in transition...

Sorry to anyone who's visited my blog recently! I've been in the process of packing up, moving, and now unpacking my life, so I haven't posted in quite a while. I do have pictures on my camera ready to load so as soon as I get some time, more blog posts shall appear! I hope you're enjoying your summer :)

adventures with bread

I love bread. I really do. It's probably one of my favorite foods of all time. I've always wanted to know how to bake it on my own, and recently, I've had the opportunity to try my hand at making it myself.

My loving neighbor Joy gave me a sourdough bread starter, and a lesson on making bread, so two days ago I decided to give it a try.The following pictures document the process.

This is after I let the starter sit overnight with some flour and water. So far so good.

After the starter sat overnight, I pulled out a new starter, added some olive oil and salt to the mixture, and worked in more flour. When it became too hard to stir, I poured it out and kneaded in the rest of the flour.

This part was the most fun :)

Here it is, all ready to rise!! I put this loaf into a bowl drizzled with some olive oil so it didn't stick, and covered it to let it rise.

Then, I pulled it out after about 4 hours, kneaded it once again, formed two small loaves, scored them, and set them aside on a pan to rise once more. (sorry there aren't any pictures of these steps! I took my bread over to a friends house to finish making it)

Alas! My hard work has payed off! The final product! (My friend and I ate the other loaf with butter and jam, so obviously, only one is included in this picture) Overall, it came out great for my first try! The texture of the crust was good, but the inside was a bit doughy and dense. Definitely tasted like sourdough though! In the end, it was a success.

Luckily, I've had nothing but time the past few days to experiment with different rising times and wheat to white flour ratios. Results coming soon.