Sourdough Bread Success Story Starting From November 19th

 Hi everybody,  sorry this hasn't been updated sooner,  things you want to do get slowed down when you have a little guy with autism and another younger child discovering how many things they can get into together...when they're not fighting or getting into things separately.  However,  I've made notes each time I took a snap shot of our sourdough progress to share the journey and hopefully encourage anyone who wants to get started making sourdough themselves.  

November 19th,  2022 - 7 hours after a feeding, I'll have to see when it reaches double after a feeding tomorrow (November 20th,  2022) because we're ready for actual sourdough bread making now.

10:08am Time to see when it rises to double. Didn't do a whole discard because I need enough for 3 or 4 loaves and some to begin a starter for selling to others. I just mixed this, will be taking a photo of it every hour or so.

11:14am I predict that it will take 5 hours at this rate to reach double size.  My sourdough starter didn't start acting proper till I made it a thicker : 1/2 the amount of starter 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup water.  It started to get a bit to thick though so now I'm doing 3/4 amount of starter with 1 cup flour with 3/4 cup of water.

12:10pm If it's double by 2pm it's ready in 4 hours, if it reaches double by 3pm it takes 5.

1:33pm Oh boy, this has risen faster than expected...hope it doesn't overflow...this stuff is a little unpredictable

THE NEXT DAY: So I missed last night's 9 / 10pm feeding so it seems like even though it's been 4 1/2 - 5 hours in this photo since it's last feed, it hasn't yet reached the double volume like yesterday.  Oh well, maybe tonight will be different.

Because my dear friend Linda Fidler was visiting me the next day,  I decided to take a chance and start making those first sourdough loaves anyway and I'm glad I did because they turned out great anyway.  Here's how that went.

Before I stir it down 

My first two loaves are ready to slow ferment / rise in the fridge for 12 hours, they'll be ready to flip into parchment lined loaf pans. Cross my fingers and hope they turn out good, well risen and tasty.

Well, this starter is sure happy after mostly getting used up for bread and getting replaced by mostly new flour and water.  Wow.

Okay, the fella on the website said "be ready for this, your dough will not be double in size" Boy, am I nervous, I never put bread in the oven that wasn't double before.  I'm going to throw 4 ice cubes in the bottom of the oven though to give these two their best chance at turning out right.

Oh my goodness, they rose in the oven!!!  But they are lop sided, oh well, I guess I better get a proper tool for cutting patterns into the loaves. (The cut patterns are there to guide the expanding, so neat).

Hmm, here they are out of the oven, they rose quite differently then regular bread. I think I will try loaf pans next time.  I really do have to make those cut patterns deeper though. Got to wait 24 hrs before I cut into the bread apparently...I'm going look into that (I don't want to wait that long)

Just as I thought,  you only have to wait 1 1/2 to 2 hours before you try the bread out....It was a totally different bread experience,  I actually feel like it's the first time I've made real bread.  So, so good. 

Day after bread was made: Oops, this is rising higher than double....

A very necessary upgrade...

Oh no,  I forgot to throw the ice in the oven 🥲 have to make sure not to do that again, bread seems to rise more with the steam...the bread seems a bit softer too. 😭

While this beautiful smelling bread is cooling off I'm going to have it under this thick cloth and cover it a bit so the moisture can redistribute and the crust will soften regardless.

Alright,  that's the progress I've made so far,  now I've got to get my stuff in gear  (perfect my procedure) to start selling my starter and t hose delicious future loaves.   If you're interested and you live near enough to 200th and 20ave just text or call me at 604-970-1921.  Thank you and have a great day.

Finally!!! Sourdough Starter Success

Okay okay,  this is so exciting!!   After 2 failed attempts at making just a sourdough starter,  AHHHH!  We finally did it with success, thanks to the lady over at Baking with Paws and her interesting inclusion of how to make fruit yeast water for your sourdough starter.   Love that little secret 'no fail' piece of information.  And after 7 days of waiting for my apple yeast water it was ready to use!

My little Abigail has been waiting for this final step,  I pointed out that lovely foam of bubbles among the fermented apples....

a closer look at that foamy loveliness...

A peek from the top...

I tasted it too,  but no thanks to all the congestion I've been dealing with the past 5-6 months my sense of taste is way off,  I think I could detect a little bit of heat almost, but mostly a faintly apple flavored sugar water.  Okay well, I then put together my starter, 1/4 cup of apple yeast water and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour as I discovered that the white flour I had used for my previous failed starters WASN'T UNBLEACHED WHITE FLOUR!  I was like,   "maybe that's why they weren't working" I forgot that 'all purpose' doesn't mean 'unbleached' 😒 Yeppp,  I feel stupid,  but whatever,  this worked.  Check it out...

This morning... it was just about double volume!!

All day yesterday I was waiting to see the starter begin to rise...and absolutely nothing, even before I went to bed,  I didn't notice a difference,  no rise.  It was suppose to take 24 hours for it to rise to double,  but it wasn't showing a percentage of anything.  Till I checked it at 9 oclock this morning exactly 24 hrs later.

Even Minky was interested in seeing it..

And it's risen even a little higher by this evening around 7pm, so so cool!   Pioneer sourdough,  here we come!   I can't wait to make my first,  real sourdough bread like they used to do in the old days.  I wonder what it's going to taste like?

Sourdough FAIL ugh! Again, but...

Okay, this yogurt whey infused starter didn't work either. I'm not wasting it though,  I found a few recipes and ideas that will allow me to use the discard for more flavor.  

I'm planning on doing a mock french bread and we're going to have waffles this coming week, so this good stuff is going to get used.

That being said,. I'm not going to give up making real yeast free sourdough, the other day I found out what some people use apple or grape yeast water.  Mine is going to be apple.  

Apparently,  the reason my sourdough starter isn't rising even though it's bubbling is because I'm not feeding it often enough to produce an adequate amount of natural yeast.  It's got to be both the bacteria and yeast working together...that's where this stuff is going to come in...

This is the 4th day in so far, apparently it's going to take 7 or so days before it's got enough yeast that I can incorporate it into a new, 3rd 'pioneer' sourdough experiment.  I'm looking forward to seeing my starter rose this time.