Somebody Who Tries

In a way that is entirely on-brand for me, I started this website after I made this recipe. I had never attempted using sourdough starter before this. I had never even tried to make bread before!

About a month ago, my mom bought a sourdough starter kit online. When she did, I was pretty sure I would never attempt to use it. Everything I had seen online made it seem like such a big undertaking, and I was so scared of failing. My mom has always been such a good cook and baker. Coming from such a big family, it was always so much cheaper to bake goods instead of buying them from the store.

Growing up, I always loved baking with my mom, until I found out that she hates baking. As a kid, that discovery killed my love for baking. I didn’t want my mom to have to do it with me since she disliked it so much, so I stopped. It’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve picked it up again, now well past the age where I can do it all myself.

I still live with my parents, and my mom is always there to help me out when I need it, but I tend to prefer baking when I’m home alone. I was determined. I was going to face this irrational fear of using sourdough starter. I had seen a recipe earlier in the week and felt inspired. I did a little research (though not nearly enough) and chose a recipe.

My choice was The Pantry Mama’s “Sourdough Cinnamon Roll Focaccia”. I have linked her recipe at the end of this post! Her recipe was incredibly easy to follow and well-written!

You begin, as most recipes do, with an empty bowl. I will also say that I think having a scale is a pretty good idea, but you could probably convert everything to cups and teaspoons and do pretty well if you’re familiar with making dough.

To my bowl, I added my starter and water. I should note that, in retrospect, I realised my starter was not as active as it should have been. This comes into play later on in the recipe, as my dough struggles to rise.

It is recommended that you mix by hand with a whisk or a dough mixer, but if, like me, you are lacking utensils, your hands will work just fine. If you have a dough mixer, which brand would you recommend?

Next, I added in my flour and salt. The recipe calls for granulated sugar; at this point, I was horrified to discover we were, in fact, out. Thankfully, we had some honey, which I used as a substitute. Unfortunately, it resulted in a volcano-looking photo when I added it to the top of my flour-and-salt mountain.

Once it was all added, I mixed the ingredients together as best I could – again with my hands.

All the steps up until this point didn’t take much time. From this point on, you play the wait game. I set my dough on the counter, covered it with a damp towel, and said goodbye.

After waiting a while and repeatedly stress-checking my dough, I felt it wasn’t rising at all. My mom’s solution to this was to throw my bowl in the sink with some warm water. Fun fact: unless you have plenty of time to let your dough rise, a 20 °C house is not the way to go.

When my dough was finally done rising, it was time to work it! It was so cool to see how different the dough looked before the stretch-and-folds and afterwards. From a lumpy mess to something that actually looks like I know what I’m doing! And then you get to walk away and forget about it for a few hours.

When baking anything that needs a lot of rising, I think it’s best to plan something to get you out of the house so you don’t keep checking on it every five minutes. I had planned earlier in the week to go visit one of my mom friends and her absolutely adorable kiddos.

One of my favourite things is visiting my friends, and after being so consumed with the business of life after Christmas, I hadn’t had a chance to visit her in way too long. It was so nice to see her and catch up, and I definitely recommend reaching out to your friends more. There is nothing better than a cup of coffee and a good chat with someone important in your life.

So text your friend you’ve been thinking about! Even if you can’t visit them that week or the next. I’ve been so blessed with amazing friends, and I do what I can to make sure I see them once a month. It doesn’t always work, people get busy, and life can be a lot, but it’s so wonderful getting to see my friends so much more than I ever used to.

When I returned from my friend’s place, my dough had been sitting long enough that it should have been ready to transfer. My house, however, was way too cold for the dough to proof properly, and I was getting impatient. So I transferred it anyway, spreading it out across the sheet.

There was another brief wait before spreading the dough out a bit more and dimpling it. My dough was nothing like what I’d seen online, but I was resigned to finishing this thing one way or another. At this point, it had been a few hours, and my boyfriend was finished with work, and as a medium-distance girlie, I was ready to head over there and see him as soon as I could.

To the dough, I added my toppings: a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon, and some melted butter.

With everything ready, it was time to put it in the oven and let it bake.

Focaccia, I learnt, bakes at a much higher temperature than I’m used to for cakes, cookies, and muffins. This raises a minor issue, since the oven at home tends to run hotter than it should. We always set the temperature lower than a recipe calls for, so I wasn’t sure what to set the oven to. I ended up taking off 5 degrees, though in hindsight I should have taken off more.

The recipe called for thirty minutes in the oven, until everything was nice and golden brown on top. The pan I used was slightly too big, and I had spread out the dough too much on it. With this in mind, I should have baked the focaccia for less time. When it came out of the oven, the bottom was slightly overcooked.

Regardless, it was time to put the icing on. In the recipe, there are notes on how to make frosting; however, my mom had recently made some cinnamon buns for her church, and there was leftover icing from them that I used instead. I put it all in a bag and less-than-gracefully piped it on top (my skills with a piping bag could certainly use some work).

Cutting in, I could see that my focaccia hadn’t risen as much as it should. Though this was unsurprising, I had figured that would be the case before throwing it into the oven. Paired with the overcooked bottom, I wasn’t too optimistic about my first attempt.

Taking my first bite? I was pleasantly surprised that, despite my failures, the flavour came through as intended. No, it wasn’t perfect. No part of this process had been, but the end result was still amazing to taste. The sourness of the dough, paired with the cinnamon, sugar, and icing, was incredible.

The Pantry Mama definitely knew what she was doing when she wrote this recipe. And even though things didn’t go perfectly, for a first attempt, I am happy with myself. I tried, and that’s what matters. I tried, and now I’ve learned so much for the next time I try and make sourdough-something.

It is highly unlikely that something will be perfect the first time, but it’s so good to get out of my comfort zone. Pushing myself to be somebody who tries new things regardless of what the outcome will be. I think we should all try to do new things more often, even if they make us nervous.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope you follow along in my sourdough journey! What did your first attempt with sourdough starter look like? Or if you have any advice on what I should do next time, please let me know in the comments.

As promised, the recipe: https://www.pantrymama.com/sourdough-cinnamon-roll-focaccia-bread/#wprm-recipe-container-23024 – It is important to note that the end result of my attempt at this recipe is not a reflection of The Pantry Mama’s recipe, but instead my own lack of research into using sourdough and making focaccia. I plan to try this recipe again someday and hope to do it justice.

Until next time!