SOURDOUGH BREAD, you're the best!

I love sourdough bread. Like, REALLY love it. It's my favorite. I have tried for years and years and years to make a good SOUR sourdough. It just was not working. No matter which recipe I tried. Recently, I had given up. I decided that our Utah dry desert air was not conducive to the yeast the bread needs.

Well, a month ago, I got a book from the library called, "The Breadbaker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. I in no way consider myself a full time baker, which this book requires that you be, since the first loaf of bread I made from it was a Ciabatta bread that took 7 hours to complete (and I even left out a step). It was good, but not 7 hours good. I decided that I would give the book 1 more try, and chose a Sourdough recipe. From start to finish, it took about 2 weeks worth of care to get this bad boy. I made my own seed culture (the fermented flour and water that catches the yeast in the air), from that I made the barm (or mother starter, if you will), and finally the dough to make a loaf of bread. If you already have the barm going, it will still take 2-3 days to finish this loaf.

So without further ado, here's my finished loaf:
A little underwhelming, I know. I sliced it, and it made breadsticks, but HALLELUJAH! It was SOUR. Even Mitchell said I should be a professional bread baker. um, no thanks. But it was great to FINALLY have a sourdough recipe that was nice and sour.