Sourdough Madness.
This week, I have become utterly consumed by my new responsibilities as the caretaker of a sourdough starter. I didn’t realize I was basically adopting a pet when my friend dropped off some starter for us.
I’ve been going down internet rabbit holes, reading page after page of conflicting opinions about the best sourdough start feeding schedules and approaches, the recipes that make the best bread, the mistakes sourdough newbies must watch out for. As a person who does not tend towards pastimes that require precision, this has been mildly stressful and definitely time-consuming. It probably doesn’t help that my focus is particularly low right now (gee thanks, coronavirus anxiety) so everything feels more complicated.
I knew I was in deep when I found myself watching sourdough YouTube videos while unloading the dishwasher this morning. But, here we are! Right now, as I type this, after much fretting and approximately 3 trillion read throughs of an alarmingly scienfitic recipe, my sourdough bread is now sitting on our counter, a work in progress, at this exact moment.
It’s been folded twice, and there are still two more folds in its future yet tonight, an overnight resting period to let it rise, a whole process awaiting me tomorrow morning where I will wake up early to divide and proof the dough before finally, hopefully, bake it into something that is at least somewhat edible. Who knows?
…..
Update from 24 hours later: There were a few glitches, and I have notes for how to improve the bread next time… but a bread like substance successfully came out of our oven tonight! It actually tastes pretty good, just didn’t rise as much as I’d have liked.
But, the real hero of today? Sourdough pancakes! Oh my gosh! Where have these been all my life? I mixed up this batter and Sean cooked them in bacon grease. I feel like we reached a new level of quarantine with that Sunday breakfast.
The sourdough bread itself was pretty ugly, so it’s the pancakes pictured up above. We didn’t have any syrup, but apparently Sean’s family used brown sugar instead of syrup on their pancakes when he was growing up. So, we did that. Delicious!