Friday, July 27, 2012

Sourdough

I've finally done it. After 2 failed attempts last year I decided that my fear of sourdough starters needed to be overcome. So I bought The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart because of the rave reviews and tried again. And it worked! I am so happy. Finally I can make sourdough bread in my own home.

I grew up in California living off of sourdough bread. More than any other bread, sourdough, for me, is nostalgia. My mom and my dad would make me sandwiches with sourdough growing up. A baguette of sourdough always accompanied my mom's amazing pot roast or stew. My mom would even send me care packages with loaves of bread. I know. I'm crazy about sourdough. But I think everyone should be. There is absolutely no bread that even comes close. Sure, I love other breads. I don't think a BLT is the same unless its on toasted wheat bread. But sourdough is my go to bread.

The process of making the starter in itself took a while and there were a lot of instructions and web searches to make sure I was doing things correctly. But this time consuming process paid off. Yesterday I pulled out 2 loaves of bread from my oven and to my surprise it tasted great! I thought for sure I was going to mess up somewhere along the way. So glad I haven't (so far). The loaves aren't the most beautiful things that I have ever made, but I'm hoping with a little practice and some hard work I can get them (close to) perfect.


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