Back to the Drawing Board

This is a hockey puck. Anybody want to play? You cannot cut it and maybe a goat can chew it, and lawdy gah, I gave a loaf of this mess away! I tossed it today. Seems I have drifted pretty far from the original specifications of the "5 Minutes a Day to Artisan Bread." I have a tendency to quit following the directions and experiment. This is a tough, crust, gummy interior 10 pound inedible brick.

If I can do this, with yeast breads, make something good to eat, and use

100% whole grain flour with good results. How did I make that hockey puck? It does take some getting used too, to eat a bread this hearty. You cannot however, get used to eating a hockey puck you cannot chew it.

"I can do this, talks to self".

I am not satisfied with the pretend artisan bread anymore. I want to make the real thing. But I am having issues. Hockey puck issues.

Success here with these.
The eager beaver is not always so smart. I baked 8 loaves of wheat bread and then mixed up my first batch of real sourdough without any yeast just starter, for the leavening. I wondered if my kitchen had any "wild yeasts" in it! The starter looked a bit like a rolling boil, talk about an active starter. Probably something wrong with it. I did figure out from reading that because I bake so much I can cut my yeast back to 1/16th tsp. per 3 c.s flour. That may slow down my rise, and solve the splits. I went ahead and slashed the tops to let the steam escape instead of having a side blow out. It worked. My bread doesn't just rise it explodes. I had been thinking that I didn't need so much yeast, I don't. I also can get regular yeast now since my kitchen is a living organism.

This is the sourdough after it has rested and been in the refrigerator for 2 days, just because I was tired. I read after I made this dough about how hard it is to use rye flour, rye starter, and that sourdoughs shouldn't rest even in the refrigerator for more than 24 hours. Too soon old too late smart. HOWEVER I have been studying this process and I am going to get this right. I am going to make smaller batches, follow the recipes and keep baking. I am a hopeless addict.

I am on a quest. A quest to master sourdough or let it master me. These rolls are pretty tasty, not tough and the crust is thin and crispy. The crust on whole wheat/rye sourdough is not shiny like on white bread.
Here comes the confession, I am going to work with white flour.

Do you think I am a hypocrite?

After all I have been reading about white flour, I am at a cross roads with my baking and cannot really learn without the white flour dough. Sourdough is fermented so it is probably healthier. I ordered some tools, some pans and a proofing basket. I am getting serious with this bread. I think it runs in the blood. My grandparents were immigrants from Denmark and they ran a bakery in Oakland California. I grew up on Danish rye which is a sweet rye, made with a combination of flours, dark rye, wheat and white. They used to make it at Neldam's in Berkeley too. I had to wait to learn to bake until all the people there, that knew my family passed away, so I am on my own; with the quest. The quest for great sour dough bread.
Out of a home kitchen in the deep south where there is no San Francisco air. I am determined.
Even if I must use white flour and start there. It's true. See how easily I caved? I am such a wimp. After the bad rap I have been giving white flour, now I need it. At least it is from Montana, unbleached high protein and all that good stuff.

I am humbled.

I love to bake.

I cannot bake hockey pucks.