I baked my first (successful) loaf of sourdough bread in the middle of January 2024. It had taken me more than two months to get a viable starter working. My initial attempts at baking sourdough bread were dismal. I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t give up. I’m glad I didn’t.
Once I knew that I could produce an edible loaf, my project was to improve upon it. And then to branch out. That first loaf was a 100% white bread flour boule. By February, I moved to a boule of 50% white bread flour, 40% wholewheat flour, and 10% rye flour. That is my current standard loaf. It has 75% hydration. And it looks like this:
By the end of February I had added ciabatta bread to my repertoire. This was a 100% white bread flour dough with 80% hydration. I liked the ciabatta buns I was making. But in late September I had a game changer: my first olive ciabatta loaf. Really nice.
During the year I also experimented with sourdough pita bread, sourdough pizza dough, and sourdough focaccia.
The biggest challenge though was the baguette. My early efforts were unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Baguette dough has to be handled a fair bit prior to going in the oven. It requires patience and solid technique. My first attempts probably had too high of a hydration for my skill level. Once I reduced the hydration to 70%, I was able to achieve something like what I was aiming for. I also had to learn that for my oven, demi-baguettes are the better size. I’m still not 100% satisfied with them. It’s an ongoing project.
It has been a very rewarding year. Apart from enjoying lots of sourdough bread, I’ve been able to give some nice loaves to friends and family. And since we didn’t purchase any store-bought bread over the entire year, I can say with some degree of certainty that we saved a fair bit of money. I made a point of tracking the costs of all my ingredients during 2024. The total cost of all ingredients comes to just over $340. With those ingredients, I made:
- 86 boules
- 6 baguettes
- 84 demi-baguettes
- 52 ciabatta buns
- 3 ciabatta loaves
- 21 olive ciabatta loaves
- 1 focaccia
- 8 pizzas
I’m taking a break over the holidays since I am travelling. I will be back in 2025 with lots more sourdough. I’ve got a list of things to try in order to improve the bread I’m currently making, and some ideas about how to broaden my repertoire further. Looking forward to it!
