A Year of Gratitude – May 19, 2024

I found my gratitude in the farmhouse kitchen today. In this moment, my loaf of sourdough bread was resting while the oven finished preheating. Sunlight was streaming in the kitchen window. I was grateful for all of it.

I have enjoyed baking bread for my family for decades now. This year, I rediscovered my love for making sourdough bread. I have been baking a few loaves every week so far this year. It has become a part of my weekly routine.

Sourdough bread making and baking requires patience. It simply can’t be rushed. The sourdough starter works in its own time, on its own schedule. You can certainly provide it with conditions that help to hasten the process a bit, but a great loaf of sourdough requires you to give it the time to become great.

In my case, these loaves are a three or four day process. No, I’m not working on them for that long, but they do span that many days. I feed my starter around 11:00 pm on the first day. On day two, I mix up the dough around noon. Then I start the process of building strength in the dough and allowing the starter to leaven the dough. That can take 8 – 12 hours depending on the temperature in the kitchen.

Then the shaping begins. That’s a two step process for me. After the loaves have been shaped, I nestle them away in the refrigerator just before midnight. On day three, I can bake the loaves in the afternoon or early evening. Or, I can decide to delay the bake until day four if I really want it to have a deep sourdough flavor.

Whatever I decide, bake day is my favorite day in the process. I wake up excited to bake bread in the day ahead. I look forward to it. I love when the farmhouse fills with the delicious aroma of baking bread.

I also love knowing that my family will enjoy the loaves that I make. All three generations of my family are happy to have fresh, homemade sourdough to enjoy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

There’s just something that fills me with pride about making these loaves. It doesn’t escape me that my grandmother was a bread baker. I know that she would have loved to try my sourdough bread. She would have eaten it warm with plenty of butter just like I do.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.