Adventures in Sourdough: Day 1

My spouse and I have been successfully baking organic, 100% whole wheat yeast breads for a while now. Someday I dream of buying my own tabletop grain mill (is it me, or are these oh-so-German?). But until that day dawns, I’ll keep buying my flour from this gorgeous little shop of grain wonders downtown:

They still grind their flours in these ancient grain mill machines and sell them freshly milled in the store. They have every kind of flour imaginable, including “heritage grains” (like spelt, kamut, buckwheat, and millet), packaged in old fashioned paper bags. It’s a tiny shop, but the atmosphere is lovely – quaint and romantic meets hippy-health-food.

Jakob Blum Hofbräuhaus-Kunstmühle (click to visit the homepage!)

Well, apparently hubby bunny is feeling quite confident about our basic yeast dough skills, because today in the flour mill shop, my spouse pulled a package of rye flour “for sourdough starting” from the shelf and cheerfully announced that we would be commencing our adventures in sourdough now. Apparently we’ve graduated beyond yeast dough.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, creating a sourdough starter involves putting a flour mixture out of the counter and waiting for things (bacteria, dust, yeasties) to fall from the sky and procreate in the dough. Eventually it will smell curious and double in size. Anyone frightened? I’m frightened.

(Also pictured is our new Gärkörbchen, literally “little fermenting basket” – the traditional bowl used for sourdough breadmaking in Germany.)

Wish us luck!

By the way, we are enjoying the most unusually warm, gorgeous November. It’s glorious. I wish it would go on forever. Have I ever mentioned that you’re welcome to come visit us in Munich? Our couch bed sucks and you will almost assuredly wake up with a crinkle in your neck, but we offer continent-sized salads, all the green smoothies you can drink, and (maybe?) delicious homemade sourdough bread!