My Sourdough Story
This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
Like many people during the coronavirus, I found myself at home with a lot more time on my hands. And like a lot of people, I turned my hand to bread making. If you're interested in trying it yourself read on for tips to help you avoid some of my mistakes and recipes to have your home smelling heavenly!
Backstory
I feel like our home is reasonably sustainable. We’ve ticked off some of the big wins: composting, vegetarian, reduced dairy intake, natural cleaning products, recycling, conscious about our consumerism. So what next? I mean, there’s always more that we can do right? We do have access to soft plastic recycling which is such a great initiative. But I’m also aware that recycling isn’t the answer to all our problems as we’ve seen recently with countries turning away our “recycling” that was really just becoming waste. We need to remember that Reduce and Reuse came before Recycle in that cute green graphic. So reducing bread bags got added to my list of things to do.
Hesitation
The two things I was worried about in taking on sourdough were the amount of waste and it taking over my life. I’d heard about having to discard half the starter all the time which did not sit well with me. You’re making something delicious, so why do you have to keep throwing some of it out? The other thing I’d heard was how demanding it could get on your time. Daily feedings, making sure it’s the right temperature and that’s before you even get to the breadmaking bit.
Overcoming Hurdles
Basically I decided I’d dive in and see how I went. Otherwise I'd never know what all this love of sourdough making was all about. I found a recipe to build a starter from scratch which didn’t involve any discarding and figured that it didn’t matter too much if it took over my life. I was leaving home any time soon anyway. This is the recipe I used to create the starter. All went well for the first few days...
Explosion
Until it didn’t go so well anymore. It said to use a 4-litre container which I didn’t have. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem. I used a jar that I had covered with a beeswax wrap. For a few days, I kept adding to the starter. We have a lovely warm apartment so the starter getting cold wasn’t a problem. Also, the cupboard it was in was getting a lot of sun early in the morning. But then one morning I woke up to a slightly sickly smell in the house. There was a strange puddle of beige on the countertop, which led to stalactite like drips coming from the cupboard. Which led to a jar that was overflowing with very happily growing starter. I was hungover. It had dripped onto the coffee machine. It was a bit of a nightmare, to be honest. All I wanted was a coffee and a clean kitchen that didn’t smell vaguely like beer.
Re-starting
So first I cleaned the coffee maker and made coffee. I sat and drank it staring at the mess I’d made. Maybe I did need to take the prescription of the size of the container slightly more seriously? So once I had coffee on board, I scrubbed the counter, the inside of the cupboard door, all the shelves in the cupboard… And went to the Goodfor Store to buy the largest jar I could find. This was during the lockdown so I was lucky that there was anywhere open that sold jars and I had to queue. Fun times. But I got the jar, I transferred the starter over and I persevered. A lesson for you if you’re planning on doing this: follow the instructions, including container size.
Starting Easy
Somewhere along the way, I searched for easy sourdough discard recipes and found this delight for focaccia. It uses some sourdough starter so it’s got that sour taste, but it also has some yeast so I think it’s harder to screw up. I sprinkled mine with Himalayan rock salt and olives which went down a treat. The saltiness of the bread was so good and I can highly recommend this.
The Real Deal
Then, using the same website where I’d found the starter recipe, I began making actual sourdough. This recipe is intense. It has 25 steps after you’ve already spent days making a starter. This is the point that my boyfriend realised that sourdough was taking over my life. I used this recipe again a few weeks later at my Mum’s house. When I arrived for the weekend I joked that we might be lucky enough to have the bread in the oven by the time I left again. We did, but only just. But, I will use this recipe again. It’s produced beautiful bread. Just make sure you've got the time to dedicate to it.
Reminder: Read the Instructions
I was reminded of this (again) partway through the recipe. I was up to step 18, early in the morning. Today was the day I was going to bake bread. This day had been a week coming. Then I read the instructions and realised how hot the oven needed to be and the type of container (again) I’d be cooking in. I had things that would go in the oven, but that didn’t have lids. Or had a lid, but couldn’t be used at such high heat. Again, this was during lockdown so I couldn’t even pop to the shop and buy a Dutch oven, now that I’d learnt what one was. Luckily, a friend had a casserole dish she could lend me and didn’t mind me popping over to collect it, mid-lockdown. Crisis averted. The bread cooked and was delicious. Thank goodness. After a week or so of starter and two near disasters I don't know that I would've coped if the bread hadn't turned out okay.
More Recipes
This is the other recipe I’ve used to bake bread. It works well, doesn’t involve more than 20 steps and is even from a New Zealander. Highly recommend it. The other new favourite thing I have is sourdough pancakes. I’ve made these a lot. This is a vegan recipe that uses up your discard and tastes delicious. I’ve made it with berries in as a sweet breakfast but my new favourite is to cook it is sprinkled in herbs for a savoury option. It takes a while to cook though so be patient (like everything else to do with sourdough).
Low Waste
After all of this, we are still buying bread but maybe half as often. I’ve got to time the starter coming out of the fridge and waking up, being at home to cook the bread and having enough flour on hand. But it’s a reduction in plastic bread bags so I’m happy. I also have a newfound appreciation for those expensive sourdough loaves at the bakery.
I’d love to know, have you joined the sourdough trend? Do you have a favourite recipe I should try? And what’s next on your list of waste to remove or reduce from your life?