I made that bread! Now, I made bread plenty of times before, but this bread feels different. This homemade sourdough bread is pure labor of love and it brought me so much love I think I’m getting addicted in the whole process!
I first discovered and got intrigued by the sourdough bread on Duda’s Instagram account. I remember stumbling upon her account and just being so impressed by the beautiful bread she was creating. I knew you had to have a sourdough starter in order to make sourdough bread, which I didn’t have and knew nothing about, and I must admit I was intimidated and not even considering making it. But over months, as I watched her make this beautiful bread and pizza, I started getting a desire to make my own as well. I considered maybe taking a class – but timing wasn’t working for me, especially with me having knee surgery and struggling a bit with the recovery. Everything kind of went to the back burner.
I kept watching and watching other people make bread that I wanted to make too.
I started following another beautiful account, this time LeAnne from Lions Bread blog. She has so many great highlights as well with steps how to do it and I started thinking that I might be able to give this a try. Just as I got all the things that I needed, the right flour, a jar for the starter etc. We run into some issues with the heating in our house and I had to postpone making a starter because it just wouldn’t work in a cold house. But! A few weeks later we were nice and toasty again and I was ready to go.
I decided to follow LeAnn’s instructions and I went ahead and mixed up my filtered water with my whole wheat flour in my cute new jar, I marked it with the rubber band and I had a huge grin on my face. I didn’t know what to expect but I do have to admit I was a bit skeptical. Not of her instructions, but of my execution lol. However, when I came back to see how “Pero” was doing, he already doubled in size. Now a little explanation on who and what Pero is. It is actually a Croatian name, once I created the starter I knew I wanted to name him like some of my friends did when they created their own, I thought it was cute, funny and it couldn’t hurt. So with help of some of my Instagram followers I decided on Pero. Pero doesn’t rhyme with zero btw, that is a short e in there! 🙂
Pero grew huge! So much so that I was worried that something was wrong. You have to feed your starter every day and that is what I did. The first few days were great and then one day Pero didn’t grow and I panicked a bit. But I kept feeding him and after two days he was all “I’m alive!” and he continued to respond to his feedings. I’m having flashbacks here of Tamagotchi toys. Does anyone remember that?
On seventh day I did something called a floating test, where you see if the starter was strong enough and Pero was! He was ready for bread making. I however wasn’t. So I just decided to keep feeding him another three or four days until I was ready, I could hardly wait! I was so close to my sourdough loaf!
Following Leann’s instructions I created my first delicious loaf two days later. It was such joy to feed my family such a delicious, homemade loaf of bread. I wanted to make more right away but had a very busy week so I had to be patient and wait for the right time.
Just a few days later, one of my favorite Instagramers and food bloggers Bella came out with her sourdough guide, and like everything she makes, it was so full of detail and everything you might want to know about the whole process that I instantly felt this joy and playfulness and wanted to try making a loaf following her guide.
Pero, who was chilling in the fridge, went out in the warm and got fed in preparation and two days later I was going through this beautiful process of making bread again. This is not difficult. But it does take care and patience and it’s a true labor of love. And soooo fun!! And also peaceful and rewarding. I can’t even describe it but I think this is the feeling some people get when they are out gardening or maybe knitting. It’s a process, it takes love, care and time, it is enjoyable the whole time but the closer you are getting to that loaf being done, the better it gets, and when you finally do that last step and take the hot, gorgeous loaf of bread out of the oven – it’s a bit of a happy freak out in my belly!
I suppose it may not be like that for everyone, but I am so, so happy and grateful that I decided to try and make my own sourdough bread. Feeding my family with it and watching them enjoy it so much is the best ever!
Wether you are one of my Croatian followers and Duda’s instagram and youtube account help you, or maybe you decide to check out LeAnn’s or Bella’s guides, I hope you take a chance on sourdough bread. I cannot wait to make pizza and focaccia with it next. I am only beginning to learn of everything that you can do with your sourdough starter and I am truly excited!
