Hello from East Tennessee!
Hi all!
I've been cooking/baking since college but only recently really got into the bread making thing. I've had some early success with yeast breads:
But, having grown up in Northern California, I crave that San Francisco Sourdough tang. After a few misfires, I got a starter that seemed to be behaving:
The hair band is the pre-rise marker. So yesterday I gave the Tartine recipe up at the New York Times a shot:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016277-tartines-country-bread [1]
And had my first major flop of my baking career. Literally. It flopped into a hockey puck. A puck with a decent sour flavor, but absolutely no rise and a texture quite like old shoe leather:
I'm trying again today with a little simpler recipe from here:
http://www.homecookingadventure.com/recipes/easy-sourdough-bread-vermont-bread [2]
Being an engineer by trade I'm determined to troubleshoot and fix my process. So any post-mortem comments on my failures are definitely welcome!
I look forward to trying out your guys recipes and actually making some decent naturally leavened bread!
Cheers!
Nathan