Made my first wild sourdough starter 5 days ago and then made my first sourdough bread with it today:
Before popping it into the oven:
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Fresh out of the oven:
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I haven't cut into it yet because it's still hot. I can only hope it looks okay inside, because I didn't use a very strong flour to make it. I used my favorite homemade blend of 3 parts All purpose flour mixed with 1 part whole wheat flour, some wheat germ, and a bit of vital wheat gluten to make my version of a healthier high protein bread flour......but wouldn't you know it, I forgot to add the vital wheat gluten to the mix. Grrrrrr!!! So....the grain might be more dense than airy. Oh well..it should at least have good flavor.
I've made sourdough bread before lots of times, but it was from a 'cheater' starter.....by 'cheater', I mean I injected a tiny bit of active dry yeast into the flour to get the starter going, but this time, I wanted to try and see if I could get a starter going by letting nature take its course without my help.....
Over four days, I mixed up tablespoon increments of Arrowhead Mills organic wholemeal rye flour and water in a jar which I covered with cheesecloth, and lo and behold- it's alive!!! By Day 4, my jar was so alive with naturally occurring yeast that it was 1/4 of an inch from flowing out the top of the jar if I didn't do something about it (the starter had tripled its size), so I made a 'sponge' using most of it, let the sponge sit over night and then proceeded to make bread dough out of it. The remaining small bit of starter I put into the fridge.
I followed YouTuber Mary Nest's Foolproof Sourdough Starter recipe to make the starter, and then after that, I ran into Youtuber Bake With Jack's video on his stretch & fold/long ferment technique for sourdough, and decided to use his method for making my actual dough.
I've also decided to adopt no waste/no-discard method of taking care of sourdough starter that Bake With Jack talks about in the video I've posted below, which I think is absolutely brilliant (where has that method been hiding all my life?)......especially during these recent times when access to flour has been pretty much a no-go in my area........
My neighborhood grocery stores have been out of flour and yeast for weeks now, and my usual online sources (King Arthur Flour, Pleasant Grain Mills, Breadtopia) are totally wiped out of their stock and there's a long waiting list for it. It's crazy! Thankfully, I was able to order some flour online to reinforce my dwindling supply for a good price from a restaurant supply store I found that also sells to home bakers, although the shipping was a bit high for the smaller amount I bought..... but it's hard to complain about that when area shelves continue to stare back at me empty......or at least they do whenever I happen to venture out to the stores. Who knows, though...maybe I have bad timing and keep getting there a minute too late. lol
Here's Jack:
