The Sourdough Saga - the disaster continues

Oh woe is me...

The 2nd attempt has been nearly (not quite as the result is at least partly edible) as disastrous as the first.



However, for brick now read pancake.

I swear I followed the instructions - sort of.....

but I ran out of time, so I stuck the whole lot in the fridge overnight - see left how it came out. I thought it looked alright..

I knew that I had to let it warm up for a couple of hours in the morning so I did just that. Except it never really rose properly again after turning it and shaping it. I think I should have put it in the fridge much earlier on, instead of giving it pretty much the full rise time before it went in, as I think I exhausted my starter and shaping the bread just pushed all the oomph out and there was nothing left to carry on.


Nice crust, but soggy inside... tasted ok day one, but the nice air bubbles showing in the photo subsided like a soggy brick day two. Now binned like Take One....


Never mind.

Better luck next time.. maybe it will be third time lucky?

The Sourdough saga - day 2

Bread hit the bin.

Interestingly, it was less sour yesterday after sitting overnight. But there was no doubt of its brickdom.

So... starters out of the fridge, sat overnight to warm up, fed 1:4:4 by weight this morning - rye, one white. Rye came out much doughier, white more liquid, obviously down to the absorbency of the flour.

That was at 9 am , now half one, and only small bubbles on both. So alive but not thriving. Will have to split and feed again this evening and keep my fingers crossed.

If I can get this up and running properly, I can test my idea that perhaps eating sourdough bread will be good for the system and fight any candida that might be affecting my weight loss (for which read lack of...)

Making Sourdough.... first trial.

When we were in France recently, I was eating the gorgeous pain de seigle that is served everywhere. Lovely moist bread, slightly grey in colour, just a slight tang from the rye.

Could I find it here... no chance.

The nearest I could find was the pain levain that is on sale in most good supermarkets (we don't have a good artisan baker near here) but that was still not quite it.

Levain - that is sourdough. So I started my internet searches, found tons of info on sourdough starters, and started my own. That was a week ago, and yesterday, I reckoned my starter was lively enough to bake bread with. After wandering around, I decided on Susan's Favourite Sourdough at Wild Yeast


weeeeeeelllllllll.....

I don't think I got it right this time. The bread is rather dark and hard and very very sour. I might try cutting very thin slices and drying it to see if makes nice crispy melba toast things, but I don't think I want to eat it as bread.

I think I was generally impatient:

a) I think I didn't let the starter get quite lively enough before I started.
b) I don't think I proved it quite enough - or that it was taking too long because I hadn't done a)
c) No oven spring, so something wasn't right.
d) Over cooked so crust is hard not crackly.

So starter out of the fridge again and feed until I see much more vigorous growth and start again.

by which time my dough whisk and scrapers should have arrived from the USA. Amazingly it was cheaper to buy from there and have it sent, than to buy in the UK (assuming I ever found a dough whisk which I hadn't up to now.) I bought it from Breadtopia - a very informative site.

naughty lazy girl

I am a naughty lazy girl.

This blog is for my own benefit. But if I don't keep on the straight and narrow I can't seem to bring myself to report myself here. How mad is that?

Are there secret judges in my heart?
Am I a multiple personality that is going to make me stay in detention if I don't eat right?

Or am I just lazy?

Perhaps a bit of all three...LOL

Well to report to myself en bref...

pasta, bread, sarnies, potatoes.

Does that say it all? I think it might do..