Glad you're here/back, and through the turmoil of a job change. Baking bread has been my salvation through the stress of the pandemic and damage my property suffered in the California Wildfires last summer (thankfully, the house was spared damage). Unfortunately, my quarantiny starter perished in the several week power outage/evacuation, and my next attempt never got going. BUT, fortunately, I had a chef friend that was willing to give me some of his starter, so weekly bread baking returned to my life. In fact, a double batch of the Oatmeal Maple bread is cooling as I type (our families current favorite, but I throw in a "The Loaf" every couple of bake days). Here's to another year of your newsletter - Happy Birthday!
Thank you for explaining everything! I appreciate knowing - even though I have no “right” to know! What a journey. I felt your heart to help during this shitty year and your frustration...... I’m grateful your recipes are still being published in ATK Godspeed!
Question about the quarantiny starter, or about scaling up starter for recipes: if you have say 30 gr of starter on hand, but need to scale up for a recipe that requires 100 gr, can you just feed the starter without discarding anything, keeping the 2:2:1 ratio until you get the amount you need? I've been playing around with sourdough for about 10 months now, feeding the starter daily and keeping it on the counter, but I still run into problems either having too much starter, or not enough at times. i'd like to get into a more steady rhythm in terms of keeping a smaller starter on hand and growing it up as needed but can't quite figure that part out.
Congratulations on a year of newsletter--I've appreciated your encouragement to experiment with things as I've spent more time in the kitchen.
Susan - Keeping your starter at "tiny" proportions is great for conserving flour, but it makes it a challenge when you need larger quantities of it. That's why I tend to keep mine at a 150g/150g/75g ratio. I'd recommend finding an amount that is closer to what you might need at any point. Otherwise, yes, you'll need to scale up by using more starter than you usually would, and increasing the flour and water accordingly.
I joined the party when I saw the ATK post about tiny sourdough starter -- probably late April. I had always hated how much flour was wasted in a normal sourdough start up and I was experiencing the flour shortage at the time. I started my little mason jar project and it is still going. I bake sourdough bread about every 10 days -- there are just two of us in the house. I fell in love with your pizza posts and will make one or the other of your pizza dough recipes a few times a month. (I think our personal preference is the yeasted one.) I had tried your ATK recipe for pizza dough and it didn't satisfy at the time. But your pizza series gave me fresh courage and it got me back to making pizzas. Now I am confident home pizza cook and love the results!! So I am sorry about the ATK troubles but am glad you are here and very happy it is working out for you! I hope post pandemic we all remember how important baking is in our lives. Thanks for being there for us!
Don't even remember how I found out about you but caught on a month or two in. Thanks for sharing your story here and seems this was all "meant to be" given how things have turned out! Bittersweet, indeed but so exited to see where you take this opportunity from here and for what it's worth you have brought so much joy to not only me but so many other friends and family that I've shared my newfound skill and offerings with.
A good friend, who I had over for dinner the other night and served her a fresh loaf of improvised Jalapeño Cheddar based on your "the loaf" recipe (folding in jarred jalapeños and shredded cheddar before the cold proofing stage, then adding additional cheese to the top of the loaf the last 15 min of baking uncovered), sent me a letter in the mail (imagine that!) to say, and I quote,
"This morning after I cut a piece of your bread, a piece of cheese fell off. I ate it and immediately thought, 'holy crap, this is crack'. LOL. Hope it's ok that we'll always be wanting sourdough bread whenever we visit [as long as bread schedule permits]. We did not know what we were missing out with fresh out of the oven sourdough. We love the bread, the funny family banter and the food/chats."
Another good friend pays me a nominal fee to make her family a loaf every week - she begged me to do so, because she was "tired of that store bought commercial crap" and just refused to feed her family the fake stuff after trying mine!
Your bread has become part of a new family tradition and you will always be the spark that brought it to us. Thank you.
Yes! When I dump it out to fold after the first proof, I flatten it a bit like a pizza, spread over whatever I'm adding (I've also done parmesan cheese and garlic cloves), then fold it all up and continue with the rest (30 min rest, bread basket/towel for 60 min, in the fridge). Then I add additional cheese to the top of the loaf just the last 15 min of baking.
