Hello, it's me.  I thought I might begin to blog again, but there is a learning curve.  And so it begins.

Today I am attempting to learn to make sourdough bread.  I have done this before, even made my own starter a couple of times over the years.  It should not be so difficult for someone who learned to make bread at the tender age of 9 years.  I have failed time and again to produce a nice bubbly bread.  I was trying to use my knowledge of experience with a nice yeast dough. 

I recently got a starter from a friend, added 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of bread flour and mixed well, let it set over night and this morning, finding it bubbly and active, I added the same amounts again.  Then I went to my laptop and read the instructions on two different sites, by two different bakers.  The process seems quite different from making the white bread I grew up with.

first issue, there is no sugar, no shortening, and no milk, just water, flour and salt, and of course the starter for the rising agent.

Instead of a stiff dough that you begin to knead after the initial resting period of 20 minutes, this recipe, says I should stretch and fold the dough in the mixing bowl, pulling and stretching and let it rest 30 minutes, then repeating the process every 30 minutes for 3 or 4 sets.

To my dismay the texture of the dough is very sticky and there is no way I can use my fingers to stretch and fold the dough.  After 3 sets with a spatula, i thought, I have to add flour, if I am ever going to get to a point of using my hands, so I added about 1/4 cup of flour, and began another 30 minute resting period.

So now after 3 hours, the dough is still very sticky.  I have to wait another hour, according to the recipe, then I should be able to turn it out on a floured board and fold it into a square, and then take the opposite corners and fold them over the center, forming it into a round loaf and gently turn it into a pan lined with flour or corn meal so it will not stick.  Still no oil is used.  I don't understand how I can make a loaf out of it. 

 I will refrigerate it overnight as instructed.

It is 7:30 AM and the bread is in the oven.  

Now I plan to take a picture and add to my blog.  Another curve in the learning to Blog, since my pictures are stored in the web and my phone is my camera.

So that turned out ok, but still, I'd rather bake bread as I learned as a child.