You guys. I went to battle with sourdough again. I don’t know why, but sourdough is my nemesis. I can make it, but it annoys me. It’s needy and there’s tons of waste with the discard (at least initially). Added to that, the last time I made it, the kids said it was “ok”, but they liked my regular bread better. Ugh.
But here we are with a sourdough event so I tried again and also a book inspiration.
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a strange one, to be sure. I was hooked immediately. And I was almost immediately conflicted.
At first Natalie seems approachable and being a Catholic woman, myself, who spent 9 years as an at home mom, and who still loves cooking things from scratch...well... the "tradwife" comments that are currently so common on social media do grate. Honestly, I could kinda relate to Natalie...at first.
But at the same time, I found Natalie to be a self-righteous snob and couldn't stand her. I pretty quickly deduced that she'd be an unreliable narrator.
Then came the "twist" and you guys. If I had to rate the book after the twist, it would be a 1.5 star review, I just didn't buy in. However, the first half was engaging enough that I bumped it to 2.5, but since Goodreads doesn't do halves, I rounded up. So take that as you will.
View all my reviews
I tried a different starter recipe this time, and it started strong and then lagged out…possibly (almost certainly) due to an inconsistent feeding schedule (because apparently sourdough needs to be fed at the same time each day (ugh, needy)). Anyway , I perked it back up by feeding it twice per day per recipe instructions and decided to make the bread.
My other beef with sourdough is how time consuming the shaping and proofing process can be, so I searched around and found a recipe for same day sourdough. This sourdough proofs in one day and uses a large amount of starter, both of which were right up my alley.
I have real issues maintaining a starter long term, so I was happy when the recipe took all the starter I had on hand (since I made a half recipe from the starter above). Did I mention that even though this is a same day sourdough it still takes all day (so much proofing), so be prepared.
After I got through all the proofing and stretching steps (leaving my ac off on an extremely humid summer day, all day, so I could have a nice toasty bread rising environment) things looked…not great. My “shaped” dough lost its shape immediately after I removed it from the bowl, but well, I’d used all my starter, so I plopped it in the dutch oven and hoped for the best.
Imagine my surprise when a beautiful loaf came out at the end!
The bread was soft, spongy, not over baked in the least (a definite issue in previous attempts)! This was actually the most successful sourdough I’ve made yet and I had doubted!
I served it with dinner and Spud (who didn’t remember the previous attempts) remarked, “yum, this is like restaurant bread!” What?!?
Anyway, Spud is now a fan and I guess I will be fighting the sourdough starter fight again (since he requested it this week)! Maybe I’ll even maintain the starter long term next time!
Sourdough Starter
Adapted from The Clever Carrot
Day 1
¼ cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons water
Days 2-7
¼ cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons water
Dough
Adapted slightly from The Pantry Mama
500 grams (about 4 cups) flour
350 grams (about 1 ½ cups) warm water
150 grams (about ¾ cup) sourdough starter
10 grams (about 1 tablespoon) salt
On day 1, place the whole wheat flour and water in a mason jar. Stir to mix. Scrape down the sides, cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm area for 24 hours
Days 2-7. Each day, feed the starter at approximately the same time. To feed, discard half of the starter, then add ¼ cup all purpose flour and 2 tablespoons water. Stir to mix, scrape down sides, cover and repeat until day 7.
By day 7 the starter should be bubbly and double in size after feeding. If not, add an additional feeding (and discard) at the 12 hour mark until the starter is active.
To make the bread, mix together the flour, water, starter, and salt. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm area for 45 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl, stretch the sides and fold the dough over itself 4 times. Return to bowl, cover, and rest for 15-30 minutes. Retreat 4 times (over the course of about 1 ½ hours).
After stretching, return to bowl, cover, and allow the dough to rise, undisturbed for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
Prepare a proofing basket or liberally dust a tea towel with flour and place it in a colander as a diy proofing basket.
Turn the dough out and shape into a tight ball. Place the ball, seam side up, in the prepared basket. Set aside in a warm area to rise until doubled in size, another 1-2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with the dutch oven inside. Meanwhile, briefly place the risen dough into the freezer to stop the rising process and to make it easier to score.
Once the oven is preheated, remove the dough from the freezer and carefully turn it out onto a square of parchment paper (try not to lose all the air, but also, mine totally stuck to the cloth and it managed to turn out alight).
Put the hot dutch oven on a cooling rack. Use the corners of the parchment to carefully lower the bread into the dutch oven (the parchment will also be used for easy removal). Immediately put the cover on and return to the oven.
Bake for 25 minutes, then remove cover, lower oven temperature to 415 and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until the top is browned. Remove from the oven and remove bread from the dutch oven to cool. Cool completely before cutting.
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