My first sourdough

I’ve been wanting to make sourdough for years.

You would think I would have by now, as I’ve been developing my bread baking skills since 2020. My first loaf was a very hands-off, no-knead dough that sat in the fridge overnight. It came out oddly shaped and pale because I was scared to bake it for too long, but I was so excited that I actually made something that resembled bread.

After my first loaf, I bought Bonnie Ohara’s book Bread Baking for Beginners and pretty much baked my way through the entirety. It was the perfect introduction: not too scary, very readable, easy to follow, and resulted in delicious goodies perfect for weekend projects. It also progressed in a very logical way, so as I worked through it, I developed upon skills I’d already learned and made more advanced breads as time went on.

But I never made it into the sourdough section. It always seemed a little intimidating and like too much work to have to feed a starter every day. But now that I’ve been cutting gluten/wheat out of my diet as much as possible, I read that sourdough is easier to digest and may be more friendly to the gluten sensitive. So I dove in and made my first loaf of sourdough. Anything to be able to keep eating good bread.

My first impression was that it wasn’t as complex as I thought it would be, partly because of my own commitment to be relaxed about it. With as many loaves of bread as I’ve baked, I know that most times you can get a perfectly good result without being a perfectionist or following all the rules. A lot of times I don’t pay attention to room, water, or dough temperatures. Sometimes I let it proof for longer than I should. Occasionally I’ll be a few grams off in my measurements.

For my sourdough starter, I was relaxed about the feeding schedule and sometimes forgot to do it at night like I was supposed to. But I didn’t worry about it too much and sometimes fed it the next morning instead. This made it much easier to keep up with than I expected, and after 12 days of feeding my starter, I made two delicious loaves that I was super proud of.

Now I wasn’t completely blown away at the flavor; they tasted very similarly to other loaves I’ve made. The aftertaste is a mild sourness – not as intense as store-bought sourdough but still there. Like every loaf I’ve ever baked, it was extremely delicious and satisfying, and I’ll continue to practice making sourdough. As far as how it sits with my gluten sensitive tummy, I’ll let you know in a few days.