I’m sorry if this is roughly the 800th time you’ve heard me talk about Suzette, my sourdough starter. I just think she’s great.
It was actually after quarantine that I got on the sourdough train. I was dropping dinner off to a friend and she had some starter that she offered to share. I never thought about baking bread before (it was SO intimidating!) but immediately went to work on it. Now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, I’m obsessed and noticed how much my grocery bill has gone down!
I’ll also note that my body THRIVES on carbs. When I tried to do low carb diets before, (I’ll spare you the details) my body hated it and I didn’t lose any weight. The thing with sourdough is that it’s naturally fermented too which can be good for your “gut flora” and is all-around way better for you than grocery store breads that are full of preservatives.
Today I thought I’d talk a bit about the financial (which includes time because time is money) aspect of sourdough baking since.. well, if you follow me on social, you know it’s been a thing I’ve talked about quite a bit.
My tried and true recipe is THIS one from The Clever Carrot (side note-as I went to grab this link I noticed that there’s a recipe on the landing page for Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough… happening!!) and I highly recommend it.
Another side note–I want her cookbook. OK, I’ll shut up. On to the post…
Be willing to spend the time with the baking process.
I’ve found that sourdough requires a LOT of patience and I find that I’m the most patient when I’m sleeping. What I do is mix the dough and allow it to “autolyse” (this’ll make sense when you read the recipe) before I go to bed and hit the sack during the bulk rise. Many recipes recommend the “stretch and fold” method but I have found that it doesn’t make a lick of difference when it comes to taste.. So I skip it. When I wake up in the morning, the dough is risen and I transfer it to my Dutch oven, preheat the oven, let it rise again and then bake it. This way it’s not interfering with my work and is ready to eat for lunch that day. Yum.
Be patient
Sourdough can be finicky if you rush things. Since most of us are still working from home, being able to attend to it throughout the day should be pretty simple. In order to avoid funky bread, though, it’s important to not bake it too soon and to not cut it too soon. Got it? Got it.
When you’re not baking, think of your starter kind of like a pet.. It is a living thing, after all. She’ll typically need 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of water every day that she’s at room temperature. If you refrigerate her, she only needs to be fed once a week but will need to have been at room temperature for at least a day (preferably two) before you try to bake with her.
Stock up on flour
I have always enjoyed baking but never felt the need to hoard flour. Since so many people have rediscovered their loves for baking during quarantine (grrrr), flour is often hard to find these days. At any given time, I have at least two bags of flour on hand and recommend you do the same. Costco also had good quality flour in bulk. You’ll go through it faster than you think you will.
Make bread every week
In order to really start seeing money savings, you really need to be making at least a loaf a week. If you have kids that go through bread quickly, you might even want to consider baking twice a week. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature. I typically get about four loaves out of a bag of flour which makes the price roughly 75ยข per loaf. Considering as I was spending around $6 per loaf at my farmer’s market (which was delicious, I should add), I love that it not only saves money but is delicious and fun to make.
Use the “discard” to make other things like pizza dough, crackers pretzels or bagels
Of those, I’ve only ever made pizza dough (which Jim and I both loved) but trust me, I have plans. When you think about the fact that most of these are not much other than sourdough starter, flour and water, think about how much money you can save and have fun in the process! While it all may be time-consuming, it can also be super rewarding.
Have you jumped on to the sourdough train? Are you as jazzed about it as I am? I would love to know in the comments below! Happy Tuesday, friends!
