Fast forward to the present...

The last 2 months or so have been an enriching experience for me, Bread in its simplicity is such wonderful stuff that I never bothered about before I took that "messy" plunge into the world of bread making... I have come a long way during this short period of time and still have got a long road ahead of me to learn the art of bread making... During this time, I have baked an array of breads, some of which, be it good or bad, was never captured for memory but wholeheartedly eaten up. :) Just last week, I went and bought myself a pack of Rye flour to try and it yielded some wonderful stuffs.

Sourdough Rye Boule


The cut loaf


Sourdough Rye & Raisins Bagels


Then disaster struck, I was in for a rude awakening. While baking another loaf, there was a "blow-out" and the entire loaf had cracked, it looked like it just came out of an "earthquake"... This I found out later, was because of the low gluten in the rye flour, lesson learnt!

So onward march, the next bake will be....???

The journey continues...

After the setback, I was back at it again. This time I tried making mini sourdough vienna loaves which turn out better than the wholemeal loaf, so it was a mini success...

The loaves just out from the oven


The inside of the loaves


With this bake, I was feeling much better and started fiddling again, I converted Dan's Milk Loaf recipe into a "half and half" wholemeal loaf with much success, I refresh some starter and got under way... I must say, this was a little scary as I was doing something unknown with no reference on my part. The end result was very pleasing, the loaf was soft to the touch and tasted good with a slight "tang".

Sourdough Wholemeal loaf


The crumb and texture


The verdict from the "guinea pigs", it's better than the commercial ones on the supermarket racks. It was high praise indeed (though I was wondering if they were trying to boost my morale after the earlier flop) and it dealt my confidence a lot of good in any case...
Well, credit must go to great guys who so willingly dispense their knowledge and skills. The likes of Dan Lepard, who's book "The Handmade Loaf" gave me fantastic insights to bread making as a whole. His method of short kneads followed by the stretch and folds have brought bread making to a new dimension, gone are the times where kneading is a good couple of minutes by hand. Also, to people like Bill, Dom, Mick, Jeremy, Teresa and many more whom I have met along the way, giving me advice on the finer points of "how to bake" a better loaf. My baking journey continues and along the way, I have bake some nice ones...

Inside of the focaccia


Sourdough Bagels



and some not very nice ones...





So till my next bake, have a "holey" good time and stay safe!!!

Let's backtrack to where it all started...

This is how my journey started... My good friend attended a baking class conducted by Dan Lepard sometime in March 2006 and after which was telling me how wonderful it was. I did not manage to make it for that class or rather wasn't interested at that point of time. It cost quite a lot too!!! Anyway, one day when we were having a cuppa, he popped the question, "Eh, do you know how to cultivate a sourdough starter?" Huh,??!! I wondered and he started to elaborate on it, then I said to myself "is it that difficult?" Believing I can do it, I took his challenge of trying to cultivate one... I trawled the net for info and found many methods on cultivating a starter, the eleborate ones had yogurt, raisins, different flours added and so on... On the other hand, I took a cautious approach by using the simplest of them all, just by mixing flour and water then left it covered till bubbles appear. As a newbie, I was very anxious about it and kept checking whenever I could, it was agonising as the bubbles took hell a long to appear (a good 14 hours or so...) When it finally appeared, as instructed, I was to "feed" the starter with more flour and water, so I did. The end result after 3 days was a cup of "pungent, sharp smelling gooey gloop".

At this stage, I felt I was one up from my friend who never manage to get a starter going and gave up trying... With the starter ready, I found a recipe on the net and tried baking my very first sourdough bread, the revelation...

My 1st sourdough loaf


I was happy with it but did not know exactly what it should be, so I went surfing again and found a wonderful forum called "Sourdough Australia". I was astonished at what the guys were doing (call me blur or anything) and decided to post my loaf in the forum to get advice and feedback. One thing led to another and very soon I was log-in to a few forums(look at the "link" section). I was hooked and the baking was fast and furious, even my mum and wifey thought I was a little crazy baking almost every other day... Soon, I discovered with the help of many wonderful & helpful people, things like baker's percentage, dough hydration, starter hydration and much much more though I must admit, I am still trying to digest all these information. Arm with some knowledge and picking up books from the library, I attempted to bake doughs with different hydration levels and started experimenting with various types of bread. My next attempt was this soft and luscious Milk loaf by Dan Lepard,



I was really feeling good and baked another variation, Raisin Bread at the request of my friend, Moses who loves raisins(I wonder y???)...



Then, the next bake, I crumbled.... Was ambitious and tried baking a 100% wholemeal sourdough and this was the outcome... :(


After this, I decided to take a break and collect my thoughts. The story continues...

Come and dirty your hands with me...

Hello everyone and welcome to my floury, tangy and "aromatic" blog. Follow me on this journey of sticky dough, messy hands and dusty kitchen, all because of my new found hobby, the baking of Sourdough Bread...

I was challenged by a good friend of mine to try my hand in baking Sourdough bread and being a "sure can do" person, I took that somewhat "messy" challenge and plunge myself into the unknown world of bread baking. Wa lah, I have been at it for the past 2 months or so and have been feeding people around me with some of the palettable breads, hankering for feedbacks, trawling the internet for information, tips, tricks and much more... Baking sourdough requires time and patience which I have since discovered, to me cutting corners will be a big "NO NO" unless, if you are satisfied with just bread to eat!!! Baking sourdough was not easy for me but to some, it might seem a breeze....

So while I continue with this crazy journey, I hope you guys out there, like-minded or not, will join me and share information & experiences with this thing called "Sourdough"

Cheers...
Don