Liza’s loaves – a bread making adventure

Last year I bought Grown and Gathered's new book and in early November I decided to give bread making a go. I made my first sourdough starter and was thrilled – feeding it and watching it bubble meant I was getting closer and closer to my self-sustainable dream life with each passing day! At that stage I thought the weather wasn’t warm enough for it to grow properly and so I put it next to our internet modem in the spare room for extra warmth. When my gorgeous friends Claire, Em and Chels came over for a dinner and movie night one Friday I excitedly showed them my bubbling creation. I pulled the lid off and WHAM! - a smell like strong nail polish removed hit us! The girls all gave me their words of concern. Emma and I remained hopeful but alas, the book said that if it starts to smell funny (like nail polish remover!) to throw it out and start again. Five days in I was pretty disheartened...but down the sink it went.

A month or so later mum’s friend Lesley came to stay. Mum and Les met in college where they studied catering so they each know their fair share about food. Les is one of the most straightforward and down to earth people I know. She asked how my bread adventure had gone (because excited me posted a photo on instagram when I had first made the starter, and had failed to then update the world that I had actually ended up pouring it down the sink!) I told her about the smell and what had happened and that I hadn’t tried again because I now thought the weather was too hot to make another one and that the same problem would happen again if I did. “Nonsense!” She said, “I think it would be fine if it smelt like that – give it another go and if the bread tastes funny then you’ll know the starter is no good.” I thought her lack of anxiety was exciting because of course, she reminded me, the ingredients are cheap so it wouldn't matter if I stuffed it up. So with that, the new starter was made! 

In the meantime, Les went out and bought commercial single strain yeast and flour to show me the process of breadmaking so that once I had my sough dough starter I would know exactly what to do. It should be said that there is certainly so much more you can learn in person with someone than just reading out of a book. The single strain yeast bread we made was so much more impressive than I imagined – it had a thick crust, it was a perfect round loaf shape and looks terribly rustic. You could definitely taste that it was only one strain of yeast though, so backed by the confidence of practicing with that loaf, I set off determined to achieve success with my new starter.

Long story short, I have been using my new starter ever since. I check it for mold and for any colour other than its warm yellow to make sure it is still fine, but other than that I feel as though I can never really kill it. I feed it every few days or just keep it in the fridge until the day before I need it. I have made a number of different loaves, trying to remember all the slight alterations I have made each time. I have found though, that despite the changes you make in the amount of water, time proving, kneading or no kneading etc, you seem to end up with the same loaf each time. 

SOME OF THE THINGS I HAVE LEARNT INCLUDE: 

• 2 teaspoons of salt is definitely much better than one.
• A thin based tin is no good and the bread sticks – my only real stuff up in my bread making apart from the first starter.
• More water is better than less. This goes for the sourdough starter as well.
• Less heat is better than more – but only slightly – 190-200 on my oven is best. Any higher and I just seem to burn it, any lower and it doesn't seem to crust nicely.
• Leaving it for almost a day vs overnight doesn’t change the loaf that much – at least not that I am noticing. I like this because sometimes I want bread by the time the evening is here so as long as I have my sourdough starter out of the fridge in the morning, I am fine to make a loaf within the day.
• The other thing I have noticed is if I bring the starter out of the fridge, feed it and sit it in a bowl of hot/warm water is bubbles within a few hours. I’m sure it would be stronger if I left it for a day but I haven’t always and it works fine. 
• There is a very vague and wide margin for error that you can play with that most people/websites/blogs don’t talk about. All recipes seem to say it must be done like this 'or else', but I have found this really isn’t the case at all
• Mum didn’t want me using her big heavy crockpot in the oven because I put it up to such a high heat (200 degrees) and she thinks it is no good for the pot. Shame! So I had to buy a bread tin from Simply No Knead. The bread is certainly fantastic but because of its long rectangle shape, it looks more commercial now instead of artisan or rustic. This shape is better for eating though because it is in an even shape throughout the whole loaf - perfect for slicing. If I want to impress people though, I prefer the round shape….even though it's exactly the same dough!

A homemade sourdough loaf costs about $2. This is significantly lower than the $7-8 for a good loaf in the shops and the only difference is you have to mix and then wait a day or so - easy! I make about a loaf of bread a week for my family of 3. The first few times I was making about two a week but the novelty has worn off a bit and I am no longer eating bread for breakfast lunch and dinner (my waist says 'thank god!')

Would you be interested in my recipe and process for making sourdough? I can make a new post with this if you say yes!

Love, Liza 

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