My Sourdough Journey | Maddie Hull

Jun 25, 2024

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If you follow me on Instagram @fittwithmaddie, you've no doubt seen my posts with sourdough bread. I've been on this little sourdough journey for a while now. It's become a hobby of mine and apparently I'm not alone.

A close-up image of a round sourdough bread loaf with a heart-shaped design scored into the top crust. The bread is golden brown and appears freshly baked. Above the loaf, there is text that reads "My happy loaf is complete." In the lower part of the image, there is a purple heart emoji. The image is part of an Instagram story, indicated by the interface elements at the top and bottom of the screen. — My happy loaf

Making sourdough is the new craze it would seem. If you don’t believe me, I literally typed in “sourdough craze” and this was the first result; “According to Google Trends, searches for 'sourdough' have seen a steady increase since the pandemic – with a 3X resurgence already happening in 2024”... so yeah. I happened to be a part of this craze and didn’t even realize it. I started making sourdough successfully in 2023. I had tried before but failed miserably and never tried to do it again until this past year.

I thought it could be helpful to share some tips that helped me be successful at making this delicious bread.

When History Meets Bakery

I've always been interested in pioneering, you know the historian in me.💁‍♀️ That pioneer spirit has transferred over into my kitchen as well. Last year was my first-ever water bath experience. For my non-canners, no I didn't take a bath for the first time... A water bath is just a pan of hot water placed in the oven, into which you put the baking dish that contains the food you need to cook.

My grandmother had a water bath and pressure canner in her garage from when my mom was just a little girl. I was lucky enough to get my hands on it last summer with my plentiful harvest. So the only logical thing to try next was sourdough (I could already make yeast bread). With some trial and error, I have been able to successfully make a sourdough loaf! I thought it could be helpful to share some tips that helped me be successful at making this delicious bread.

Golden Rules for Golden Crusts

Temperature Matters
1. To get your sourdough starter to become active, the right temperature could be the issue. Having it on the kitchen counter in winter will probably not get you the results you want. So feed your starter and put it in the oven with the light on (yes, like an Easy-Bake Oven), and watch your starter come to life!
The fridge
1. Once you have your sourdough starter up and running, you do not have to keep it on the oven counter all year long. You can actually put it in the fridge and not kill it. You just need to feed it every week or two weeks. It can also be beneficial to give it two feeds when you pull it out to make sure it is strong and active.
2. (For those of you not into sourdough…yet, “feeding” means dumping out some of your starters to then add more water/flour to start the fermentation/bacteria build process. Without feeding your dough will not rise, in simple terms, you are making your own yeast.)
Scoring Matters
1. I did not know how much that little slit down the side of your bread matters in cooking it thoroughly. I thought it was just part of making it look fancy. Make sure you invest in a good scoring tool because your steak knives are duller than you think!