I had to laugh… I ran into a friend (who I had just taken a sourdough workshop with) in the bread aisle at Whole Foods. Imagine hearing this while you’re shopping: “Mother isn’t doing well – I don’t know if she’s cold or hungry. I keep trying to make her happy, at this point, she’s just going to have to toughen up”. I noticed an odd look. Ok, I wasn’t talking about a person, it was the “Mother” for the sourdough bread, ha ha… Pictured above is Try #1…

I think there is so much “out there” online, in books, etc. that it tends to make sourdough bread baking such a confusing subject. The workshop was great, we came home with a loaf to finish up and put in the oven the next day (above) and it was delicious. When I tell you it was good, it was far beyond any bread I’ve bought. It was delightful!

So I’ve continued to feed Mother and she’s not getting bigger (ruh roh). So I made a Start this AM waited a few hours and dropped a little dough into water to see if it would float (YES! This is a good sign!). Since it did, I continued on adding flour, filtered water and salt. I’ll tug and tuck a few more times before baking tomorrow. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to tug and tuck the day I bake, I don’t think I did.

Tomorrow I reach in with wet hands, scoop the dough out of the glass bowl and onto parchment – oven preheated to 450, I will drop the parchment into the heavy bottom dutch oven (I use this one that I bought 100 years ago on sale) and bake it – 39 minutes covered, 8 minutes uncovered (last time I tried 40 minutes covered and 7 minutes uncovered)… baby steps to figure it out. Will be thrilled once I’m not using so much brainpower on this bread, ha ha. There are so many different techniques, it’s fascinating!

If you have any sourdough bread tips for a beginner – feel free to send them my way! #itsgoodstuff

🎉ON ANOTHER NOTE! I would like to wish my dad the happiest birthday ever. He beat me to the sourdough bread baking workshop, but only by a day! He took a workshop in Michigan at a cool farm. Learned a lot, but like the rest of us, this can be overwhelming to try to figure out. I love a challenge and I know he does too! Happy birthday Dad!! 🙏🎂🥖🍞⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥖Until next time…