nothing much just proud

i’ve been baking sourdough on and off for the last year. my last starter became ~no longer viable~ a month or two ago and i recently started a new one. this is (basically) the first loaf i’ve made with it. i’m at my parents house for the holidays and they don’t have a scale so i did a LOT of estimating. my typical recipe is:

150 g starter

375 g water

15 g salt

mix together until frothy and then add 500 g good bread flour

4 sets of stretch and folds every 30-45 minutes

BF on counter until doubled and then let her hang out in the fridge overnight/ until i’m ready to bake.

i bake at 450° 25 minutes covered 25 minutes uncovered and then rest for ≈an hour.

as i mentioned, i had no food scale so there was a lot of measuring with my heart. BF and cold proof both went very normally….. and then the bake. i recently saw someone say to increase the temp for the covered portion of the bake and then lower it after uncovering and that’s where things started to go awry. i decided to do my typical 25 minute covered bake but upped the temp to 480°. i asked my wife to set the timer and there was some sort of technical mishap and that didn’t quite happen. i did my very very best to estimate how long it had been but was very unsure. the loaf was looking good so i uncovered and lowered the temp. this time i made sure to set the timer myself to make sure it was actually set lol but made sure to check periodically. i checked the internal temp after about 20 minutes and it read 208° (which fit between the 205-210 range i was aiming for) so i took her out and she’s cooling now.

this loaf is gorgeous!!!! i’m still waiting to cut in but she smells and looks divine. i think this is my best eat to date and i just wanted to share because i’m proud that it seems to have come out okay despite the various ~situations~