An Announcement and a Consolation Prize (Spoiler Alert: the Prize is Sourdough)

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Hi, friends! Yes, I'm still alive and no, I'm probably not going to start this blog back up – I just don't have time anymore, what with my full-time job, my budding freelance writing career, and the novel(s?) I'm trying to write while I continue to try to get my second memoir published. If you can believe it, that's only like 60% of what I have going on right now. 

But I'm not here to participate in the glorification of busy! To be honest, nobody should be as busy as I am. I wouldn't choose this life if there weren't so many things I can't resist getting involved in. What I am here to do is fill you in on a change in the FeedBurner tool that allowed some of you to get these new posts in your email inboxes. That feature is going away, so even if/when I do write the odd Linzers post you won't get an email about it after August 15th.

So what can you do about it? Well, you can check in here via the blog's homepage, but frankly I doubt I'll post again – maybe once a year or so, if at all. If you want to hear from me, and you weren't just in it for the recipes (which, fair enough if you were), you can subscribe to my newsletter: A Few Good Things. It's a lot about writing, a little about reading, and all about nontoxic positivity.

You might be wondering: if I'm not here to share a recipe, why am I torturing you with these delectable-if-amateurish phone snaps of homemade sourdough bread? Well, friends, I couldn't leave you without one more baked good, and what better representation of the past 18 months than the humble sourdough loaf!

Last year, about halfway through the worst of the pandemic, a neighbor offered me some of her sourdough starter. This was way past the days of yeast and flour shortages at our local grocery store – as usual, I was very late to the trend– but I've always been a sourdough hound (it's the SF in me) so I took the starter and an overly complicated recipe and embarked on a long, arduous journey to bread baking.

I'll spare you the many nuances of the process and give you the short version: I didn't like the fiddliness and stickiness of the recipe I had for dutch oven baking, but I couldn't argue with the results. On the other hand, the simpler recipe I found called for baking the loaves on a baking sheet, which left them delicious but very pale.

If you've been following this blog for a long time, you probably know what's coming next: I combined the things I liked about both recipes, creating a hybrid that's the best of both worlds. It's easy and non-fiddly but it turns out stunning golden loaves with chewy crusts and spongy insides.

Suffice it to say, I will probably never use another recipe. So if you're thinking of jumping on the sourdough train but you don't like any of the recipes you've found, here's mine. I hope it serves you as well as it has me.

 

Tangy Sourdough Bread

adapted from King Arthur and Feasting at Home

In a stand mixer or a large bowl, stir together:

 

1c (227g) ripe/fed sourdough starter

1.5c (340g) lukewarm water

3c (360g) all-purpose flour 

 

Beat vigorously for 1 minute, then cover and set aside at room temp for four hours. 

Refrigerate overnight (about 12 hours), then, in the morning, stir in:

 

2c (240g) flour 

2.5 tsp salt

 

Knead with the dough hook (or by hand) until a smooth dough forms – this usually takes about 10 minutes in my stand mixer.

Cover the bowl and set the dough aside to rise for an hour. At the end of the hour, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch the edges out, folding them into the center. Turn the dough over and put it back in the bowl.

Repeat this folding process every hour until the dough is light and puffy, with visible bubbles – I usually do it for five hours, so five folding sessions.

Gently shape the dough into a round, and place it in a parchment-lined bowl with the seam facing down. Cover it and let it rest for another two hours, until very puffy.

At the end of this second rise, put your dutch oven and lid in the oven while it preheats to 475F/246C. Use a lamé or a sharp knife to score a few deep cuts into the surface of the dough. (Optional but recommended: spritz the dough with a little oil and sprinkle some large flaky sea salt/za'atar/everything seasoning/whatever you like the taste of over the top.)

 

Once the oven is hot, carefully take the dutch oven out and even more carefully lift the dough into it, using the parchment to help you. Then put the hot lid on top and place it back into the oven.

 

Bake with the lid on for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for a further 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 208F/97C.

 

Let cool ten minutes in the dutch oven, then carefully remove and finish cooling on a rack.