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So, I have made a sourdough starter, like everyone else this quarantine, to keep me occupied and learn something new. I have been keeping a journal in a notebook to record recipes and changes I make, but since I started this account I thought it would be fun to document it here as well, for anyone else feeling a little intimidated by their first starter and just for me to look back on.

Day 1: The starter is born! (31 Mar 2020)
1 cup white flour (all the store had) and 1 cup water, mixed in a jar covered with cloth and left on the counter. 

On the weekend we decided that it’s been much too long since I’ve made pizza.  So using the same recipe for sourdough pizza that Will shared with us all during the Community Bake, I put together 4 dough balls so we could have four 9” pizzas over two days.  I didn’t use the diastatic malt, but I think without it I could allow the dough to cold ferment much longer.  Usually I bake after 48-72 hours in the fridge, today’s bake was the 48 hour cold ferment.  I’m thinking without the diastatic malt 72-96 hours would probably be even better.

 He needs steak and potatoes too!

 #NYCUTSTEAK

I thought it would be good to write a few things down that I have learned in my milling and baking adventures.

When I first started baking (I started with 100% WW from the beginning) I used to knead in a stand mixer but I couldn't make good bread. After a lot of trial and error, I'm making consistently good 100% ww bread from home milled flour, both sourdough and conventional dry yeast. The key for me is an autolyse combined with the right hydration (between 70 to 80%). This means that there's not much kneading required in any of my breads.  

I've lost track of how many iterations of this I've made. But it's definitely getting dialed in. I didn't have all the right seeds this time round but wanted to make it this weekend and took some liberties taking it into a new direction - using a soaked oat porridge. It's a great bread but could have used a bit more sweetness. It took longer to proof with all the oats and lost some of it's sweetness as a result. I've found baking same day typically works best for sweetness of this bread. In this case I started the dough around 1:30pm and baked by 9:30pm.

For all the hundreds of baguettes that I’ve made these past 5 plus years, it is a curiosity that I have never made a traditional French baguette.  For the record, as enticing a standard French baguette may be, they are often too unexciting, flavor wise.  

Trying out a Sarah Owens recipe, this is her Lumberjane.

Mixed a levain at 4am before work.

10g starter, 40g water, 40g white flour and 15g buckwheat flour.

Mixed the dough at 1:45 that afternoon.

Mix by hand all the levain, 405g water, 420g white flour, 75g wholemeal flour (I ran out so made up the difference with wholemeal spelt), 20g rye.  Autolyse 20 mins.

Sprinkle over 10g salt and mix in well. I didn't have the fruit add ins ready at this stage so started the bulk ferment and added them in at the first fold.

I'm new to this site and I've been enjoying browsing through everyone's recipes and discussions. After a few years of hiatus, I've just gotten myself back to baking sourdough breads, and I finally got a healthy starter going again after more than 2 months. (of course kicking myself for getting rid of my old starter after realizing how hard it is to get it started!) I am just coming out of the frustrating period of producing hockey pucks with the immature starter paired with an inpatient owner/baker. 

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My first croissants...errr almost croissants!

For my first pre-ferment, I tackled Jovial's No-Knead Overnight Artisan Loaf recipe, in which the entire dough (salt included!) is left to sponge for 10–15 hours. I modified the recipe somewhat, subbing instant for active dry yeast and simplifying the baking process, as I don't currently have a banneton or Dutch oven.