I've taken up this whole idea of make your own sourdough bread really late. Everyone else discovered it back in the first lockdown, but it was spring and the weather was nice then, and I spent a lot of time gardening. During the second lockdown I mainly focused on Christmas and that (broken) promise that we'd be allowed a five day get together.
But with another lockdown announced for after Christmas I felt I needed a focus to get me through to spring. January is too early for sowing seeds or doing anything outside in the garden so I was looking a house-based activity that would be more inspiring than dusting or ironing. Trying Veganuary helped me focus on food and cooking, and a sourdough culture seemed the next logical step.
I asked for advice from Twitter before I started and someone recommended following Colm O Gorman, food columnist for the Irish Examiner, on Instagram, and his posts and videos made everything look SO easy. It isn't an overly complicated process - make some flour and water paste, keep it warm, throw half away each but day but feed the remainder with extra flour and water each - and sure enough at the end of a week I'd made a loaf, then a few days later another, and eventually one that looked good.
One of the delights has been the other things I've made 'on the side' from the half of starter that is discarded everyday (otherwise there's be the most massive loaf to be baked at the end of the week). I'd got the idea for this from author Sarah Jasmon (Sarahontheboat on Instagram) who I'd seen posting pictures of lovely things made this way.
First I attempted pancakes, just using the runny discard, but then I grew a bit more confident and added more flour to make cinnamon buns, dough balls, dumplings, and even cakes.
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