Wednesday morning I fed the sourdough starter, planning to make bread that afternoon. I never got around to it so Thursday morning I fed it again and still never got around to it. Yesterday morning, we were out of bread so I had to get it made. Usually, I feed the starter in the morning, stir up the dough, mess with it in the evening, leave it out all night, put it in the bread pan the next morning, let it sit most of the day and then bake it.
Yesterday morning I fed the starter about 6 a.m. and instead of waiting til about 4 p.m. to stir up the dough, I did it about 10 a.m., messed with it til about 1 p.m., stuck it in the loaf pan, let it rise and baked it about 6 p.m.
I fully expected it to be ugly and dry but it actually turned out to be one of the better loaves I’ve made recently. This just proves how forgiving this sourdough is.
Almost everyone I talk to does theirs differently but we all end up with bread we’re happy with. If only all of life were so simple!
Deborah says
It’s beautiful and I’m sure your house smells wonderful now. Thank you for inspiring me to get back into baking sourdough breads. My starter is soooo happy and my larder always has fresh bread now. Thanks to you.
Susan Nixon says
Being happy with what we have – a real goal. =)
Tee says
I just took a sourdough loaf out of the oven and I also made English muffins today. The muffins are crazy good and almost easier to make than bread. I will never buy them at a store again.
Nelle Coursey says
That is a beautiful loaf of bread!
Sherry Bobak says
I’ve been thinking about making yeast bread. My recipe says that if you don’t have a really warm place to let it rise, you can let it sit out for 8-24 hours. That makes me nervous. Can it go bad if you leave it out overnight or that many hours? Thanks for your help.
Judy Laquidara says
It can overproof and lose it energy. There are so many factors: quality/strength of the yeast, types of flour used (whole wheat flours are heavier and it takes longer for the gluten to develop and can require more energy for the yeast to make it rise) and, of course, the temp at which it is rising.
If I’m baking something in the oven, I can always stick a loaf of dough on top of the stove and the warmth of the oven will help it to rise. If it’s a sunny, warm day, I will stick my loaf pan of dough in a larger pan with water (to keep ants out) and stick it on the porch to rise. I’ve even pulled my car into a sunny spot and stuck a loaf pan of dough in a closed up car. If your laundry room gets warm when you’re using the dryer, plan to make the bread on a day when your dryer will have several loads. If it gets warmer in the area where your water heater is located, stick your dough in there.
We keep our house around 70 in the summer and I never have a hard time getting dough to rise. I would be a bit apprehensive about leaving it out 24 hours though.