Naturally Leavened Sourdough
Why now is the perfect time to begin baking with wild yeast
You too can learn to stop hustling & trust the process!
My journey with making sourdough bread began long before nationwide
lockdowns and shortages of baker's yeast. However, it wasn't until I
found myself with some extra time on my hands due to stay-at-home
orders that I really solved the mystery that is naturally leavened
bread. Homemade sourdough that's made from fermenting flour and water
in a jar on your countertop can be fickle, but once you get the hang
of it, the process is truly meditative.
While there are many resources out there, the steps outlined below
represent the simplest path to making great bread and will certainly
save you from the frustrations I endured.
- Step One: Try to make a sourdough starter on your countertop in your East Village apartment for at least 18 months without success.
- Step Two: Move to Brooklyn, discover that your 85° East Village apartment was consistently 20 degrees too warm for a healthy starter to survive. Easily create an active, bubbly sourdough starter within a month - but throw out the ones that randomly mold on top (they say this is rare) and start over at least twice.
- Step Three: Endure a global pandemic in which your entire city undergoes lockdown and millions lose their jobs. In your spare unemployment time figure out the preferred 100% hydration recipe and exact timing of your starter's rise and fall.
- Step Four: Perfect the humble 3-ingredient sourdough loaf and relentlessly photograph each oven-baked beauty. Subject close friends, family members and even acquaintances to said photos and revel in the unique pride that comes with producing something delightfully tangy, richly textured and impossibly delicious from basically nothing.
- Step Five: Branch out into more exotic loaves (Roasted Garlic and Rosemary, Chocolate Chip, Focaccia, NYC Style Bagels, Whole Wheat, White Cheddar, Cinnamon Swirl, among others) and reinforce what you already believed to be true: the Whole Wheat loaf just isn't that good.
- Final Step: Reach full bread baking induced self-actualization and dedicate your coding class passion project to the subject.
Everything I've learned I owe to Emilie Raffa and her book Artisan Sourdough Made Simple: A Beginner's Guide to Delicious Handcrafted Bread with Minimal Kneading.
