things wot i made then ate: sourdough bread

This is the volunteer starter collected and cultivated from grain in the Whole Foods bins. Its origin is unknown exactly.

This is what the starter culture looks like straight out of the refrigerator. How it became this little dough ball is another story that tends to complicate the story about a loaf of bread, so let this be the starting point. This is going to take a few days so best to keep a vague plan in mind, although there's a wide margin for variation, once started it's best to keep a general schedule since yeast cultures work best with some regularity, wouldn't want to rush the feedings, nor neglect them.

It weighs about 6 1/4 oz.

Added 6 oz water and enough flour, a few Tablespoons to form a lose dough. It's Wednesday, 1:15 p.m. afternoon.

Wednesday 10:40 p.m. Evening. Bubbles appeared and the mass has grown. That's a good sign that the culture is already quite active. There'll be no limping start. This isn't always true for a culture that has languished in hibernation for long.

Fed 1 Cup water and 2 Cups flour 10:40 p.m. Wednesday Evening, formed into lose dough ball. 9 hours 25 minutes has elapsed since this bread was started.

Thursday 8:40 am, the next morning. This is what the risen dough looks like. It's not particularly impressive.

The inflated dough picture above was knocked back, at that time, The next morning Thursday morning at 8:40 a.m. and fed 2 Cups water and 5 Cups flour. It has been 10 hours from the last feeding and 19 hours, 25 minutes from the starting time.

The dough was lightly kneaded after allowing 20 minutes for autolysis, then formed into loaves and chilled for a cold proofing period intended to be at least one day, possibly more. So after all the excitement of building up a live culture, we suddenly arrest the yeast activity. This gives the bacterial portion of the culture time to catch up and develop an acid tang along with depth of flavor and texture. A portion was reserved as starter for the next batch. The reserved starter portion is flour and water only, it contains no lecithin, flax oil, olive oil, additional wheat germ, nor any salt.

After two days in the refrigerator and four hours in a proof box on the counter. Removed Saturday at 12:00 noon. Can't be arsked to calculate the hours. It's been a long time. I could have protected them better while they cold proofed and provided moisture after their hibernation and warmed proofed immediately prior to baking, but I forgot. Plus I was being interrupted and somewhat hassled by outside forces that tended to throw me off my game. So there's that. You can see the rolls didn't slice all that well.