The Staff of Life (A Sourdough Update)

I meant to update yesterday on the sourdough experiment, but after my call shift I was just too tired to blog. The sourdough experiment was a success, I think. But I didn't initially think that.

See, I am accustomed to baking yeast breads that are high and light and fluffy. I'm a bit spoiled by that, to be honest. The sourdough was anything but light and fluffy. This was no dainty bread. It was a heavy, dense, solid brick of a loaf of bread. It had a thick, chewy crust. It did have a good crumb, and it had decent flavor, but who wants bricks for bread?

Still, I am not the wasteful type, so I decided that I would eat this bread in spite of its apparent flaws. I had two slices (and each slice was about 3 inches by 4 inches - not big slices, by any means) spread with a smear of butter at about 5:45 a.m., when I was driving in to the hospital. It was chewy and solid, but, again, it had a nice sour tang that went well with real butter.

And, here's the success part - I didn't get hungry again until close to noon. Weird, huh? So, I tried it again this morning, with the same results - this bread sticks with you. It may not sound like much, (breakfast that keeps you going), but to me this is huge. I start my day in the hospital at 6 a.m. or so (earlier for big cases), and I tend to start working when I get there, and not stop until I get a break - which may not come until noon or later.

And I can't just walk out of the operating room if I get hungry and want a snack. I have to stay with the patient, monitoring and caring for them, until I'm relieved by another anesthesia provider or until I get the patient safely to the recovery room. So, breakfast that poops out by 9:30 is not a good thing.

I've found a few things that stick around like that, but often they're either not very good OR they take too long to prepare. Right now, when it's breakfast vs sleep, sleep wins. So, the bread is a keeper, I think. I'll continue to tweak it and see what I come up with, but overall I'm not unhappy. This is inexpensive, easy to make (and easy to toast on my way out the door) and reasonably healthy. And, it tastes like real food - unlike some nasty breakfast bars whose names I won't mention!