Confessions of a Clumsy Scot

I was so keen to get onto the sourdough bandwagon, but I’ve given up. I know I’ll try again but for now I’m going to stick with using yeast and making from scratch.

I started my sourdough journey about three months ago. I picked a recipe to follow and I thought it would work really well because I’ve used a few of this ladies recipes however for some reason, it totally flopped.
My first attempt at a starter continued for around a week and I had religiously discarded and fed it every evening but it was so liquidy and the smell was awful, with absolutely no rise.
Chucked it.

The next two starters went very much the same. I did forget a couple of evenings to feed them but after some research I figured it would be fine to just continue the next evening. But after around ten days on each starter, I chucked it.
I wanted a decent starter to begin making bread with and since I’m such a beginner, if it didn’t seem perfect I didn’t want to use it.

My fourth starter, I chose a slightly different recipe and all was going well and it was doubling in size but after four days, I found mold on in the top of the jar. I didn’t want to risk it, so again I chucked it!

Attempt five actually went really well, wasn’t too runny and rose nicely every day, but I forgot I was going away and also forgot to put it in the fridge. And she’s not been fed in about two weeks, thanks to my brain that forgets everything. At this stage she might be okay to pour off the hooch, discard and feed but I’m realising I’m sure I’m ready to commit to owning a sourdough starter, it’s too much responsibility.

I know I will try again, but I’m off put for a while so today I made my very first loaf of bread from scratch and honestly, it was so easy! I haven’t tried it yet, but as long as it tastes alright, I think I’ll go with that!