IT’S BAKING DAY!!!

Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for; it’s time to bake some sourdough bread!

I’ve been so focused on getting the starter going that I hadn’t actually put a whole lot of research into the recipe I was going to use to bake my bread. After a quick scour of the internet, I found this recipe from Little Spoon Farm that seemed easy enough to follow. I appreciated that the blog had a “jump to recipe” button because I was not interested in reading pages of preamble. I also really liked that the recipe itself was broken into sections for the different steps in baking the bread.

 

 

Once I had my dough mixed together, I kinda went rogue. Not the direction you thought this would go, was it? Yeah, me either. I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to start mixing information from this TikTok video with what I was doing. I think being able to see how things look life is a comfort for me, and probably why I enjoy video sources rahter than just text instructions. Will this serve me well? You’ll find out soon, I guess.

Following the instructions from Genevieve, I did one set of stretch and folds, and a couple sets of coil and folds. When I did my first set of stretch and folds, I was more than a little concerned. Gerri didn’t look anything like the dough in the video. But the further on I went, the better she looked, so I kept up hope and into the fridge she went.

The Next Day….

This is where I fell off the picture-taking wagon. Honestly, I was just so excited, and maybe a little scared, to bake Gerri that I didn’t think to take pictures until she was in the oven…which was a little too late. Scoring the loaf was so fun, and probably the part I was most excited for during this entire journey. Who doesn’t want to draw on bread?!

I followed Genevieve’s video again, and baked Gerri for 20 minutes with the lid on, and 30 minutes with the lid off. This was the result…

Gerri isn’t the most beautiful sourdough loaf I’ve ever seen, she didn’t honestly rise a whole lot in the oven, and she got a little crispy on the bottom. BUT she still tastes delicious!

 

With the rest of reading week still ahead of me, I think I’m going to attempt another loaf before classes start up again. Here is what I plan on doing differently next time…

1. 1. 1. Pick a recipe and stick it out all the way through. Maybe it was the mixing of techniques and dough recipe that made Gerri a little flat?
      2. Feed Gerri at a higher ratio before baking. I fed at a 1:1:1, but I’ve heard that feeding at a 1:3:3 might be better for when you want to bake, instead of just keeping your starter alive?
      3. I bought some rice flour to use on the loaf before I put it in the oven. I think the bottom had too much bread flour stuck to it and that might have contributed to the burning…