HI everyone! It's been a while and I appreciate your continued support while I figure out how to do it all...this time I have jumped on the sourdough bread bandwagon!
I have been watching my daughter bake delicious and creative sourdough loaves for a while now, and thought one day I will give it a try. I kept putting off that thought because it just felt like a daunting task to make the starter. Well, that all changed, and here is my story...
Early October we took a ride up to the King Arthur Baking Company in Vermont which is a beautiful drive and less than two hours away. We stumbled upon this place about 10 years ago on a random fall leaf peeping trip, and I just loved it! It is nestled in the scenic hills of Norwich, VT and truly boasts a sense of calm when you stand outside the bakery and just look around. It becomes an invitation to take a deep breath and truly appreciate life. Well, at least that is what it does to me! If you've been here, I'd love to hear your experience! This place has grown so much in the time we have been visiting and developed into a quite the destination. There were people from all over New England and beyond. They have a nice cafe and bakery, along with their retail shop that carries a variety of baking and kitchen supplies. This is where I found sourdough starter. It stopped me in my tracks! The woman who helped me was so nice, tolerating my many questions which quite possibly she had answered many times before. I ended up buying the small jar of starter along with flour which was on sale - and thankfully, it came with a pamphlet containing directions!!
Once I got home, I knew I needed time to focus on this task to make the bread. It sat in my refrigerator for at least a week and I knew I had to "feed" this starter. Time is so valuable as you know, and I kept finding other things to do...why was this so far out of my comfort zone?? Well, finally, I did it...I fed the starter, and I followed the directions exactly, and it was very time consuming...but, in the end, the kitchen smelled amazing and I had multiple beautiful and delicious loaves of sourdough bread. I ended up with 2 jars of starter to store in the refrigerator.
We (me & Steve) ate so much sourdough bread during October, it was crazy. I started feeling joint pain especially in my hands which I belive mis coming from the gluten in the flour. I let the jars of starter sit in the refrigerator and had to feed them again. I used up one made more loaves of bread which went into the freezer to use for Thanksgiving. I have put the brakes on the bread making, because we are both feeling the waistline increasing! Plus I need to see if the gluten in the flour is the problem in my hands.
Since I still have fear about starting the starter from scratch, I'll need to feed the remaining starter, but really, I think I need to try a gluten free sourdough, so I may need to start from scratch. We'll see how this break does for my industious little fingers...
If anyone out there has a tried & true gluten free sour dough bread recipe, please reach out, I would love to give it a try.
In the meantime, here is a picture of my bread!
As always, thank you for your support! If there is anything you'd be interesting in learning or hearing about, drop me a line!
In good health,
Bobbi
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