Bread - the stuff of life!

I am still working away at making the perfect sourdough and I think (ok, I want to believe!) I am getting there. I probably have a long way to go yet, but I will bring you up to speed on what I am doing so far.

My sourdough starter culture is great – it’s a only a few weeks old, but it smells wonderful, grows (doubles, then triples) whenever I feed it and ask it to do something. It is made from organic rye flour and clean well water.

I have followed several books with directions on how to make a great sourdough bread…only to have everything go well until I put it in the oven to bake. Then it bakes up really nicely (we love the crust) but doesn’t rise the way I would like it to.

The bread dough rises all along each stage…then when I place it in the oven it falls flat. I have been reading what other people are saying about this, and have tried their suggestions, but so far – nothing has worked for me.

So – now I must resort to using my own intuition!!! LOL

My gut tells me that first of all it was too cold, so I can upped to heat and placed some hot water in a pan underneath the rising loaves. Then, that my starter culture was still young and for the most part, this is the process a person goes through to get to know their own bread. It is also the flour I am using - organic whole grain for the most part. 

The bread I have made is quite edible and we all enjoy the taste – it’s just not rising like I want it to.

Therefore – my conclusions at this point – are that it’s all good. My starter culture is walking me through the bread making process teaching me how to understand it, watch it and be a lot more in touch with what is taking place inside as well as outside as it grows along with my new skills.

I am learning how to ‘read’ the culture – when it tells me to bake, to rest and perhaps even which flour to use. Life for me just arrived at a new level and has become a whole lot more interesting!

Bread – the stuff of life…..

April