I don't have fancy equipment. I use the bread pan open bake method, and my breads turn out just fine. You don't need a Dutch oven or a fancy whisk. I dont use proofing baskets either. I just use a bowl, a wet cloth and a dream. You could actually get all of your equipment from the dollar store or use what you already have!
I start my dough and bake it all in the same day. Its not as sour, but i still like it.
All this to say, please don't let others intimidate you from making bread. Are my loaves perfect? Not really, but they're delicious 🙂
Recipe (2 loaves):
1000 g ap flour
690 g warm water
200 ish g starter
20 g salt
by thequietcornr
27 Comments
See this is exactly what i was thinking. People are so weird when they overcomplicate it.
Agreed. It’s like any hobby, people enjoy collecting extra steps and extra equipment . I’m a potter and it’s exactly the same, people love adding extra steps and pointless tools
Process: my starter lives in the fridge, so i take it out, feed it, and place it in warm water until its fluffy and bubbly. Then i mix my dough thoroughly and cover with a damp rag for an hour.
I do a stretch and fold, wait 30 min, and repeat as needed. Once the dough feels less sticky and has risen, i shape it and place in a parchment lined bread pan.
While oven preheats, put a pan of boiled water on the lowest rack for steam.
Bake: 450 F convection for 30 min, remove water and 425 F for 20ish min could even be less). Let cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.
My process is pretty intuitive, so i mostly just go by how the dough looks and feels!
I think it can be both. like fishing, it can be as complicated (and expensive) as you want to make it
Dollar tree has this 9×5 loaf pans for $1.25 they’ve never let me down. I cover them with 4 ice cubes in each for steam and clamp them with a metal clip.
Making a starter is my biggest barrier – I find it intimidating so have not tried. Any tips?
I’ve been wanting to try but the hour long YT videos or the month long process to perfect it stress me out.
This encourages me, I’ll try. Thanks!
Those are some spectacular sandwich loaves. Thanks for sharing.
Hey! For once someone is showing a perfectly great crumb and NOT asking if it’s over-proofed or under-proved haha! I feel like that relates directly to your calling out the simplicity. I see so many fantastic loaves where people are asking advice, sometimes I question my own opinion on what’s a great loaf haha!
You could even do without the parchment paper, but might need a bit of oil.
Fuck yeah it is dude
Yup, I agree with you.
When I stopped measuring my feeds, feeding it the exact same time every day, obsessing over air temp, or making sure it doubled exactly, thats when I started getting amazing loaves.
The only thing I am anal about is making sure the inner temp of the bread is 210F before I pull it from the oven.
I BF mine in a huge Tupperware bowl, then vaguely form it into a loaf and toss it in my Pullman pan. It’s amazing every time.
It was so frustrating when trying to learn how to make sourdough because there were so many different methods. So many of them were so complicated and confusing too. Once I found out how simple it was, it became so much more enjoyable
I agree but I think learning how to make bread takes experience which is time and effort and then it’s just easy.
I work from home and it’s just a few 5 minute breaks throughout the day, cold proof overnight and bake the next day. I’m not timing anything, I just know from feel where the dough is.
Yes! Once I relaxed and starting using a hungry starter life became so much easier and every loaf is pretty perfect. I also exclusively use a loaf pan. I do cover with a second loaf pan to make a makeshift Dutch oven but that’s just personal preference.
“The sourdough hobby” is to “baking bread” as Formula One is to driving a car.
I’m content with baking bread.
https://preview.redd.it/bga8350cl0lh1.jpeg?width=4867&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdd387eb8a775e529747a5a60cf7159bc6ff1a11
It’s the people who are trying to replicate art with their bread making it difficult. I make it to devour it in 36 hours, not put on a shelf. So any little “mistake” or imperfection doesn’t bother me
If you have a good strong starter it’s a lot easier. I struggled for months with a laggy starter that just never got strong. I thought it was something I was doing. My sister in law gave me some of her starter dried and it’s a world of difference. Turns out I’m not a total loser. It was Bob Doughbalina who was the loser all along. Sorry Bob.
Gosh yes! I put off starting sourdough for years because all the instructions sounded so complicated! I started 2 weeks ago and every loaf has been delicious. And I havent followed many of the ‘rules’ either.
I literally make my bread off vibes. I go by feel rather than precise measurements anymore and it always turns out just fine. My starter is probably almost a decade old though and I keep it in the fridge. I feed it once or twice before using it to bake depending how long I go between baking. I’d never have stuck with sourdough if it required the preciseness so many post about using.
Baking in loaf pans is underrated!!
Sourdough is so easy and forgiving. I don’t go chasing those stupid huge crumb holes in my bread anyway rendering the shit useless. So if you’re not chasing that, sourdough is as low stress and low maintenance as anything could be.
Follow the directions it’s easy
It’s literally so easy lol. Couple of stretch and folds and then it’s set and forget. I didn’t let my first loaf bf long enough, learned from that and from then on every loaf has been great.
I think it all comes down to the starter really. I baked all through Covid with an excellent starter and thought wow this is easy! I stopped for a while and lost that starter. Got a new one and my bread has been mediocre ever since.
I always tell friends who are nervous about bread baking, or hesitant to try sourdough, that it has to be easy, because this art was perfected so many millennia ago, before we had any technology that allowed for precision. Baking was an art taught by experienced people, building a wood fire in a rudimentary oven, baking at who knows what temperature for who knows how much time. It was all by intuition and feel.
It’s great that we can measure everything down to the gram, and be exact with our ovens and our times, so we can have repeatable success. But for any of us who have ever made mistakes, and found that the end product turned out just fine, we know that each batch of bread we make is loaded with forgiveness.