Well they aren’t pretty. I am struggling with bulk fermenting. I think it’s too humid in my house so they were sticky and so hard to shape. But for someone who doesn’t bake, they taste great!

Y'all I literally got on here 2 hours ago to post this, got distracted and now I'm back😂 So let's get to the topic for today lol If your starter could talk… what would it complain about?🤣 I think Crumb Giver would tell me she's cold and wants some warmth in her life. "Pre-heat the oven woman!!" 🤣

She came out cute. Little dark but I’m learning my tiny old oven. Thank you Sam for walking me through. I had sooo many doubts but she looks edible.

Without any context, you may not think these loaves look that bad, lol. Truthfully, they aren't. They're still very much edible and delicious! One is prettier than the other🤣 but nonetheless, still successful sourdough breads! We already know from the first time I experimented with this months challenge that ✨️patience✨️ is my biggest downfall when it comes to sourdough... and with this experiment #2, that still continues to be the case😅 Let me walk you through my process: 11am: I mixed each dough. The only difference is the amount of water - one is 64% hydration and the other is 80%. During the initial mixing, I did 3 minutes of Rubaud to each to give the dough a bit more strength. Fermentalyse: I let them sit for an hour before starting slap & folds... Folding: Here's where I can really benefit from a change in technique. For the sake of the experiment, I decided to do the same folding technique for both loaves - slap & folds... Despite me knowing that coil folds are the best for high hydration loaves because of their gentleness and high hydrations tendency to tear easily (and it sure did😅). So once again, despite the knowledge I have, I went with slap & folds because well... they're fun🤭 It’s not all about fun Sam🙄🤣 Bulk Ferment: y'all, please don't judge me lol. I knew the dough needed to go longer but I was ready to go to bed, so I shaped her anyway... and that's what I get for using cold starter and not having the patience to wait for her 🤣 so she's ✨️underproofed✨️ Shaping @ 9pm: remember when I said please don't judge me🫣🤣 The 64% was a charm to shape. She did great lol. She's the one I'm used to working with. But the ole 80% gal... imagine this - she tore😅 and instead of giving her a minute to relax and trying again what did I do? I just kept going and plopped her in the proofing basket. KNOWING she wasn't gonna hold shape😪 but at that moment I just didn't care lol Cold Proof: nothing wrong there other than me putting it in too soon🤷🏻‍♀️ Baking: only thing that went wrong here was 80% sticking to the sides of the dutch oven because she spread so much (caused by underproofing & terrible shaping)

Finally got my sourdough kit! Now I can finally start making bread with everyone! So excited.