I woke up at 5:30 am today. Not because of my alarm - that wasn’t set to go off for another hour and a half. I woke up out of excitement. I don’t know if it’s exceptionally child-like (but I want to believe it is) to be dragged from sleep so early by my own eagerness to start the day, or maybe it’s actually a sign of the fact I’m living the life of a middle-aged retiree, because all this restless excitement was provoked by bread. It was finally the day that my isolation sourdough project had reached fruition. It was bake day.

To rewind a little, just over a week ago I began to cultivate my own little colony of wild yeast, collectively known as my sourdough baby. I found them lonely and dispersed on the smashed up husks of spelt and rye grains. I fed them, watered them, tamed them and domesticated them. They’re not fussy really - a daily dose of tepid water, some fresh flour, and a little patience is all they ask - but in return they reward me with carbon dioxide. Perfectly placed carbon dioxide anywhere I need it; in crumpets, flatbreads, pancakes, pizza, anything else dough based, and perhaps most importantly the poster child of this whole affair, bread.

All of this not to say that it hasn’t been a rocky road. Like raising any child (I can only presume) there were points along this journey at which I questioned whether I really was doing the right thing. It seemed to start well, as you will see from the following photos. After only one day I had a few tell-tale bubbles in the dough, a first word from my yeasty baby. More and more bubbles followed in subsequent days, but little else. There was no ‘rise and fall’ - a visible expansion and contraction of the volume of dough in the jar - which the internet led me to believe I should be seeing at this stage in my baby’s development. I consulted a deeper part of the internet. This led me to the conclusion that I was being a somewhat inhospitable host to my little colony. I was keeping them in too cold an environment, and actually cultivating too much bacteria instead of the yeast. These bacteria give sourdough its deliciously acidic taste, but not the wonderfully airy rise. A couple of nights in a warmer part of the house soon sorted that out. The yeast began to thrive, my baby was rising and falling like a champ, and just like that it was ready.

Due to the quite literally global state of this isolation situation, I’m not alone in exploring the joys of sourdough parenthood. Notably there are quite a few experienced bakers on Instagram helping others just like myself to delve into this mysterious world. One that has been very helpful to me is a smart chap named @richardcaddick . Alongside his very own sourdough-starter-starter-guide he has shared a few basic recipes. One of which I used to bake the delightful loaf above. Despite the seemingly complicated, multi-step process, it actually isn’t that hard. The hands on time is limited and the techniques aren’t complex. It’s just an investment of time. And that’s nothing new to a sourdough parent. So it was that my afternoon yesterday was occupied with hourly visits to the kitchen to check on the progress of my bread dough, to stretch and fold it, kneading in slow motion. Then tucked up nicely in a tea towel it spent the night in the fridge. Here we are back at 5:30 am. The culmination of my 7-ish-day project. My very own sourdough baby about to perform the magical feat of turning a soft and sticky ball of dough into an eyebrow-raisingly crunchy, crisp and airy loaf of homemade bread. That’s pretty exciting to me. That’s what woke me up. It was a proud and giddy me that woke my dear wife up a couple of hours later to show her the fruits of my labour, she was suitably supportive and we enjoyed a simple breakfast of fresh bread and butter and hot coffee. Total satisfaction.

This was by no means a perfect loaf but I’m delighted with how it turned out and I can’t wait to try again, More sourdough to come I think, lots more.

Oh, and for reference here are my dough quantities;

Sourdough Starter - 100g
Water - 310g
Strong Flour - 300g
00 Flour - 150g
Salt - 20g

Baby photos.

Pizza date.

Plant based.