My New Yeast Pets

Well we are back from vacation! My brother and his wife planned the whole thing, and I think I’m inclined to let them plan the next one! We toured the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, went through the Glen Canyon by boat and finally stopped in Vegas for a couple days. Every Canyon and National Park we visited was amazing in different ways. Grand beauty (according to a sign in the visitor center the Grand Canyon is not the widest, deepest or longest canyon in the world, but we can all agree it is the grandest), alien looking landscapes and rock formations and finally lush forests in middle of the dessert. My favorite part of Las Vegas was the Cirque du Soleil show, “O”. It was just plain amazing. We all couldn’t believe how amazingly choreographed the performers and the stage were. I’ve never seen anything like it!

Will and I at the Bellagio under the beautiful Chihuly installation. I just love Chihuly – he is one of the few artists whose works I have sought out in multiple museums and locations.

Unfortunately vacations come to an end, and I’ll be back at work when you’re reading this. Before my vacation I started a number of projects – a sash and cookies for Emma’s bachelorette party, another screen printed tee that I’ll show you soon and finally I created a sourdough starter.

I blame the Great British Baking Show for making me decide to create a sourdough starter. I’ve wanted to make sourdough for years but had convinced myself it was like having a pet and thus too much work. Well, I’m pretty sure the only people who will tell you this have never had a proper pet. Sure you have to feed it once a day, but you don’t have to groom it, take it for walks or clean up its poop. Plus what kind of pet can you stick in the fridge when you go on vacation? I seriously hope you don’t try that with a non-primitive lifeform…

Sourdough starter a few days before it is ready.

Pet or otherwise I created a sourdough starter following these directions before vacation. You can tell from my pictures it worked pretty well, though it took mine a few extra days beyond her original tutorial (probably because our house is so cold). Then I followed her directions to make a batch of sourdough bread. Well the loaves were a bit of a failure – I’m not sure if they were under or over proofed. (I have some learning to do.) But boy did they taste amazing!! Her foolproof steps basically force you to start the bread on a weekend, but of course I didn’t do that. Instead I stayed up really late the day before our flight out and started it. Then for the final proof instead of leaving it out for 4 hours (and me starting to bake the bread at 4am) or leaving it in the fridge for 12 hours (and having me bake the bread in the middle of the work day) I left the bread on our chilly counters and baked it at 8am.  My theory was that our chilly house is somewhere between fridge temperature and normal room temperature. I’m hoping in the summer my house’s “room temperature” will be more like the normal room temperature and thus the yeast will have much less trouble multiplying.

The bread is a bit flat, but doesn’t it look tasty?

My slightly sad looking delicious sourdough attempt #1!

Will chose to eat one of his twelve slices with oil and dipping spices.

Oh and if you’re wondering, “how did you manage to eat two loaves of sourdough in 4 hours?”  We didn’t!  Well we did eat one loaf.  The other I froze then defrosted, reheated and ate for dinner with some homemade Rocky Point (RIP) Clam Chowder.  See below for reheating instructions!

Reheating Homemade Sourdough

1. Wait until bread it completely cool then freeze sourdough in a heavy ziplock bag until you would like to use it.
   

   Tightly wrap in a freezer bag.

2. Defrost frozen sourdough on the counter until thawed.
3. Wrap sourdough in aluminum foil.
   

   Wrap in aluminum foil before placing in oven.

4. Heat in 350 degree oven for 6-8 minutes.
   

   You’d never know it was frozen!

   

   Enjoy with some delicious comfort food!