Sometimes it still works out . . .

even if you make mistakes along the way

So at one point in the baking process, I may have said some not very nice words.

This was after carefully taking a portion of my sourdough starter (one part), adding water (two parts), and then combining with bread flour (three parts). Then there was the kneading and turning, flouring my surface, folding “like an envelope” just like Alex told me to.

I turned the unbaked loaf upside down into a bowl with a floured towel . . . and waited. I thought I had followed the directions. It was all done except for turning the unbaked loaf over one more time and placing it gently into a hot dutch oven.

But that is not exactly what happened.

Instead, I turned the dough onto a piece of parchment paper (because I didn’t trust the dutch oven on its own), then the loaf became … “sticky not tacky”.

And I became afraid.

I was afraid that a project that I had started at 8:30am this morning would suddenly be disastrous at 5:30pm because of my error. I was afraid that turning this loaf one more time would cause it to be flat, to deflate, to lose “life” and air.

Yet turn the loaf I did, making the “envelope fold” one more time, trying to pull the surface just a bit…