I recently decided I wanted to try out making my own sourdough bread. I’ve really been in a phase recently where I like making things on my own, learning the process, and improving over time. I was lucky enough that my friend Harry has been making sourdough recently and gave me a run through of the process and provided me with some of his starter, from there it was time to learn.

First was acquiring the necessary tools to make the bread and maintain the starter. I got the Nordic Ware Sourdough kit from costco. It has most of what you need for baking and maintaining the starter. The only other items I needed was an additional jar and a kitchen scale.

I think at some point I’ll write a few more posts about maintaining sourdough starter and actually baking the bread, I’m just going to go through how the first one went and what I used it for.

I’d give the first loaf I made a 7 out of 10. It came out pretty well for a first go at it, but there is room for improvement. Flavor was pretty good. I think I probably could’ve gotten better rise, also the bottom is a little too crispy for my liking.

Make sure to not use all the starter for the bread, I almost forgot to split it up.

I don’t think I used the starter at the right time. If the place it is staying in is warm, it feeds a lot quicker. When I woke up the morning I was going to do the mix and kneading, it was looking droopy so I needed to feed it. By the time I wanted to mix it was not fully done feeding, which I think contributed to it not rising all the way.

Having the first slice with some nice quality butter was so good. I was pretty amazed with the initial result.

I ended up making tomato soup and turning the bread into grilled cheese for dinner.

To make the tomato soup:

1. Cut up tomatoes, the top off 2 bunches of garlic, 1 yellow onion, and some bell pepper.
2. Place on baking tray, put olive oil, salt, and pepper on everything.
3. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, then blend and put in a pot.

The three things I would’ve changed with this recipe:

1. Not use bell pepper, I’m not a big fan of them and I don’t think it benefited it at all
2. Blend more thoroughly. I only have a ninja bullet blender, blending hot things in it feels sketchy, I should’ve made sure to make it thinner.
3. Added a few things to it: some butter and maybe some sugar. It was good but just felt fibrous and not as sweet and fatty as I would normally prefer.
   

Final product of grilled cheese with tomato soup above. Can’t complain.