Day three: sourdough bread starter…

The recipe very clearly stated I needed to feed the starter for at least three full days prior to making bread, which puts baking day as tomorrow. I cheated. I baked today.

I knew the strength of the starter was already pretty incredible, as it had already blew the tightly fitting lid off, multiple times. So after much scientific reasoning, I figured the worst that could happen is that it would flop, and I would try again tomorrow. Lord knows I have plenty of starter.

My recipe called for a stiff sourdough starter and I have been given and feeding a liquid sourdough starter. I had two options: turn my liquid into a stiff starter or convert my recipe to the liquid starter ratio. I chose the latter, as I really did not want to alter the beautiful starter. I spent considerable time completing the conversions. Yet, while my math skills have improved significantly since eighth grade when I struggled with math, my calculations clearly were not amazing and my bread baking took off for a sloppy start; truthfully, it was a horrifically sloppy start.

But since I have baked bread faithfully for quite some time, I did not panic, begin to sob or throw the glop away. Rather, I turned the mess into bread dough. Then, I recalculated the recipe and made the bread a second time for comparison’s sake.

Now the only problem is I cannot remember, which loaves were the sloppy mess and which ones were the refined calculations. I can assure you this fault in my memory is unimportant, as all the bread turned out beautifully. 


Ok, so I recognize that some of the loaves look better than others, but who judges on appearance only?

While I’m typically a rule follower, this is the perfect example of why it is ok to break the rules once in a while! Not only is the taste incredible, I did not have to add any starter to the bucket in the fridge. 


Good bye, swimming pool. Hello, bread. 


Neighbors and friends, be warned, get your bread faces ready!

Tomorrow, I’m going to experiment with different flours, wheat and rye. Wish me luck.