Sourdough bread, nom nom

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have finally achieved bread-baking success!  We truly tested our patience, (it really is a virtue) and 24 hours later were handsomely rewarded.  We made the best homemade sourdough bread I've ever tasted.  For reals.

Awhile ago, our friend Inna passed on an ancient sourdough starter to us.  Sadly, we neglected it for awhile and didn't attempt to make a loaf until last week.  What were we thinking?!  The mister proofed the starter, let it rise, made the dough, ya-di-ya-di-ya-da but it wasn't perfect.  It was slightly too dense and clearly we didn't have patience to let it rise appropriately.

Fast forward to yesterday and the night before.  He proofed the starter before bed.  It rose overnight and I punched it back down in the morning, formed a loaf on a lightly greased baking sheet and let it rise all day long.  Nearly 12 hours later, we were ready to put it in the oven (I don't think it kneaded that much time, but he did have a holiday work party that kept him out late).  The loaf took about 40 minutes to bake to golden-brown perfection and it took just about that long to cool off.

We followed this recipe but didn't adhere to it with the flour (we used 2 cups) and as you have already read, we let it rise waaaaay longer than this guy did.  But that's the thing with bread baking, right?

Happy Friday!