I've been looking at all the breadski posts and was thinking back on last december when I have attempted to make sourdough bread. I started a starter, it was going okay. Had it going for a week. But then I needed a dedicated day to start baking, and kept postponing so my starter was just becoming a flour-sink.
I was intimidated to start because all videos I was watching were telling me I needed to wake up the starter a day in advance, autolyse the dough, rest it 3 times and them proof it in some special baskets. And then cook it in some fancy le creuset dish. So after researching the shit out of it, I got discouraged (and kind of busy), and threw away my starter because it was just getting bigger and my motivation was shrinking.
But then yesterday, I saw a friend on facebook post about making Challah bread. And I realized if my idiot friends can do it, so can i! And after googling the recipe, it had about half the steps of the sourdough. Easy peasy! Besides, I haven't eaten Challah in years and forgot I liked it.
For my first ever bread baking attempt, I think it was a success! Tastes great - I replaced half the honey with maple sirup because I didn't have enough and it worked. I have the bad habit of starting recipes without checking I have everything I need. Also had to half the quantities because I only had 4 cups of flour left. Which was a good thing because the original recipe gave 2 loaves. I should really start reading ahed before just starting to make the things... I'm proud of the result, I might try other breads now! But maybe not the sourdough just yet.
I find the bread is a tiny bit too dense - my house is pretty cool so maybe I could have given it more time to rise.
“Acorns were good until bread was found.” – Francis Bacon Go for it