Well, it's few weeks before Christmas. Discovering this forum has advanced my desire to improve my bread making skills so I've decided to begin my first sourdough starter. All the reading I've done here suggests that I should be ready to crank out a loaf just before Christmas - assuming a myriad of factors stay neatly grouped together and headed in the desired direction. So, here it goes...my first blog. I doubt I'll have anything informative to pass along so my real hope is to document my progress for future reference - beats trying to hold a pencil with floury fingers.
I'm using a recipe from Amy Scherber. I made my first sponge last week which produced six amazing rustic Italian batards. A far cry from what I had been producing in terms of crumb. Given that good fortune, I'm sticking with Amy for now. Two ounces of rye flour from Henry's Market here in San Diego added to four ounces of 77 degree water from my reverse osmosis filter is in a three cup plastic ziploc container covered and sitting on my countertop (need to check those weights - going from memory the next day). Off to bed.
