Watch out, Panera!

One thing you can do when you are retired is try new things. Like baking real San Francisco-style sourdough bread. Here's one of my recent efforts. After getting the sourdough starter going, which takes a few days, then you have to go through about 2-4 days of refreshing the starter and what I call "ramping up" the dough. Interesting process. I've done it twice and have been successful both times. I think bread is interesting because basically the starter and the dough are living things. Also, San Fran style sourdough is interesting because what you get is no added fats and all natural. Supposedly, sourdough takes longer to spoil than yeast breads. Also, if you suspect you may have allergy or related problems (RE: "The Yeast Connection") with the baker's yeast in traditional breads, you may want to try sourdough because if done correctly, the starter becomes a mix of naturally-occurring yeasts and lactobacillus from the atmosphere. If I understand correctly, eventually the lactobacillus takes over the starter almost entirely. So, there you have it. Makes great toast, which reminds me I'm hungry for lunch so I'll go toast a piece now.