Monday, October 17, 2011

Sourdough Bread


One of the super duper cool things about keeping a blog is that I've made some amazing friends by doing it. Not a lot. Just three. Two of them also lost one of their twins and I talk to them a lot. Email, Facebook, even the telephone every once in a while. (Their blogs are Catching up with Daphne and Justin and Megan.) The third had a preemie and, I'm not sure how it started, but we began emailing each other. They just moved from Texas to N. Korea and I'm loving her blog. Her blog is the Hillbergs and I list it on mine but she has it set to private.

Anyway, she read my bread post and decided to try Healthy Bread. Then she offered to send me some of her sourdough starter from N. Korea. I'd never tried sourdough bread before so I was pretty nervous. I think I spent a good 5 hours reading about sourdough starter and watching videos about how to care for it, ie. not kill it, etc. After just I a few days reviving and caring for the starter she sent me (all the way from Korea!) I finally made my first loaves.

They turned out great! I'm so excited about it! The only bad thing is that they're mainly all-purpose flour and I feel guilty the whole time I'm serving and eating it. I saved some of the starter in the fridge and, as it turns out, sourdough starter can live forever in your fridge. You just need to feed it every once in a while. The only other bad thing is that the bread's super soft and lighter than my HBI5. Dave (who happens to be from San Francisco) suggested that this would be better for sandwiches. Hmmm... I didn't respond. :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heavens. I love sourdough. Especially really crusty, crunchy sourdough. We also avoid white bread. In fact, I only buy it or break it for special occasions. But man, it is delicious... Should I send you some NYC bagels?

The Hillbergs said...

Ya! Thanks for the shout out Cyndi!! If any of your friends want to be friends with me and see my blog, all they have to do is ask and of course I would invite them!

Great job on the bread! If you serve it with lots of grassfed butter then you can just pat yourself on the back as you munch away. One tip -- cut some slits on the top (i use some kitchen shears to just snip an X on the top) right before baking. I don't know why, but that makes the crust even better!

Three cheers for internet buddies!!! Its a small world!

Megan B ♥ said...

Hee hee, love the picture!! That bread sounds so delicious! And your friendship even MORE delicious :)