Baked my 500th loaf of sourdough yesterday and it finally felt easy

I started baking sourdough about 18 months ago and I swear the first 100 loaves were a total mess. Dense bricks, burnt bottoms, you name it. But yesterday I pulled loaf number 500 out of the oven and everything just clicked. The timing, the shaping, the scoring all came together without me even thinking about it. Has anyone else hit a milestone like this where it suddenly stopped being hard?

2 comments

2 Comments

rayc8914h agoRising Star

Is it really baking if it doesn't feel like a minor existential crisis for the first few hundred goes? I mean, I'm still over here fighting with my starter like it's a moody teenager, so congrats on leveling up. Maybe by loaf 600 you'll be able to do it in your sleep, which I assume is the end goal here.

the_morgan9h ago

Ha! Yeah @rayc89 you're probably right. By loaf 600 I'll be sleep-baking with my eyes open, probably still forgetting to score the bread until its third hour in the oven. My starter has been sulking for the past two days because I dared to keep it in the fridge for a weekend. Moody teenager is about right. I'm honestly convinced they can sense when you're trying to impress someone and they'll just refuse to rise out of spite. If I ever get to the point where I can bake a decent loaf without breaking a sweat, I'll let you know. Until then I'll be here staring at a blob of flour and water wondering if its going to cooperate today.