Thank you for sharing this story. I started following you on Instagram with the quarantiny starter and made my own back in March. I struggled at first and it took many weeks for it to really get going, but all the pointers and tips from you along the way were so helpful. I was happy to follow you to the newsletter and sad when it went dark, but have been enjoying it so much since it's been back! I really appreciate learning a lot of the nuts and bolts of baking, such as the percentages and desired dough temperature. I'm also happy to report that my starter is still going strong and I am making your bagel recipe with it today (my second time!). Thanks for all your work and dedication, we are all out here reaping the benefits and enjoying your recipes!
Wow, I can't believe that it's already been a year! I began my starter when I saw that first post that CI shared. Since then, I have been looking forward to your newsletters. Because of you, I'm proud that I can call myself a proficient bread maker, and it feels amazing to get such beautiful compliments on something I made with three ingredients. Thank you for all your dedication and for sharing your story here. I'll sing happy birthday to my little guy tonight :-)
Happy Quarantiny Anniversary! I don’t fully remember how I came across your newsletter in the maelstrom of sourdough content in the late spring/early summer, but I’m so glad I did. I’ve had a starter for years and had tried various recipes but never really got super comfortable with sourdough baking until the pandemic, and among many great sources of information, your voice really stood out. Love your geeking out articles about the microbiology and science of it all (I’m a medical scientist, so obviously haha). Thanks for your candor about how you ended up leaving CI (I was so curious!); it sounds like a set of unfortunate HR/legal circumstances, but ultimately a win-win for you and us! Thank you so much for your work and recipes!!
A bittersweet reminder of the past year. I joined the Quarantiny starter in the beginning and in so many ways the routine kept me sane through the crazy year. I am now a regular sourdough baker in Australia thanks to you! Happy birthday and keep on doing what you’re doing.
Thanks for sharing this story, Andrew. Sounds like ATK treated you kind of crappily. So many things changed (that we probably never thought possible) during 2020 that they might have made some exceptions to standard policy. But ... it seems like it ended up turning out for the best. I don’t believe in god or fate, but I do believe in luck, and especially that people who are successful often can take bad circumstances and figure out how to make the best of them.
I joined the quarantiny craze in late spring, maybe April, but really didn’t get it going until late summer, maybe July or early August. I can’t tell you how much your writing has helped with that. I never had a starter before, and now I use mine about once a week or two. I anticipate keeping it going for a long time! And my success with that has helped my mental state during this time, so many, many thanks to you and the community you’ve helped to build!
Thanks for sharing this story. I've been a subscriber to Cooks' Illustrated magazine since 2005, and to the website for nearly as long. You and ATK taught me how to cook. Over the 2 decades I've definitely noticed significant changes, particularly post-Kimball, some of which I like (color photography and a greater diversity of quality non-American recipes made with traditional ingredients) and others which I don't-- e.g. the TV shows are unwatchable now without Kimball's irascible persnickitiness; I always enjoyed how skillfully Bridget could take him down a peg when he got to be too obnoxious). Aside from Hunger Pangs, I find their web content to be similarly unwatchable. Dan Souza seems like a great guy in person and a competent chef, but his performances are cringeworthy. I feel bad for him, and that doesn't make for good viewing. Hunger Pangs is the best online content they've produced.
There is a real sense of corporate blandness that has overtaken the site. It is harder to manage search results; they have blended together the high quality recipes from Cooks Illustrated with the worst shovel-ready recipes from the cookbooks. You can no longer filter by publication or date range. That makes my job so much harder; if I remember a particular recipe from, let's say, a Jan/Feb 2009 issue that I need to recall, it can be extremely difficult to find as they have renamed the recipes and changed/upgraded the photo of the dish.
Is there any truth to my perception that Cooks Illustrated recipes were considered "top tier", with Cooks Country a second, and the cookbooks a distant 3rd? That's how it felt to me.
Good for you for moving on, and thank you for whatever details you feel like sharing.
