough, not the clock, like people say. Learned to handle the sticky dough a bit better – wet hands are key, who knew? Third loaf… actually looked like bread! It wasn’t perfect, crust was a bit pale, but the inside? Decent holes! Tasted pretty good too. Felt like a proper achievement, finally.
Still learning, mind you. Every loaf is a bit different. But it’s kinda fun now, figuring it out. Takes patience, that’s for sure. More patience than I thought I had.
