My Sourdough Love =)

It's baking time for my babies!!!! I patiently waited for them to rise slowly for 12 hours!!! All day long, all I can think of was my bread. To tell you the truth, I was nervous because of 2 things: 1. I don't have a baking stone....I wasn't able to find any at Santi's and the local hardwares nearby didn't have terracotta tiles (yes--I did visit hardwares for that---dapat ata sa Wilcon Builders ako nag punta) 2. I was only able to buy corn meal yesterday! The baking sheet, lined with parchment paper should be dusted with a mixture of bread flour and cornmeal to prevent the baked bread from sticking. I only dusted it with bread flour---I really didn't want to bake them without the cornmeal!

After goin to the gym...I even cut short my belly dancing class, because I wanted to fire up my oven to start preheating!

When I got home, I pre-heated my oven, sans the stone. I prepped a new baking sheet lined with parchment dusted now with the flour-cornmeal mix....and the dangerous thing that I did was...transfer the shaped and risen dough to the new sheet!!!! My friend Elaine warned me about this, but I am hard headed!!! I transferred them as carefully as I can..I mean I was really careful because I know that the proofed dough is at a delicate state.

Here they are....whew!!!! I

I think I put way too much of my dusting mix...but I know I can always tap it off after baking to remove the excess.

So, I placed my first dough in the oven and crossed my fingers! Here is my first SOUGH DOUGH BREAD!!!! =)

The shape is not perfect and the top a bit burned at one side, so I note to rotate the next loaf I bake.

Here our all three loaves baked!!! =) YEHEY!!!! I love them, despite their imperfect shape! As you can see, I am a novice slasher...is it lame not to have a lame? I used a blade to make several delicate gashes on my loaves before baking.

As you can see... the excess dusting flour needs a bit of tapping hehehe...They smelled wonderful! I left them out on the rack to cool completely...I was soo anxious to slice and see the crumb and more importantly ---taste my bread!!!! I decided to slice them in the morning instead! Patience is a virtue! =)

This morning I sliced 2 of the loaves to check the crumb ......voila!!!!!!!

The bread has a nice crust and soft, springy-spongy crumb =) My bread is moist--thank God!!! As for the taste....I toasted a slice.....yummmmmm I taste that delicate slight sour flavor of a real sour dough!!!! I AM SO PROUD AND SOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!! =) They may not be perfect but I love them!!!! My family, unfortunately, are no fans of Artisan bread. I was having a slice for breakfast and she was intrugues so I toasted a slice for her and buttered it up. I was surprised she liked them..she asked for another and traded her hotdog and star-rice breakfast for some buttered sour dough bread =) It makes me soooo happy at the sight.

Nothing beats bread making! The thrill and feeling of making my first rustic bread is indescribable. Simple as it maybe--bread lang d ba? but if you know the love and care put into making it...you would know what I mean. It's a waiting game! Growing the yeast....waiting....making the dough...rising..waiting...baking...waiting....cooling the loaf..waiting....before you can savor the final glory that is bread!!! =D The more fulfilling part of this? Sharing it with loved ones =)

Joy of joys!!!! =D An experience like no other type of baking has given me to date. I love it!!!!