My Weekly Challenge**edited 3/2/17

My experience with Guillain-Barre Syndrome/Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy has completely transformed the way I look at life. The stupid things that used to matter no longer do (in a good way, of course). My sense of appreciation for the minute details of life is amplified. Getting out of your comfort zone can be something as simple as wearing an outfit in a bold color you'd never thought you'd wear. It's little risks here and there that will gradually build confidence and ensure happiness. I don't lack either in my life, but I can always improve as a person. I pledge to do something out of my comfort zone, something I find challenging, or something I haven't tried tackling yet to explore my capabilities and limitations. This will also help me maintain being active since I can't go back to work yet! I am so excited to do this and I hope I inspire others to do the same to see if it makes their life a bit brighter.

If you know me, you know I am an avid baker. It's like my form of meditation and a way for me to relax. I've always wanted to try my hand at baking bread, but never had the confidence to try because it seemed too daunting of a task. Well, I have been searching for recipes and decided that this week, I will bake bread! I started my sourdough starter, which takes about 5 days to allow wild yeast in the flour to mature. Starters are amazing because you can store what you don't use and refrigerate it and feed it weekly. Some people are lucky enough to get passed down starters from the generations before them! I bet those bread are amazing! I personally know a pastry chef who has a vat of his own in his refrigerator. He's had it for years and when he opens the container up, the aroma is intoxicating. He makes the most amazing malasadas and ensaymadas with it. It's never too late to start, so here I go!

Day 1: 2 oz. all-purpose flour + 2 oz. filtered water thoroughly mixed together. I saran wrapped the bowl, making sure it wasn't on too tight and left it in my room.

Day 2: I woke up and found bubbles forming already! Added 2 oz. all-purpose flour + 2 oz. filtered water and thoroughly mixed it.

Day 3: More bubbles and you can start smelling a little of the sourness!

Added 2 oz. all-purpose flour...

...and 2 oz. filtered water and thoroughly mixed.

What it looks like after mixing. I loosely wrapped it with the saran wrap and put it back into my room.

Day 4: Even more bubbles and the sour notes of the starter are even more prominent. You can see that the wild yeast has been really activated and the mixture is now a lot looser than before.

I added only 1 oz. all-purpose flour + 1 oz. filtered water this time because I'm afraid of making too much. There's not a lot of room in the refrigerator right now.

Day 5: If done correctly, the starter should double in size on this day. Seems like a success to me! It should be very bubbly and frothy looking. I stirred it and the consistency is reminiscent of a loose batter. The sour and funky smell is quite prominent. All of this indicates that the starter is ready to be used! Emma, from The Kitchn, says it should taste sour and vinegary.

To start making sourdough bread, you have to start the leaven the night before you plan to make the dough. That requires adding the active starter to more all-purpose flour or bread flour and filtered water.

Baking begins tomorrow, wish me luck! I will update this once I finish! Stay tuned...

*Update: March 2, 2017*

I originally published this on 2/25/2017 expecting the leaven to be ready the following day, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The wild yeast was slow to start, probably due to it being a bit colder lately. I had already failed! I discarded the leaven because it didn't pass the float test and realized the starter and leaven are essentially the same since it maintains a 1:1 ratio of flour to water. It is possible to make a starter ready to be used in 5 days, but it seems after a bit of internet searching, a more realistic timeframe is well over 5 days, even 10 days; sometimes it can take a month! Ultimately, I think it's worth it because the complexity of flavors is simply not something you can replicate with active dry yeast. The wild yeast is unique to your exact location, what you feed it, and how you maintain it!

I ended up having to do some troubleshooting and discarded most of my starter, fed it equal parts flour + filtered water in ounces and left it to grow in the oven this time, where the temperature would be a bit warmer and more steady (I added in a little bit of whole wheat flour to mix it up). I continued with the addition of equal parts flour + filtered water for a few more days. It's important to do it at the same time each day to be consistent. Lo and behold, my starter contained big pockets of bubbles on March 1! It was a stark contrast from the loose pancake-like batter with tiny bubbles in it. I followed the sourdough recipe from The Kitchn linked above in the Day 5 description. Baking bread is no walk in the park. It requires a lot of labor, love, and time. In any case, here is the outcome! I don't think I did too bad for my first time!