This post is just entirely pictures of the bread I’ve been making, as I’m pretty proud of my sourdough skills these days!

Have to shout out to The Gypsy Baker Sourdough Workshop for teaching me the skills! Look them up on facebook if you are interested in learning to make your own sourdough, it was really fab. I am so glad I have learned a proper new skill in 2020, in spite of all the grim news this year, and while sourdough has definitely been a fad during lockdown, I’m happy to report that all of my loaves have been delicious and risen and generally edible!

As I got better at it I have also been honing my scoring skills. Scoring serves two purposes in sourdough – principally, it’s to ensure it rises evenly. If you don’t score it at all, the bread will generally find a random spot and burst out in a peculiar way as it springs up in the oven, so scoring the dough gives a predictable way for the dough to expand and rise the way you want it to.

Secondary to that is the fact that it makes your loaf look pretty, and if you add a little rice flour before you score it, it tends to stay white in the oven, while the parts that have expanded have no flour on and turn darker, giving you nicer patterns!

Here are my first ever sourdough loaves:

Some early attempts:

Some patterns worked better than others…

Here’s a loaf scored, into the Dutch oven, and afterwards so you can see the process.

This one I tried using the string method instead of scoring, with mixed results.

And here are a few of my better loaves!

And then i’ve been experimenting with some non-sourdough bread making too, like this milk loaf:

And some decorated focaccia: