Experiments at Home: Sourdough

I have been having a heck of a time getting the no-knead bread to work out: it's been a mess. The trouble I think I am having is that it kind of breaks every rule about bread making that I know. I've had so many disappointments lately that I broke down and made a nice loaf of maple whole wheat bread the way I know already.

"It's really pretty," my wife said. "It tastes really good."

Then I realized that I've been with my wife for 8 years and I've never made her bread. I used to make it almost daily. Oops.

In any case, the bread was perfect and reminded me that I knew what I was doing, so I decided to tackle Sourdough. Then I realized that sourdough goes thru a very similar process as the no-knead bread: mix ingredients, then let sit for 12-15 hours, then mix again and let sit for 2-5 hours (depending on the rise). Then bake in a large cast iron pot.

Argh. The Same process. It's really annoying because all of the websites I have been reading (and I've been reading about 6 of them) talk about how easy it is to make bread like this. I could kill them with my giant, heavy, cast iron pot.

This time, I want to get it right, but I think I've mixed the dough too dry already. It doesn't look anywhere near as goopy as the ones I see online.