Hello! Newbie looking to make sourdough and Italian breads
Greetings!
I’ve explored a bit here (could do that for years and not finish!), and keep coming back, so I made an account. I am here as a lifelong lover of bread, here to learn the art.
On the East Coast, there were always good Italian bakeries wherever I had lived. About 20 years ago, I moved to the middle of the US and there is nothing close to the bread I remember. So, I’d like to learn to make my favorite Italian bread: torpedo shaped, dense, heavy even. Moist. The crust was hard and chewy; loaf made a bit of a muffled hollow with a knuckle knock. Took a bit of pull if you wanted to rip a piece, especially the crust. The brown peaks on the top crust could scrape the roof of your mouth. It held up well to dressings for subs and made great toast the next morning with black coffee.
Sourdough is more of a new interest to me, and how I initially found this amazing site when doing a search for starter recipes. My interest is in the better nutrition and longer shelf life it offers, not so much the tang. I want to add healthy bread to my diet. Trying to grow my own starter, on day 3 currently. Initially used whole wheat.
My prior experience is very limited. Long while ago, before smartphones and the internet, my car was in the shop. Nothing on TV, no way to go anywhere. But I had all the ingredients to make whole wheat bread. I found kneading to be an almost meditative thing, very relaxing and a good workout to boot. It turned out far better than I’d thought possible. And it was so delicious! And I baked my second batch of bread last week, also whole wheat. It was not as good as that first batch, but good nonetheless.
I am looking to bake my own bread regularly. I hope to be able to master sourdough for this. I went through the books section here and ordered a copy of everyone’s recommendation, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice to start reading and should have it by the weekend.
This is a treasure trove of knowledge and experience here. Thanks for the chance to learn from it and everyone!
Welcome to the community. You will be able to get a lot of help and support here (and maybe too many opinions!).
"Sourdough" bread is not necessarily sour. A term I like better is "naturally leavened", but that's clumsy to be used all the time.
The BBA is a good book but pretty old by now, Peter Reinhart, its author, has evolved and refined his methods since then, and one of his later books would be worth getting. Since you have an interest in whole wheat breads, you might get his later book Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor.