Why sourdough? Being slow makes you happy

Two weeks again since my last post. Time flies. Almost like time bandits, but with insects.
Also there's the parliament election coming and I'm trying to get involved in it, so it's taking some time of my life. Even if I wouldn't really succeed in doing anything remarkable.

But sourdough.

It takes time and love.
The largest difference in baking with regular yeast and sourdough is that you usually need at least two days to get proper results with the sourdough. Let's see quickly through what I did when baking last time.

Day 1.

_{Yes, this one is called "Starkiller".}

I took out my sourdough starter from the fridge and this is what it looks like. It has a liquid on the top, which according to some is slightly acidic and helps the sourdough to cover itself from mold etc. Not sure where the liquid comes from, but it's still there.

I took most of the starter to a bowl and mixed flour and water with it. Then I also mixed some flour and water in the jar of sourdough starter to refresh the starter I had before putting it back to the fridge. The starter in the bowl was covered and left to be for 10 hours (8 is minimum I recommend) and I continued the next morning.

_{Sourdough starter + flour + water}

Day 2.

The starter in the bowl had been waiting for 10 hours and in the morning I just continued to feed the starter. I gave it more flours and water and left it for 4 more hours. The ratio was approximately 1:1:1 at this point.

As you can see, this is slow. The sourdough has different kinds of yeasts (and their tiny friends) which cause the dough to rise, but also creates acids which give the dough a sour taste. As the sourdough doesn't contain only "normal yeast", it's rising more slowly, but the slow rise is also what quite many aim for.

When the dough is rising more slowly, the flavor gets stronger. The sourness of the sourdough can be controlled - feeding it often and keeping it in warm keeps the sourdough milder and "sweeter", but feeding the dough seldom and storing it in the fridge makes the sourdough more sour. Also leaving the dough/bread to rise in the fridge makes the flavor stronger.

But now the 4 hours has passed and the sourdough looks like this:

What at this point?
1 kg of flour, approximately 650 grams of water and everything in the mixer for 13 minutes, then add 20 grams of salt and a little bit of olive oil, then 9 minutes more in the mixer. It was supposed to be 7 but I wanted to give it two more minutes. What a wild life I'm living as a rebel like this.

Die rebel scum!

When I lifted the dough from the mixer I just rolled it a bit with a help of little flour and it looked beautiful like this:

Amazing isn't it?

Back to a bowl, some hours rest (I forgot to check the time, sorry) and when it had expanded enough the next step was to divide the dough and form it for the final rise/rest.

I used three small oven trays I had purchased and added the dough in them. They were in room temperature for 2 hours before it started to be too late and I lifted them to fridge for tomorrow. People can keep the doughs in fridge for a day or two to give it the best possible taste, but the recommended temperature is around 4 degrees Celsius. Warmer than that can be "too fast" if you want to keep it as long as possible.

_{Sorry for the light, it was just before I was going to bed.}

Day 3.

In the morning I preheated the oven to 250 degrees Celsius, took the bread back from the fridge and waited for the oven to be ready. When it was ready, I cut the bread with the sharpest knife I own.

_{I still think looks a bit like female genitalia}

Bread to the oven, spray water to the oven so the bread can expand and while the bread is in the oven, lower the temperature to 200 degrees Celsius. Bake the bread, bake bake bake bake bakeeee the bread.

I don't even follow how long I'm baking the bread but I'm using a digital temperature meter to find out if the bread is ready (I'm aiming to 96 degrees Celsius).

The bread is ready. Oh the joy.
I started to make the bread over 36 hours before it was finished. If I'd wanted to make this into a really good bread, I'd waited a longer time. But with enough butter, this will do very well too.

Did I respond to the question in the title?
Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. The slow baking makes me calmer. I don't have a hurry to bake, I feel like I'm doing something when I'm actually just waiting.

Sourdough baking feels really stress-free, while giving me better results than "traditional baking".
The sourdough has a life of it's own and it is a friend of mine.

_{That's why I stick it in the oven and kill it.}