It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. One friend started a sourdough pot and shared it with another. For months, they fed and watered; they googled recipes, they experimented with recipes; they shared their success AND failures; and together they learned to make mouth watering sourdough breads and pancakes.
They shared their sourdough experience through thick and thin (or perhaps a better description would be flat and hard or light and fluffy) until alas it was time for one friend to move away. The friend left behind found great comfort in her little sourdough pot that held such memories as well as her key to delicious happiness.
Alas, one day tragedy struck and the pot fell to its demise and shattered on the floor. Heartbroken, but not defeated yet, the grieving friend knew her friend would not have just trashed her hardwork and care of the past couple years and tracked down the sourdough pot that was left behind in someone else's care. However, in a coincidence, too sad to believe, that pot too had fallen to its demise and shattered on the floor and was no more.
Out of respect, a few days mourning was observed, but then it was time to jump back on the sourdough bandwagon and begin again. Armed with a bread baking cookbook from her princely son, our amateur baker tackled beginning her own pot. It seemed simple enough. Mix flour and pineapple juice, stir and wait.
It started out that way..but then the cookbook almost lost the would be baker when the author started discussing ph levels and ratios. However, she dutifully and stubbornly plugged away following his instructions and did indeed create a couple of lovely and tasty loaves of bread in time.
However, the loaves were labor intensive and required more forethought and planning than was desired. So our baker friend, decided to abandon the fancy shmancy ph levels and ratios, and go back to her tried and true, dump in water and flour and stir, mix up a batch of no knead dough in the evening and bake it in a dutch oven in the morning way of life. She brazenly ignored the "proper ratio" feeding method recommended by the cookbook, and just dumped in her equal parts flour and water to the pot one morning.
It may not be as lovely as the fancy loaves which require kneading and shaping, but it does taste just as good. Moreover, it is a far, far better thing to have done to actually bake bread to eat regularly than only sporadically because one is discouraged by an overly complicated process.
They shared their sourdough experience through thick and thin (or perhaps a better description would be flat and hard or light and fluffy) until alas it was time for one friend to move away. The friend left behind found great comfort in her little sourdough pot that held such memories as well as her key to delicious happiness.
Alas, one day tragedy struck and the pot fell to its demise and shattered on the floor. Heartbroken, but not defeated yet, the grieving friend knew her friend would not have just trashed her hardwork and care of the past couple years and tracked down the sourdough pot that was left behind in someone else's care. However, in a coincidence, too sad to believe, that pot too had fallen to its demise and shattered on the floor and was no more.
Out of respect, a few days mourning was observed, but then it was time to jump back on the sourdough bandwagon and begin again. Armed with a bread baking cookbook from her princely son, our amateur baker tackled beginning her own pot. It seemed simple enough. Mix flour and pineapple juice, stir and wait.
It started out that way..but then the cookbook almost lost the would be baker when the author started discussing ph levels and ratios. However, she dutifully and stubbornly plugged away following his instructions and did indeed create a couple of lovely and tasty loaves of bread in time.
