Don’t Get Me Started: Up To Scratch

The phrase “up to scratch” means as good as expected or wanted; however, it’s usually used in negative statements with not or wasn’t. Somewhat tongue in cheek, my use of this phrase is in reference to my first “from scratch” baking attempts with my newly established sourdough starter.

Part 1 of the saga was told in Don’t Get Me Started: Third Time’s The Charm. At the end of that post, it was evident that baking had occurred. But that was not without some challenges and more lessons learned.

Like Part 1, this is not a how-to post. There are tons of more experienced bakers with blogs and online resources available that can provide step by step instructions. Watching videos is also very helpful. That being said, I think that I can offer a few words of wisdom on the subject.

Despite all the errors I’d made, Bubbles had finally passed the float test and was ready to do her thing. Even with all of the bubbly goodness going on in a starter, if a teaspoon amount of it doesn’t float in water, then its bacteria and enzymes are not robust enough to leaven bread.

It was truly a relief to have gotten the starter to point of being ready for baking bread. The recipe I used for this first attempt took about 24 hours from start to finish. It was mostly just mixing together the starter with about half of the flour, waiting for the dough to rise, and then mixing/kneading in the rest of the flour and letting that rise. I didn’t document any of it but I do have photos of those first loaves. They didn’t look quite as I had expected but they were edible and tasted like sourdough. Yeah!

A few days later, I made a second attempt at making sourdough bread. This time I had my photographer on hand to record part of the process. These photos were taken at the point when I was shaping the dough into loaves. One of the challenges I had faced in my first go was that the dough was very sticky and it was a problem for me again. In my naivete, I thought that maybe that was how the dough was supposed to be. After watching a few videos, I since learned that is not the case.

Nevertheless, I muscle through by adding more flour and managed to get the loaves formed. Subsequently, I’ve realized that one of my biggest mistakes up to this point had been not using a digital scale for measuring out my ingredients. I finally made the decision to buy one principally to weigh Poshmark packages (extra postage is needed if over 5 lbs) but it’s been a game-changer for my sourdough starter success. If you learn one thing from these posts, believe it when you read that you should use a digital scale.

Since using a digital scale I’ve come to realize why it took me three tries to get a starter established. Even after Bubbles got to the point of being ready, it seemed like the starter was too gummy and too thick. It was quite difficult to clean the bowl used in “feeding” (adding water and flour to the starter). The proportions are best determined by weight and not volume so once I started to weigh them out, my results have been vastly different. The starter is more fluid and the mixing bowls are much easier to clean.

Although there are no final photos, the loaves baked up just fine and tasted like sourdough. There has been a third attempt at making sourdough bread which did turn out much better although I don’t have any pictures of them either. In the meanwhile, I moved onto to making some other delicious goodies with the starter.

Once the loaves shown above were set aside to proof, I made up a batch of Blueberry Sourdough Muffins with some discarded started. Besides the starter and blueberries, these muffins are made with cornmeal which adds a lovely texture and a bit of sweetness from maple syrup. I use soy milk and oil in this recipe to make them dairy-free (and suitable for our daughter who is allergic).

This recipe comes together quite easily and the success I’ve had with it has made me very pleased with my efforts. I’ve been making it once a week with the weekly feeding discard. A batch makes up 12 muffins which the three of us (husband, son, and me) don’t always get around to enjoying before they need to be tossed. I haven’t tried freezing them yet; instead, I’ve been giving some to local friends and our daughter. Bubbles is becoming quite popular among them.

This past weekend, I set out to make sourdough bagels and they turned out pretty good for a first try. Next on my list of recipes to try is pretzels. I’ll be sharing on the process of bagel and pretzel making in the next Don’t Get Me Started installment. What have you been baking? Has it been up to scratch?

Be well and let’s stay in touch! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, pin … all options are available. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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