Do you know the wonderful PanContigo Bakery in Spain?

sourdough

I love sourdough bread but I was never able to make it successfully.

The quircky sourdough starter

Every time I read about creating a starter I felt overwhelmed and well, frankly scared because it seemed like such a complex thing and ofcourse, fear makes one does silly things.

Sourdough starters are finicky, emotional, temperamental and can turn on you.

When I heard that PanContigo was offering classes I signed up and could hardly wait to start baking bread.

Learning about sourdough and flours and  baking bread at PanContigo made me more confident and fearless about making mistakes.

I was ready to make my starter. 

Having fun with my starter

My first starter did not make it! I drove over to PanContigo and spoke to Eugenio (the baker and owner of PanContigo) and he gave me a bit of his starter and told me to add flour and water. 

The second starter was called Princess Leah after the Star Wars Princess.  She didn’t make it either and  I was truly upset.  I made another starter and named it King Arthur and this one was strong, beautiful and full of life.

Unfortunately I discovered that there  is a well known commercial starter called King Arthur so I had to go back and rename it after a few weeks.

My first loaf of bread looked like a huge pancake.

It was flat. I posted a photo of it on Facebook and received a lot of support.

Friends and acquaintances were very kind to me.  I continued my sourdough adventures, kept on baking bread until one day I finally made a beautiful loaf.

I took my bread to Eugenio  and to my cooking teacher Jorge.  They tapped on the bread, smelled it, broke out chunks, chewed it… And the general comments were that it had a good consistency but it was a bit too acid.

I went back to work!

I had no idea what they meant by “It was too acid.”

Sourdough and Different Flours

I signed up for another bread workshop at PanContigo where I learned about different flours: Rye, Spelt and Tritordeum.  

I was getting hooked on baking bread- My new hobby.

We baked bread with spelt flour, Tritordeum and Rye. They were all delicious but I liked the Tritordeum best.

What goes well with bread?

I love to add fresh veggies such as tomatoes and avocados and whatever I may have around the house.

When the bread is a bit old I toast it and lather it with good butter and honey. And when the bread gets even older it becomes croutons and it will go in a tasty Spanish soup called Salmorejo soup.

Marguerite Beaty

One bread at a time

Links for you

Pan Contigo in Badajoz Spain