DP Photo Challenge: growth, take 2

/ Su Leslie
Flour, water, salt and time, plus a bit more time and heat. Close up shot of wholemeal sourdough loaf, still in baking pan. Image: Su Leslie, 2018

Flour, water, salt, time and heat. Just-baked loaf of wholemeal sourdough bread. Image: Su Leslie, 2018

The Daily Post asked this week for photos that evoke growth.

For me, sourdough bread is perhaps one of the purest examples of how natural growth processes can be utilised to create something sustaining and delicious.

Flour and water are combined, and left as a food offering to the yeasts and bacteria that exist all around us. Over time, and with extra food, this mixture grows sufficiently in bulk and strength that with the addition of yet more flour and water, the resultant dough can be kneaded and proved and ultimately baked.

Flour, water, salt and time: the beginnings of a sourdough loaf. Bowl containing ball of proving sourdough. Image: Su Leslie, 2018

Flour, water, salt and time: the beginnings of a sourdough loaf. Image: Su Leslie, 2018

Learning to bake sourdough bread has been one of my projects for the last couple of years. With every completed loaf, my knowledge and confidence also grows.

 

 

44 thoughts on “DP Photo Challenge: growth, take 2”

    • 🙂
      I hadn’t thought about it at all until T decided to try making some. Because we had no idea what we were doing, we ended up reading lots of articles about the chemistry of it all. Apparently the sour taste is caused by bacteria producing lactic acid. Really good bakers can control the sour taste by manipulating the starter; I just take pot luck.

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    • Thanks Tish. I realised a while ago — after a particularly disastrous loaf — that I was absolutely not going to be beaten. I’m not sure if it’s just pig-headedness, or the fact that being able to produce food is so important to me, but I am glad I didn’t give up. The successes are outweighing the duds these days. 🙂

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    • Home-made bread is wonderful however it is made. 🙂 Sourdough is really time-consuming, so I’ve learned to bake two loaves at a time and freeze one. But the flip-side is that I find the process of working the dough very satisfying, and I’m learning to understand what’s happening by the feel of the dough, not just the look. Very theraputic! 🙂

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  15. I just had to drop in and drool over your loaf. I killed my sourdough starter before Christmas. It got sadly neglected in the end-of-year busyness. I am still trying to get another one started but it keeps being too darn hot to think about baking. I miss home-baked sourdough. So I’ll just pretend I’m about to have a piece of yours, if that’s okay.

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