酸麵包 Sourdough Bread

I had to look up how to say sourdough bread in Chinese.  The fact is, I never had this kind of bread in Taiwan.

A good sourdough bread is often chewy, airy, and have nice hard crust.  The texture stands on the opposite end of Asian breads which are soft, still airy, sweet, and soft crust (ideal bread for people with no teeth or chewing problem?).

I got my sourdough start - Hope in November 2020 (yap, right ahead of the pandemic craze of baking sourdough) from someone giving it out for free on Facebook's Seattle Taiwanese Mom's group.  It came in a small container, a size of a ping pong ball.  When I saw it, I didn't know if it was worth the 20 minutes driving to reach the owner's house.

I looked up many sourdough YouTubes.  There are so many.  If I am to recommend one, it would be - How To Make Sourdough Bread Masterclass.  😊 10M+ people watched it.  The recipe makes two loaves of bread.

I keep Hope in a mason jar.  We don't eat that much sourdough, so I tend to feed Hope and stick it back in the fridge at almost a month at a time interval.  The first time I did it, it was out of necessity as kids and I went to Taiwan and Malaysia for Christmas.  After Hope survived, it became a thing I do every month, as like many bread making, it takes a long time for the dough to raise.

I keep a journal, with date and weight like the following:

mason jar weight = 440g
08/29 total weight = 923g - 440g (jar) 
                            = 483g  (weight of Hope) - 160g (to keep)
                            = 323g of Hope to use 👌

This is ideal, as 323g is what we needed for making 2 loaves of bread and since we have 160g (to keep), we would feed 160g of water and 160g of flour to Hope, until the next month.

I love💖 the simplicity of the recipe:

bread flour   高筋麵粉      800g 
water           水         460ml
salt    鹽         10g
starter    酵母 320g

Here are a couple of pictures finished products at various time.  If you have time, and need to vent 😡, give it a try.  Instead of getting in (more) trouble, instead you get something wonderful to look at, something wonderful to eat, which will lift up your heart beyond the clouds 😋.

09/02/2020:  Twice now, I believe using dutch oven somehow makes the finish of the bread better.

If you have time, I highly recommend watching Artisan Sourdough Bread Lessons from Our Garage Bakery | Proof Bread.