How hard is it to make bread?

[Brokenhandle]

I've never had or disliked any warm bread with melted butter on it!

Ryan

 

[miller51]

Sourdough isn't really that hard but it can be intimidating. There are some pretty basic recipes and you can play with it as you become more comfortable.
The biggest challenge is having a little time to coordinate the steps, if I plan on baking it, I have to get my starter out today to feed it (just flower and water) and build the dough tonight so it can ferment overnight and I can bake tomorrow or the next day if I don't feel like it. It can also be frozen in batches and then thawed and baked.

Once you have a starter which you can buy online or start yourself (takes about a week to 10 days), the best option is using a Dutch oven so you can make it multifunctional, bread or regular cooking.

This will sound like a lot and at first I thought it was overwhelming, but once i did it once, it was way simpler than it sounds.

The steps are pull the starter from the fridge and allow to come to room temp, feed it and let it do it's thing for a couple hrs, build the dough, let it rest for an hour, do some "stretch folds" (nothing challenging), fridge it overnight or 6-8hrs if you start really early in the day, preheat the oven with Dutchoven in it, take dough out of the fridge and form your dough while preheating, place in the preheated Dutch oven cover, bake 25 min, take off the lid, bake another 20-25 minutes and then pull it out and put in on a wire rack to cool (don't cut right away, its not like fresh white bread).

Like I said, it sounds like a lot, but once you do it once or twice, it's pretty simple, just need a little time and coordination... I like it enough that I even bought a regular rectangular one to bake regular bread shaped loaves... the results are worth it!

 

[BGKYSmoker]

miller51
I fixed your pics

 

[sandyut]

It’s easy to make bread , a little harder to make great bread.

HA! Truth!

I find sourdough easier than any other I have tried. But I live at 8200ft and that messes with on SD breads...so it seams.

 

[Fueling Around]

Last sentence got my attention, what’s a sour dough discard bread?

Feeding a sourdough starter requires taking about 1/3 of the ripe starter and adding fresh flour and water. I use metric so 50 grams starter, 50 grams water, and 50 grams flour.
If you have 150 grams of bloomed sourdough, that means you have 100 grams of unused or discard. I save that discard in fridge and if you let it age a few weeks it gets a hooch of liquid on the top. You feed your starter and keep adding the discard to your save jar That hooch adds a real sour flavor. I add the discard at 5-10% of the flour for a yeast bread recipe. Remember that discard is 50% flour and 50% water
My wife loves a sourdough boule, but she really loves a discard loaf as it fits the toaster