A First Time For Everything and Eyes Wide Open

I've been hearing alot lately about how people 

"create their own joy." 

It's safe to say baking definitely 

creates alot of  joy for me and many other bakers.  

You've probably heard the quote: 

Bake someone happy.

Or, When in doubt bake a cake.

How about: 

stressed spelled backwards

is desserts.

Bakers gonna bake!

No small wonder then that 

 there's lovin in the oven.  

-- So last night began my sourdough schoolin. 

Throwing caution to the wind I tried our favorite bread recipe but 

instead of adding yeast to it; I used the sourdough starter.  

It's definitely very different than the original recipe- not as good, but 

pretty darn good!  When mixing the dough; I wasn't too sure 

it was going to work because it was so sticky.  I kept going ... and it baked up okay.

Myguy had two pieces last night toasted with his butter n honey and 

it passed his taste test.  

I had a slice untoasted but honestly it's better toasted. 

It's very dense compared to the other ...  and has more sourdough flavor toasted; not sure why. 

After watching several videos on how to make the artisan bread;

today I gave it a go.  

So far; the experience was really good.  Downright pleasurable. 

But we'll see tomorrow after it's baked. 

Watching the videos; I was amazed how white n creamy looking the dough was. 

Mine turned out exactly like that!  It came off the dough hook nicely and the 

doughball is so beautiful; and reminds me of mozarella cheese.  

It's supposed to take 12-24 hours for first rise.  

I have such hopes.  But if it doesn't work out well; ... I won't give up.  

Now that I have a starter going I'll keep trying til I get it right.  

The process of getting the sourdough going ... all the directions and what not 

was soooo  confusing in the beginning. Now that it's alive and well it even seems to do 

great just hangin out in  the refrigerator.  When it comes out to get fed it's so beautiful 

and reacts so happily to flour and water.   So no more dough stress. 

But I do gotta get used to discarding some of the starter.  

Today I used 1/4 cup of discard to make a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. 

Several years ago I bought this silicone mat and a silpin rolling pin and I don't think

I've ever used the mat.  It worked so well for this!  

The dough for this recipe was really nice to work with.

I have never in my life made homemade cinnamon raisin bread. 

I've done a similar process for cinnamon rolls and have made lots of those .. but never made a loaf of bread this way.  

The recipe called for half a cup of raisins and it didn't say if I should have let them soak in water first.

-So I didn't;  I wonder if that was a mistake? 

Also that seems like a lot of cinnamon sugar.  I might cut back on that next time. 

Trial and error right?  

Tomorrow's breakfast is definitely looking up.  

Here's the  little loaf rolled and cuddled up in my angelmother's  banana bread pan.  

I hope she's rising .... 

Alright I have one more thing to share: 

Look who's little eyes are opened!  

Seeing her  pop up in my text messages sure 

creates alot of joy to my day as well. 

 Just can't wait to kiss that face. 

Okay; ... until we meet again,

<*))))><