Glad you're here/back, and through the turmoil of a job change. Baking bread has been my salvation through the stress of the pandemic and damage my property suffered in the California Wildfires last summer (thankfully, the house was spared damage). Unfortunately, my quarantiny starter perished in the several week power outage/evacuation, and my next attempt never got going. BUT, fortunately, I had a chef friend that was willing to give me some of his starter, so weekly bread baking returned to my life. In fact, a double batch of the Oatmeal Maple bread is cooling as I type (our families current favorite, but I throw in a "The Loaf" every couple of bake days). Here's to another year of your newsletter - Happy Birthday!
Thank you for explaining everything! I appreciate knowing - even though I have no “right” to know! What a journey. I felt your heart to help during this shitty year and your frustration...... I’m grateful your recipes are still being published in ATK Godspeed!
I feel the same. I could write A LOT about all that you've given us, but I'll keep it to: Thank you.
Question about the quarantiny starter, or about scaling up starter for recipes: if you have say 30 gr of starter on hand, but need to scale up for a recipe that requires 100 gr, can you just feed the starter without discarding anything, keeping the 2:2:1 ratio until you get the amount you need? I've been playing around with sourdough for about 10 months now, feeding the starter daily and keeping it on the counter, but I still run into problems either having too much starter, or not enough at times. i'd like to get into a more steady rhythm in terms of keeping a smaller starter on hand and growing it up as needed but can't quite figure that part out.
Congratulations on a year of newsletter--I've appreciated your encouragement to experiment with things as I've spent more time in the kitchen.
Susan - Keeping your starter at "tiny" proportions is great for conserving flour, but it makes it a challenge when you need larger quantities of it. That's why I tend to keep mine at a 150g/150g/75g ratio. I'd recommend finding an amount that is closer to what you might need at any point. Otherwise, yes, you'll need to scale up by using more starter than you usually would, and increasing the flour and water accordingly.
Thanks for sharing, Andrew! I really appreciate the vulnerability here.
I joined the party when I saw the ATK post about tiny sourdough starter -- probably late April. I had always hated how much flour was wasted in a normal sourdough start up and I was experiencing the flour shortage at the time. I started my little mason jar project and it is still going. I bake sourdough bread about every 10 days -- there are just two of us in the house. I fell in love with your pizza posts and will make one or the other of your pizza dough recipes a few times a month. (I think our personal preference is the yeasted one.) I had tried your ATK recipe for pizza dough and it didn't satisfy at the time. But your pizza series gave me fresh courage and it got me back to making pizzas. Now I am confident home pizza cook and love the results!! So I am sorry about the ATK troubles but am glad you are here and very happy it is working out for you! I hope post pandemic we all remember how important baking is in our lives. Thanks for being there for us!
We don’t need a contract for both of us to know that I’ve been a huge fan of yours
Thanks for telling the whole story Andrew!
Don't even remember how I found out about you but caught on a month or two in. Thanks for sharing your story here and seems this was all "meant to be" given how things have turned out! Bittersweet, indeed but so exited to see where you take this opportunity from here and for what it's worth you have brought so much joy to not only me but so many other friends and family that I've shared my newfound skill and offerings with.
A good friend, who I had over for dinner the other night and served her a fresh loaf of improvised Jalapeño Cheddar based on your "the loaf" recipe (folding in jarred jalapeños and shredded cheddar before the cold proofing stage, then adding additional cheese to the top of the loaf the last 15 min of baking uncovered), sent me a letter in the mail (imagine that!) to say, and I quote,
"This morning after I cut a piece of your bread, a piece of cheese fell off. I ate it and immediately thought, 'holy crap, this is crack'. LOL. Hope it's ok that we'll always be wanting sourdough bread whenever we visit [as long as bread schedule permits]. We did not know what we were missing out with fresh out of the oven sourdough. We love the bread, the funny family banter and the food/chats."
Another good friend pays me a nominal fee to make her family a loaf every week - she begged me to do so, because she was "tired of that store bought commercial crap" and just refused to feed her family the fake stuff after trying mine!
Your bread has become part of a new family tradition and you will always be the spark that brought it to us. Thank you.
Loralyn, a quick question: do you incorporate the jalapeños and cheese during the folding process? That sounds like a great idea; will have to try it.
