Confused and Discouraged

Now isn’t that a title that just draws you in and makes you want to read more? Ugh

I wish I had better news this week, but unfortunately, I do not. This time I followed this recipe from Gigi on Tiktok to the T. Ok, maybe not EXACTLY to the T because my scale maxed out when I was measuring the flour, and I had to estimate the last 400 grams or so.

What did I think of following Gigi’s video?

The length of a Tiktok video definitely has its pros and cons. I like that the information is condensed which means there is less filler than you might find in a YouTube video, for example. You get to the important stuff much faster. I also like that the video loops once it’s finished. This allowed me to listen to it again without having to stop what I’m doing and restart the video. Of course, being able to see how the dough should look is a huge plus that I’ve mentioned in other posts. The downside to this video in particular, is that it is not the complete baking process. It doesn’t contain a temperature and time to bake the bread. I ended up texting a friend and asking her how she baked her loaves. (If you want to follow Gigi to the T, I found this video that has baking instructions in the description).

Gerri looked great during the coil folds, and she nearly doubled during the bulk proof. I was starting to get hopeful! Neither loaf really rose in the fridge overnight, but my friend assured me that her loaves often looked the same. Luckily, she was baking sourdough that morning too, and was able to text me pictures of what her loaves looked like. I seemed to be on track, we were looking very similar. But this is where the similarities ended. Here and my loaves….

They were both from the same batch of dough, baked at the same temperature, for the same amount of time… Are you as confused as me? The first loaf looks nearly raw (it is baked through), but the outside is barely crusty, left alone brown. The other looks beautiful (I scored a giant F on the top of it, that gives you some idea of how I was feeling when I put that one in), but it barely rose at all! On the plus side, both loaves are edible and tasty, so that’s a small win.

What does this mean for my sourdough journey?

Well, I have officially deemed Gerri a dud. Gerri’s lack of strength seems to be the common denominator according to Food to Impress, The dough academy, Busby’s, and Voyo Eats. The evidence is mountain against her, so…..Gerri went in the trash. I’m not mad at Gerri, I’m disappointed. I’m not completely broken yet, so I’m going to try and make another starter using bread flour instead of rye flour. Here’s hoping that Hermione lives up to her name and gets stuff done!