Make sourdough

“The very first sourdough starter I brought to life was a tremendous success, except when it came to making bread with it. The resulting loaf was heavy and flat, like a paving stone. It sort of tasted like a paving stone. [...] Anyone who has ever tried to make sourdough bread will know how all-consuming it is. There’s a rhythm to the whole business; a cycle of feeding in which the starter reaches an optimal state for bread-making, followed by one, or possibly two, intervals of slow proving for the dough. To stay in this rhythm, you have to be baking at least every other day, and I often found myself getting up at 6am to meet the demands of a yeast culture I could never bend to my will.”

“At this point I didn't realize sourdough breads rise for anywhere between 4-12 hours, I was just looking for a way to make my own yeast since the stores were all out. So I let this bread rise for just 90 minutes and gave up and baked it anyway rather than throwing it out. [...] I fed the starter the morning I baked it then put it in a warm spot until lunchtime, and it got nice and frothy. The bread came out ok, it was very dense and stopped rising after only maybe rising 1/3 of the way (5.5 hours). At least the flavor was good, slightly less sour because of the young starter.”