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Sourdough journey so far!

I often hear stories where there are at least two generations of people in the family who have been baking, but baking has never been a part of my family nor has anyone been a baker.  I always admired people who could bake those beautiful cakes and delicious loaves of bread.

I got into baking 6 years ago after getting married and moving to the USA, the advantage of having an oven at home gave me the start.  I began with cakes and cookies and quick breads such as banana bread.  Once I figured following instructions came naturally to me, I started looking for more challenging and time-consuming recipes, I then eventually ventured into baking bread and all kinds of them. I immediately fell in love with the art of baking bread.

It was love at first sight for me in many ways when the thought of freshly baked dinner rolls from Goa brought back so many childhood memories and joy that I wanted to relive those moments in every bite.  I started to learn to bake like most people do these days with the help of the internet and all the videos available online.  I eventually went on to create some recipes that suited my style of baking as well, but there was still one thing that I was yet to discover among many more aspects of baking and that was Sourdough.

I first came across sourdough bread at a bakery and the smell and flavor of it instantly attracted me towards it and hence my journey towards understanding it began.

For two years, I had been contemplating making a sourdough starter but after a failed attempt, I was honestly scared and this was until I saw a video by Chef John from FoodWishes,com and I followed his recipe where I only changed the flour to all-purpose and whole wheat flour, I followed his instructions step by step and was finally able to achieve a successful starter.  This was the happiest day of my life because I had no clue what sourdough was for a long time and was always left confused even after reading a few blogs.

Here is the first glimpse of my completed starter.


The next few days followed a successfully baked bread but with no stretch and fold or autolyse, but just made into one sourdough bread with salt added at first step and actually all things wrong somehow went right.

I had no idea of the steps involved and all I cared about was to make one boule that resembled what I saw online and here it is.




Trust me I was very happy with the outcome.

Next, I came across a workshop conducted by Master Baker Samruddhi in Bangalore at KrumbKraft and I finally did a two-day workshop which gave me a good idea of what sourdough is.  Today its been about 2 months since the workshop and I have had 8 successful attempts and 4 failed attempts and I am still working on it.

Currently, I am learning how different kinds of flours and combinations can be used.  I have so far made bread using all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour and a mix of it as well.  As I get comfortable with it, I would like to try with seeds and many other combinations.

Growing up in Goa and having consumed bread as a staple for at least one meal a day, baking bread is now an everyday phenomenon and the flavor of freshly baked goodness is just too heavenly for words, having said that I plan to open my own Bread Boulangerie soon.

So, here are a few pics of all the sourdough bread I have baked so far (only the successful attempts, LOL).

The first bread I baked, I did not have any scoring tool, used a serrated knife instead and a doily for the stencil.


The second one turned out a lot better with texture though.



Tried sourdough dinner rolls (hybrid)


Sourdough potato bread which eventually took the shape of the dutch oven while baking and hence the holes from the lid.



And this is my latest, I made a boule with spinach puree and pepper flakes.





I have also created a few recipes with all my understanding of sourdough technique, the link to which is below.

100% Sourdough Dinner Rolls


and 

Sourdough Dinner Rolls with yeast



 With each loaf of bread that comes out of the oven, I am filled with excitement, not just for the successful ones but even the failed attempts. There's always something to learn and a technique to perfect.

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