Thank you so much for sharing your sour dough experience Elfin. I did feel a little sad when my first loaf came out dense and "turdy". Still, as you said, the flavor is amazing and I so enjoyed singing chants to Brigid (and the dough) as I worked with the bread – carving runes in its top to charge it with my intention. It is exciting to have this bubbly, magical being sharing my kitchen magic and blessing my home. I am excited to see how she and I change and expand over time.
ooh! i am jealous of such a wonderful community project. we are starting too create recipes (some edible, some not) for our magical workings here at Casa Vesperus.
tonite for the Dark Moon,we are creating an oat molasses bread that is round and dark. last full moon we made cookies like crescents with honey and pomegranates.
Yum. I wonder whether your sourdough starter is related to the magical sourdough starter my coven brother brought home from Vermont Camp this past fall.
The starter is a new one made on the west coast right before Brigid.
I didn't get to take the Hearth Path at camp. I am so grateful that you have started this wonderful blog, elfin. I very much appreciate your magical connection to natural yeast, the properties of different flours, and the practice of making those things into bread. Thank you for sharing that wisdom!
I call my sourdough starter a pet for exactly the reasons you mention, and love the idea of making magical loaves 🙂 I often cook with intention but hadn't specifically thought about bread in this way.
As a total technical aside, sourdough that's dense can sometimes use a longer rise to incorporate more air: mine takes 8-12 hours on *each* rise!