Back into sourdough with a few loaves, and lots of pictures

Good morning Fresh Loafers! It's been a looooong time since I've made a post, so I thought I'd share my recent success with sourdough.

I've wanted to make a starter from straight up flour+water for a while--my last one used a pinch of commercial yeast to get it cooking, so I was curious if I could get it started from just the basics.

I'm using Reinhart's methods from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I started with Bob's Red Mill stone ground rye and water, then each refreshment was straight bread flour and water. After 4 rounds of refreshing, the starter was vigorous and happy.

Hooray! Now came time for the first bake. I went with Reinhart's pain au levain. The dough worked nicely. The rises were sluggish, but my kitchen was only 65F, so I'm not very surprised.

The dough was pretty slack, and the loaves were a little too long for my peel, which caused...an incident getting them onto my stone.

But no worries, they were gorgeous inside and out, and just as delicious as they look!

Next up: Rye with caraway, from Daniel Leader's Bread Alone. These loaves came out picture-perfect, and the flavor is nothing short of amazing.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Sorry they're so big. I'll try to fix the post so they're not so scary.

-Joe