If you follow my photos on Instagram you'll already have seen that I have been slightly obsessed with baking bread just recently. At the beginning of the year I was tasked with looking after my neighbour's sourdough starter while she went away to Australia for several weeks.....This is where my sourdough journey began. I was feeding this jar of goop and desperately trying not to kill it and started to read a little about the process of baking bread that is naturally leavened, i.e baked without the use of commercial yeast. It was fascinating and I started to experiment with baking. My very first loaf turned out pretty great (at the time) and I was hooked. I began feeding my starter every day and baking two loves of bread every day. I think this has been the key to my success. In feeding my starter every day I got to know it's rises and falls, or as I like to think...it's moods :) I baked for a few weeks and was having success and enjoying the bread I was creating, then I read Tartine. This changed everything! I had read the book back when we lived in Tofino and Neil and I had made attempts at sourdough but it never really clicked. Now, after having fed and sustained a lively sourdough starter, baked some reasonable bread and grown a basic understanding of and passion for the process, it suddenly all made sense! I read the recipe for the basic country loaf once and now it's in my head forever. I bought myself a cast iron combo cooker figured out a baking schedule that works for our family and I haven't looked back. The bread is just flour, water, salt and some of my starter. It's an ancient process and the results are truly outstanding! I haven't bought a loaf of bread from the supermarket since January and I don't intend to any time soon! I mix it entirely by hand and let it proof overnight so that I can bake first thing in the morning. I make bread every other day usually and if I don't feel like baking two loaves we'll use the extra half of the dough for pizza. I can't explain to you how surprised I am that I found this passion for baking bread and I can't really express how yummy this bread is without sounding like I'm tooting my own horn but I am so proud of myself for sticking with it. I can't even begin to explain how great it makes me feel to feed this to my children instead of a loaf choc-full of preservatives and goodness knows what other junk. This bread has changed my life in a way. I'm excited in the morning waiting for the oven to reach 500 degrees. I'm excited to plop the dough out of the bowl and into the hot cast iron pan. I'm excited to see it rise and to watch it's crust turn it's beautiful burnished brown. Most of all, I'm excited to take it from the the heat of the oven and quietly listen as it cools and sings it's crackly song. How did I not know that bread could add this much magic to my life?
No comments:
Post a Comment