Friday, May 29, 2020

Introducing … Sweet-tea!

This won't be impressive to some of you, but for others, I must share the glorious news that I finally succeeded in making a sourdough starter, and this is my first round loaf of whole-wheat sourdough bread, which I hope will be the first of many!

I'm keeping my starter in a large jar I got from the Alabama Sweet Tea Company last year, and it says Sweet Tea on it. Well, I'd heard that people name their sourdough starters, and I named mine Sweet-tea (which I pronounce "Sweetie." It just seemed appropriate.)

Now that flours are more readily available at the grocery store again, I can't wait to experiment with more sourdough recipes, although I am going to have to get the hang of that feeding/mixing/resting combination of events. When I made my first loaf on Tuesday, I didn't consider all the resting/rising times, and so it happened that my bread was ready to bake at about 10:15 that night, which is a tad bit late to be baking. Still, since I have never made a successful yeast bread in my life (except using a bread machine, which is cheating), I was so-so-so excited at my first humble loaf of tasty sourdough bread. Alex and I have been eating it for breakfast the past few days, and I do think this is one new skill I am happy to have acquired.

So if you come across a good sourdough bread cookbook or article, please think of me and send along suggestions. I hope "Sweet-tea" will be making an appearance on this blog for many happy years to come!


4 comments:

  1. Congratulations to you and little Sweet-tea on your first successful sourdough bread!
    I do maintain my un-named sourdough starter, but have made only crumpets, pancakes, and pizza crusts with it. I just love the crumpets (you do need to have rings to make them--I use round metal cookie cutters). They are cooked in a skillet on top of the stove, not baked. The King Arthur Flour website is a very good source for sourdough recipes and information (www.kingarthurflour.com). I see that the home page now has a video tutorial on learning to bake sourdough bread, so you and I both should check that out. Happy bread-baking and happy eating!

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  2. Just wanted to say I've been subscribed via email for a few months now and I really enjoy your blog. I came late to drinking hot tea. In fact, it's only been this year that I consistently began to drink hot tea on a daily basis and I am really enjoying it.
    I am also subscribed to the Jane Austen Society newsletter and they featured the loveliest little blue and white china teacup and saucer earrings. Thought of you immediately, lol.
    Thank you for writing and for sharing the names of the teas you enjoy. I'm still exploring. I lean hard on English breakfast, am not a fan of Earl Grey, but just got some Yorkshire and like it rather well. I had a smoky black tea, but can't remember if it was Darjelling or Lapsang Souchong.

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  3. Congratulations on a successful starter. I don’t think using the breadmachine to knead the dough is cheating. I’m making sourdough pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. I’ll send you the recipe.

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  4. Love the name of your starter. My husband wants to start a sour dough starter, but oh my that would not help my bulging waist line. As it is there is a small bread company here in the city that delivers one loaf of amazing whole grain sourdough bread to our door every Saturday. It is sooooo good and they use locally grown grains in their GMO free breads. Needless to say this is the only bread I need right now.

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