I was away at the beginning of the year. My sourdough starter waited patiently for me in the refrigerator. As a result I didn’t mix my first sourdough until nearly the end of January. As I was on my own for these months, I slowed the rate of production. It turns out I can only eat so much bread even if it is sourdough. Then the starter went back in the refrigerator for all of April as I was away again. I didn’t mix a dough again until early May.
I transitioned to using an autolyse when mixing my boules dough at the start of the year. An autolyse involves mixing just the water and flour together and letting them rest for up to a few hours before incorporating the sourdough starter and the salt. I’m not sure whether it made for better bread in the end, but it certainly was nicer dough to work with.
I moved to a much better system for introducing steam during the baking of my demi-baguettes. I now use a cast iron skillet on the rack below the rack with my oven stone. I boil a cup or two of water just prior to scoring the baguettes and placing them in the oven. And then I carefully add the water to the very hot skillet. There is steam in abundance. After about ten minutes I carefully remove the skillet which may still hold some hot water and let the baguettes continue their bake without steam.
At the end of June I made my first brioche style sourdough hamburger buns. Very happy with the results. Whenever I add a new product to my repertoire I do extensive research on many different recipes first in order to find one that I think will best fit my environment. Sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation but this one worked well the first time.
In September I made my first sourdough English muffins.
In October I significantly improved my sourdough pizza methodology. Sometimes I take advice from one source and use it with a recipe from another. Eventually I find a combination that gives me the result I’m looking for.
I kept learning as the year went on. Late in the year I started getting unsatisfactory demi-baguettes after having produced lovely ones for months. Eventually I traced the cause. I think it was due to the drop in house temperature. We had a very cold November and a super cold December. Our house temperature doesn’t get above 20c and it doesn’t even reach that temperature until 8:00 am. During the summer the house temperature is around 23c or higher. To compensate I increased the time of my bulk fermentation significantly. It really is better to go by the look and feel of the dough and the amount it has risen. Results have returned to near normal finally.
It has been another rewarding year. Apart from enjoying a lot of sourdough products, I’ve been able to give many items away to friends. And since we didn’t purchase any bread products over the entire year (except for when we were living in the UK), I can say with some certainty that we have saved a fair bit of money. The total cost of all ingredients used in 2025 comes to just over $362. With those ingredients I made:
- 70 boules
- 128 demi-baguettes
- 18 olive ciabattas
- 24 pitas
- 26 pizzas
- 32 hamburger buns
- 24 English muffins
Already looking forward to where my sourdough adventure will take me in 2026.