I like to cook. Sometimes I even love to cook. I can follow a recipe like nobody’s business and occasionally branch off into my own experimentation. I’m not much of a baker. I mean I can make a cake from a box, can decorate cupcakes sufficiently and make a mean brownie thanks to Ghiradelli Brownie Mix, but one thing I’ve never attempted is bread baking. Enter T-Mobile.
Interesting segue, right? Let me explain. We switched carriers from Verizon to T-Mobile and along with it came this delightful little T-Mobile Tuesdays app which gives you free stuff every Tuesday. I’ve gotten free movie rentals, free Restaurant.com certificates, free photo printing, and my favorite – a free cooking class with Panna.com worth $20. I could choose from a variety of classes – pies, southern home cooking, Mexican street food, Korean cooking and tons more. What caught my eye was Master Bread Baking. I mean BREAD! Who doesn’t love an artisan bread? And how hard could it be? Oh, allow me to explain…
The first lesson was to make a sourdough starter. I’ve heard of this but had no idea what it was and what it took to make one. Apparently the best artisan breads around the world are made with sourdough starters that have been around for centuries. Consider that for a moment when you pick up your young bread at Panera.
Starting with a digital scale, organic grapes, water and dark rye flour I began the 22 day process of creating my starter and lovingly turning it into a healthy, bacteria laden “stiff mother” (yes, I giggled on that too) which can literally out-live me, provided I continue to feed it once a week. I don’t take care of my real mother that well!
Now that I had my “mother” it was time to bake my first loaf of bread. Lesson two – the 30 hour Sourdough Bread. Yes. This is a loooong process, requires five different flours – white, wheat, dark rye, light rye and buckwheat and necessitated the purchase of a cast iron dutch oven in which to bake this delectable treat. Over the course of three days I went from levain to dough to the final result – an absolutely beautiful, aromatic and delicious sourdough loaf. And the best part is that thanks to T-Mobile, this $20 class was FREE. I mean, okay, I had a few expenses. At last count the different flours alone cost me about $60, including one I had to order online. Really who knew how hard it would be to find light rye? The cast iron dutch oven set me back $40 and the Pullman pan for the white bread loaf (for class number three) was $30. So…uhm…so far I’m in for $100+ but again, the class was free!
It is fun though, and I’ve made the sourdough loaf three times thus far. The biggest challenge is timing all the steps and rest periods so I’m not baking at 3:00 in the morning. There are a total of six lessons in the class and besides the upcoming Pullman Loaf I’ll be baking Baguettes, Pancito Potosi Rolls (whatever that is) and Ciabatta. I’ve also been making garlic herb butter and homemade butter from whipping cream. Seriously, what’s the point of artisan bread without “artisan” butter?
Bottom line – if anyone wants to make their own Sourdough, I’d be thrilled to share the recipe, technique and more importantly, my mother. She makes a brilliant loaf of bread.
Began 12/4/17. Continuing forever.
Suggested by Pam Castellano