I saw an ad on NextDoor for a class on making sourdough bread. I've tried it before but never got the Mother right. I'm disgusted with store bought "sourdough" because it has much more than water and flour in it. So wth???
Turns out I was giving up on my Mother too soon. I wasn't feeding her enough and I thought that when the flour and liquid separated it was done. Not so. She's just hungry.
MaryEllen walked us through her process then popped her sponge in the oven. Then we went through the process ourselves. Before we left MaryEllen's bread was making our mouths water. We had a lovely morning tea with warm sourdough.
We had a sponge to take home to bake after its 4-5 "tuck and folds" and a 12-hour rest. I baked it in the morning and we had delicious bread for lunch. It bakes on parchment paper in a covered Dutch oven for 30 min then uncovered for another 15. The process takes a lot of time, but in intervals of a few minutes. The regular yeast bread kneading was a sticky mess at first; sourdough is much less messy because the folding is done with wet hands and only enough to incorporate air into the sponge. Every 2 hrs fold 4-5 times then rest for 12 hours. Easy peasy.
I want to eat the whole loaf so I can make more.
