Bread

A classic "how it started" and "how it's going" shot showing my first effort at making sourdough bread. 

Like many people I thought I'd take advantage of being at home all day and have a crack at baking a couple of sourdough loaves. The only cheat for this first go was that I used dried yeast instead of making my own starter but I reckon that's only a little cheat, everything else was by the book. The finished product turned out OK, not perfect by any means and I already have a couple of improvements to try (a lower ratio of water to flour to start with, i.e. less moist) but I can't complain, the bread proved for around 20 hours and so has a really strong flavour (which I like) and the aeration looks fine, some nice big bubbles with a really crispy crust (Dutch-oven technique). This one (above) used 50/50 plain/wholemeal flour and so has a rustic appearance with a nice malty note to it, perfect toasted with lots of butter. My second loaf (not pictured) had sesame seeds on top and a better shape, it was also a drier mix so it'll be interesting how that one turns out in comparison. Anyway, something to have another go at and to hopefully improve. It must be a sign of getting old, we're currently enjoying homemade bread, yogurt, beer, granola, cookies and cakes in our house, all pretty decent I must say.