Yes! When I dump it out to fold after the first proof, I flatten it a bit like a pizza, spread over whatever I'm adding (I've also done parmesan cheese and garlic cloves), then fold it all up and continue with the rest (30 min rest, bread basket/towel for 60 min, in the fridge). Then I add additional cheese to the top of the loaf just the last 15 min of baking.
Thanks! I’m going to have to start riffing on my bread one day, soon...
Thank you for sharing this story. I started following you on Instagram with the quarantiny starter and made my own back in March. I struggled at first and it took many weeks for it to really get going, but all the pointers and tips from you along the way were so helpful. I was happy to follow you to the newsletter and sad when it went dark, but have been enjoying it so much since it's been back! I really appreciate learning a lot of the nuts and bolts of baking, such as the percentages and desired dough temperature. I'm also happy to report that my starter is still going strong and I am making your bagel recipe with it today (my second time!). Thanks for all your work and dedication, we are all out here reaping the benefits and enjoying your recipes!
Wow, I can't believe that it's already been a year! I began my starter when I saw that first post that CI shared. Since then, I have been looking forward to your newsletters. Because of you, I'm proud that I can call myself a proficient bread maker, and it feels amazing to get such beautiful compliments on something I made with three ingredients. Thank you for all your dedication and for sharing your story here. I'll sing happy birthday to my little guy tonight :-)
Happy Quarantiny Anniversary! I don’t fully remember how I came across your newsletter in the maelstrom of sourdough content in the late spring/early summer, but I’m so glad I did. I’ve had a starter for years and had tried various recipes but never really got super comfortable with sourdough baking until the pandemic, and among many great sources of information, your voice really stood out. Love your geeking out articles about the microbiology and science of it all (I’m a medical scientist, so obviously haha). Thanks for your candor about how you ended up leaving CI (I was so curious!); it sounds like a set of unfortunate HR/legal circumstances, but ultimately a win-win for you and us! Thank you so much for your work and recipes!!
A bittersweet reminder of the past year. I joined the Quarantiny starter in the beginning and in so many ways the routine kept me sane through the crazy year. I am now a regular sourdough baker in Australia thanks to you! Happy birthday and keep on doing what you’re doing.
Thanks for sharing this story, Andrew. Sounds like ATK treated you kind of crappily. So many things changed (that we probably never thought possible) during 2020 that they might have made some exceptions to standard policy. But ... it seems like it ended up turning out for the best. I don’t believe in god or fate, but I do believe in luck, and especially that people who are successful often can take bad circumstances and figure out how to make the best of them.
I joined the quarantiny craze in late spring, maybe April, but really didn’t get it going until late summer, maybe July or early August. I can’t tell you how much your writing has helped with that. I never had a starter before, and now I use mine about once a week or two. I anticipate keeping it going for a long time! And my success with that has helped my mental state during this time, so many, many thanks to you and the community you’ve helped to build!
Thanks for sharing this story. I've been a subscriber to Cooks' Illustrated magazine since 2005, and to the website for nearly as long. You and ATK taught me how to cook. Over the 2 decades I've definitely noticed significant changes, particularly post-Kimball, some of which I like (color photography and a greater diversity of quality non-American recipes made with traditional ingredients) and others which I don't-- e.g. the TV shows are unwatchable now without Kimball's irascible persnickitiness; I always enjoyed how skillfully Bridget could take him down a peg when he got to be too obnoxious). Aside from Hunger Pangs, I find their web content to be similarly unwatchable. Dan Souza seems like a great guy in person and a competent chef, but his performances are cringeworthy. I feel bad for him, and that doesn't make for good viewing. Hunger Pangs is the best online content they've produced.
There is a real sense of corporate blandness that has overtaken the site. It is harder to manage search results; they have blended together the high quality recipes from Cooks Illustrated with the worst shovel-ready recipes from the cookbooks. You can no longer filter by publication or date range. That makes my job so much harder; if I remember a particular recipe from, let's say, a Jan/Feb 2009 issue that I need to recall, it can be extremely difficult to find as they have renamed the recipes and changed/upgraded the photo of the dish.
Is there any truth to my perception that Cooks Illustrated recipes were considered "top tier", with Cooks Country a second, and the cookbooks a distant 3rd? That's how it felt to me.
Good for you for moving on, and thank you for whatever details you feel like sharing.