Pandemic baking and remembering how to learn
I’d taken up baking like everyone else in early during the COVID-19 pandemic, precipitated by a friend’s kind gift of a 3 year old sourdough starter. My first attempt was pretty sad. It didn’t rise, was weirdly dense without the holes you want inside, and the outside was pretty uneven. It’s also the first skill I’ve taught myself this year since we’ve mostly been in survival mode between work, COVID and kids.
Yet baking is oddly meditative; there’s the attention to measurements, the various stages with each requiring different steps, autolysing, rising, folding, RESTING, baking, the feeling of goopy dough in your hands. It was just nice to have something else to focus on while the whole world seemed to be at a standstill, and all we could do was entertain the kids, try to work, and not read the daily reports of death and economic misery.
Process:
Start with a rough mental framework of how to make sourdough (key steps, drivers) from perusing a range of recipes.
Test initial framework - Bake!
Iterate by varying each variable systematically until satisfied with the result - Keep baking!
Prove you can replicate results consistently. Bake with drivers consistent throughout. Enjoy warm bread =).
Realize
you have 2 variables you cannot control perfectly (finicky rental oven) & starter strength/mood
There are 100 more variables you can tinker with now that you have the basic framework done (different bread flours, feeding starter different items to vary taste, etc)
Fresh bread is totally achievable and not that much work.