Sourdough Firsts

A good friend at work left me a sourdough starter in the work fridge, with no instructions.... for months I let it sit there wondering how do I even? Finally while she was away for the weekend I asked to borrow her book and she gave me a 5 min tutorial on how to get the starter going, I jotted some very quick notes in my calendar and finally took the starter from the work fridge and into my home. 

The book was the Tartine Bread Book. I have to admit this book went into so much detail of this baker's specific adventure with bread and so many steps that I felt a bit overwhelmed, this was no longer a starter this was now a week long process of making bread that I somehow had to figure out how to do between ...well life. I had choose a three day weekend so I could specifically bake the bread on my day off, however I ran out of flour Monday and had to delay the bread baking by a day.... I broke a lot of the many rules that Tartine had instructed me, I read a few other people's sourdough adventures though and felt hope that it could be done, that with a trip home for lunch I could make bread between work hours. 

I woke up Tuesday morning ready to start the first rise...however I soon discovered that my leaven was anything but ready after its overnight sit, you see I of course had decided to make my very first sourdough bread on the coldest day of the year in a house without heat.... But I was determined. I put the leaven in the turned off oven with a pan of boiling water to try to create a mini larder that could be much warmer than the rest of my house...brr! I came home at lunch and some bubbles told me something was happening with the leaven and I decided it was time to give it a go. I left it for its first rise that afternoon and came home to this beautiful bread that I shaped and left for its second rise. 

Second rise seemed to go great, and I made the smallest round of dough into the most amazing blue cheese, bacon, and apple pizza that night using a garlic cream sauce for the base. We love pizza and I've been experimenting with making a good pizza dough for a few months now, this one even with breaking so many rules came out so good. 

Then after the second rise I baked my first loaf of bread, it came out ok, it had a strange large air pocket and was quite moist. I let the second loaf sit in the fridge over night and made it the following morning. This loaf I gave to my friend who gave me the starter. She mentioned my bread may have fallen at one point, perhaps leaving it in the fridge over night wasn't my best idea, or skipping so many rules but either way I had tasty warm yeast free bread and learned a ton on my very first sourdough adventure. I'm sure sticking exactly to what the Tartine Bread Book says makes the perfect sourdough, but for my first attempt I made such a good sourdough, on my schedule and I can't wait to try again!