Living Bread - More Thoughts on Sourdough

Still on the bread theme here – but learning lots as I go and having some fun in the process. Every day I have been working on making my own sourdough – and by that I mean getting to know my starter, how it reacts with different flours as well as what it can do.

So far, I am consistently baking a great tasting loaf with the best crust I have ever tasted for a bread. The taste is crunchy, sweet and sort of like it has been fried in butter…I must admit, I never thought a sourdough bread would taste this good!

Inside, the bread itself is not overly sour – I don’t let it rise for hours and hours. Usually my bread is reaching it’s peak at about 4 – 6 hours or so. I have been reading how some people let the bread rise (the first time) for about 18 hours or so.

I will probably try that to see what difference it might make with the taste, texture and result of the bread. Right now I am really enjoying this process of learning, experimenting and seeing where it all takes me.

Either way – it is still not rising in the oven as much as I would like it to. So I have been changing flours around to see if that makes a difference. Usually I do all of my baking with organic whole grain spelt (and have for years)…using different flours such as organic wheat certainly adds a new dimension to baking for me.

And we are enjoying all of this homemade bread – well, our bread has always been homemade, but now we have different tastes, flavours and textures for each meal. One thing about my sourdough, and perhaps everyone else’s – the taste changes each time you bake with it….

The bread has become a dynamic, living part of our meals. Amazing! 

April

Sourdough Olive bread made with organic whole grain spelt flour