Old World Authentic Sourdough Success!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's 9:37pm and I'm covered with dirt, grass, probably bugs, and so excited to write...here I am.  Today has been the best Mother's Day I've had in seven years...long story I'll spare you. The day started out so quiet, overcast and a bit boring. But as the day progressed it got sunnier and so did my day. Hope all your Mother's Day's were nice too : )

Well I have FINALLY had success with my bread! I am so exited to know that I can keep my sourdough starter going and bake wonderful bread every weekend! This is so much better than store bought, and better for you...it's TOTALLY worth the effort. As you can see we didn't wait even 15 min to cut into this bread. We had no lunch no dinner and it was 9pm and we were totally starving and so excited it turned out so well, we had farm eggs steamed in the shell with homemade bread and butter for dinner tonight.

Today's journey came from a couple of new website's I found to be very informative and helpful. One is called Wild Yeast and the other is The Fresh Loaf. Great sites, be sure to go visit if your into baking breads.

Since it's late I won't be posting the recipe quite yet, but I just had to get a post in this weekend and share my success with you...not that I can tell anyone is reading...but I'm hopeful, yes, that is my nature. And I'm having such a great time with this blog. I love writing and sharing my experiments and success with you, and I am also hopeful I will hear from someone, somewhere, at some point. HINT.

I have percentage ratio's I found successful for the starter, flour, and water this time. The amount of starter is almost double from what I've been using, (and as you have read, I've been getting way too dense of a loaf).
The water is actually more and the flour is less, so I've learned alot so far. I've also learned to only steam for the first 20 minutes of the baking and take the water out after that. The last thing to mention is that I learned a new technique to add to the kneading process, it's called Folding, which is just like it sounds. Before the kneading process you get in a couple of foldings both an hour apart or so, and you make a rustic square shape and fold over fully, then half a fold meeting the middle and fold the other part into the middle half way and you turn it over and let it rest another hour, adding air and rising power to your dough. It worked well!

This time it has a wonderful crusty crust and a very soft light airy inside and it's white and whole wheat so it's got great flavor too. I am so pleased that now I have a successful base to start working with and now I can focus on fine tunning and perfecting this recipe and while I'm working on that, meantime we can enjoy it too!

My previous post for Honey Starter is a definite great starter and I'm still using it. I feed it 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water each time I use it. Remember if you plan to use it more you must feed it more. I have a feeling this recipe will also be able to make some great pizza crust as well so I may feed it extra this week so I can make pizza soon.

So, I've found a way to make my own yeast agent and omit buying yeast at the store. I feel very triumphant this evening...now to go get in the shower! What a wonderful day it's been.

Sometime between now and next weekend I'll be posting what Chuck was working on all day today...the biggest and most beautiful flowers I ever got for Mother's Day! I was a social butterfly for the biggest part of the day, either talking to neighbors passing by, or on the phone with Mom, Andrew or Cinda. Then Cinda came by with two huge containers of clothes to go through (I LOVE HAND ME DOWNS) while we had girl talk and got caught up on eachother's lives which was so nice, as we don't see eachother often anymore. She also brought a couple starter plants from her Mom & Dad's house for us which was so great.

Did I mention I had a great day?

Who would love my secret "so far" recipe for this BEAUTIFUL OLD WORLDE ARTISAN SOURDOUGH WHEAT LOAVES?????

Anyone??


Janie