Growing up in California I was introduced to good sourdough bread at a very young age. My Italian father grew up in San Francisco and insisted my mother buy sourdough. We weren’t well off in my childhood and my mother shopped at a day-old bakery where she bought large boules sliced for sandwiches. I remember the crunchy crust, chewy crumb and nutty flavor of these breads. We used it for school lunches (mostly bologna), toast slathered with butter, or at the dinner table. I confess, I often longed for the spongy white Wonder bread advertised on TV because that’s what the cool kids brought in their school lunches. I didn’t realize how sourdough bread was a reflection of my family heritage, setting me apart from the homogenous white bread masses of Orange County, California.
Through the years I’ve been making sourdough bread for my family. I made my first sourdough starter by following a recipe found online. That was nearly 20 years ago. I’ve kept this starter alive, feeding it once a week, using it as needed all this time. When we moved from California to North Carolina I carefully transported the sourdough starter in a cooler in our car across the 3,000 miles to our new home.
Sourdough makes a beautiful loaf. Steam develops inside the dough as it’s expanding, causing the crust to crack open. Scoring the bread immediately before baking allows the baker to control where the cracks form, giving the finished bread a distinctive design. I love scoring my sourdough, creating patterns and designs that satisfy my artistic nature.
Although there are quick sourdough recipes that can be made in only a few hours, the best, tastiest, heartiest sourdough requires a minimum of two days to develop the distinctive sour flavor of a traditional sourdough bread. Because it’s such a complex process, I’m going to pass along a fantastic sourdough preparation process from online baking instructor Baker Bettie.
If you make this recipe, please post photos of your sourdough creations in the comments section.