Sourdough Bread, Finally!!

It worked, it worked!! I was literally jumping around the kitchen in pure glee when I made a loaf of sourdough bread! You know what this means? It means Miss Mango is alive and kickin!

I’ve had my doubts over the last month, if all of my feedings and stirring would pay off. I was pretty sure my yeast starter was alive, but I wasn’t quite sure if it would work properly when making bread. Well, I knew I would be away from my apartment for more than a week and I don’t have a babysitter for my starter, so I packed her up and took her on vacation with me (yes, I am referring to a jar of starter as “her” because, to me, a food pet is a food pet…). My mom just happened to have a San Francisco cookbook on the coffee table, so I opened it up to the sourdough bread recipe.

I stirred one cup of my starter with some flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda and let it sit overnight in a warm place and then made sure she was tucked into the warm oven for a bit of the next day. And that’s when I knew she worked! She definitely doubled in size with no added yeast! And then I mixed in more flour and kneaded it and shaped it and let it rise again! And then…I baked up a giant loaf of sourdough bread!

Oh magnificence! It tastes good plain; plain with butter; toasted with butter; toasted with jam…the possibilities are endless!

I have begun to replenish Miss Mango and hopefully I’ll be able to make another loaf (try some other recipes?) in a few short days! I feel like my days as an artisan bread-maker (on the weekends) has just begun…can you see it? I’m covered in flour and there is bread everywhere, sigh.