Just another girl learning the art of sourdough...

One woman's journey to find herself by making delicious sourdough bread...

Back in April, my husband gifted me a sourdough making kit to commemorate our eighth wedding anniversary. I was so surprised, excited and (very) nervous to learn the process.

Ever since COVID, when everyone was learning how to bake their own bread, I had been wanting to learn. But I was very intimidated by the idea of sourdough and very much confused about its different components.

What is sourdough made of?

What is starter?

What is discard?

These are the questions I asked myself and honestly, they are what kept me from learning the process for so many years.

A dear friend of mine knew the art of sourdough and is what I would call a sourdough wizard. She would bless me and my family with fresh bread often. Especially after giving birth to my son back in September. And let me just tell you: there's nothing better than a slice of fresh bread smeared with grassfed irish butter & honey. Anyway, the way my friend blessed me, made me want to learn how to make sourdough so that I could bless those around me.

So flash forward to me literally SWEATING the first time I made a starter. I probably spent forty-five minutes mixing flour and water together, quadruple checking to make sure I had my ratios right. I began questioning all of my life choices at this point. Just kidding. But I was STRESSED - I did not want to mess this part up. After all, this is the most part of the process.

Some time went by and I began to get the hang of it all. At first, you want to feed your starter everyday to get it "activated." I got into a good rhymth: get rid of half the starter (I have a jar in the fridge I keep all my old starter aka discard in because you can use it in recipes like pancakes, waffles, chocolate cookies, the list goes on), feed my starter water, mix, feed it some flour, mix. Put the lid back on and repeat the next day.

Pretty soon my starter was “active” which means it had lots of bubbles and that classic sour smell. At first it kind of freaked me out, that something with such basic ingredients could ferment and become its own thing entirely. It was time to bake my first loaf…

I followed the directions to a tee.

I was feeling SO excited to wake up the next morning, get my dough that was proofing in the fridge all night and roll out some loaves.

Boy, was I disappointed.

I started trying to shape my dough into two sourdough loaves. I couldn’t even shape them without half the dough sticking to my hands. It was a MESS. My daughter watched me as I got quite frustrated and out of breath trying to manhandle this dough with no avail. The dough had been fed too much water (again, I followed the recipe) and / or my starter could not have been ready yet. But we’ll blame it on the water. I let the dough rest and came back to it. Both the bread and my brain needed it. I mean, it was bread. It shouldn’t be this difficult.

So I came back a while later and the dough was a tiny bit better to work with. I shaped my loaves, let them rest again (so much resting !) and then placed them in the oven. They did not turn out great. But they didn’t turn out bad necessarily either. My husband actually loved the bread and so did my daughter, Liv, who just loves bread period. I, however, immediately began to critique the loaf. Studying its crust, its aeration. It was really dense with a very pale crust. I was pretty sad. I had spent SO much time folding and resting and folding and resting and baking and resting. It was frustrating to not have produced a successful loaf.

But I was determined.

Next batch was much better. I did 50g less water and the texture of the dough was just way better overall. It was easier to work with and I could feel all the bubbles in the loaf before it was even baked. I was so proud!

As someone who doesn’t try new things often, especially things that involve scales and math and measuring in grams, I was feeling so proud of myself that I stuck with it and that with each loaf, I was learning how to make each one better.

I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions about sourdough. A lot of people have told me that it’s so easy once you get the hang of it and that you can’t ever really mess it up. I wouldn’t say it’s “easy” necessarily, but I am getting used to the flow of it all. I do agree with the "you can't really mess it up" advice, however.

Sourdough is SUCH a long process and I still can’t get over how long it takes to actually make the bread! I have heard so many methods to making sourdough and that is what makes it so confusing! There’s not one perfect way. And I wish there was. So here I am just figuring it out every week. You win some (loaves), you lose some (loaves). I made bread last week and forgot to add less water and they just turned out wrong. Edible and still yummy, but just not exactly right. So I just have to keep trying.

This is your sign to learn sourdough if you have ever been curious to try! There’s really no harm in it if you mess up a lot at first—after all, it’s just flour and water!

Do you make sourdough? If so, how old is your starter? And if you haven’t ever made sourdough before, would you ever try it? Why / why not?