My First Loaf of Sourdough and Batch of Pretzels

Thursday, October 5

School - Day 36.  Today is day 8 for my sourdough starter.  I did a water test (dropping a piece of dough into water and seeing if it floats) and it is mature and ready to be used.  I mixed up dough for my first loaf of sourdough bread.  I definitely still have a lot to learn.  The dough was very sticky.  For this first time, I did not use a scale to measure the ingredients.  That may be one reason why.  I also made up a batch of dough for pretzels.  And I fed my starter.

I told the girls we should give my sourdough starter a name and this was Summer's name!  It made me laugh so hard!

Did some cleaning and worked on school.

I made white chicken chili (another favorite soup of mine!) and quesadillas for dinner.  My dough for the pretzels was ready later in the evening.  Again, I didn't use the scale to measure the ingredients for this.  And perhaps I left it too long in too warm of a place.  I'm still trying to figure this all out.  Well, it was so sticky, and didn't want to roll out well.  It was just too soft.  So they were floppy.  Then I was an idiot and used wax paper instead of parchment paper and when I baked them, the wax paper glued itself to the bottoms of the pretzels.  Bomb.  

Friday, October 6

School - Day 37.  In the morning, I called my mom and had a long talk with her.  Then had another long talk with my two sisters. 

After the calls, I baked my first loaf of sourdough bread.  Well, I would definitely call it another bomb.  Slightly smaller bomb.  The crusty was super hard.  It did have a pretty good taste but it was very dense.  So, back to trying again!  I know sometimes it takes practice to get these things right.  Bread is definitely one of those things!  While the bread was baking, I mixed up a batch of sourdough dinner rolls.  Hey, try, try again!  

Sierra bought a pirate's costume for Captain Jack.  Ha!

Gah!  He's so adorable!

Then I worked on grading and quizzes with the girls.  Then I started dinner - one of my VERY FAVORITE fall meals!  Sierra cleaned out the inside of the pumpkins for me while I made the filling.  Then got them into the oven to bake.

Ahhh, if you haven't tried this recipe, try it this fall.  Sausage & Rice Stuffed Pumpkins

After dinner, I walked Max and then put the rolls into the oven to bake and finished the dishes.  Then the girls and I enjoyed the sourdough dinner rolls around the island.  Finally a win!