The Sourdough (mis)Adventures of a Scientifically Challenged Chaos Gremlin

Like most distractible yet creative people, I have had more hobbies over my (relatively short) lifetime than I can count. However, baking has never been one of them because it tends to involve two of my worst subjects: science and math. Not that it's intense in either area, but a good understanding of the process and precision (not to mention focus) is advised. Precision and focus are two more things at which I am an epic failure.

But, that being said, I found myself in possession of a small oven (not the easiest thing to come by in small Korean one-rooms), so I thought I should make it worth it.

Of course, I didn't start with my strong suit -- cooking. Instead, I also had the spontaneous urge to make a sourdough starter. That's the part of the process I can ace. Growing yeast is easy in the muggy, stifling August weather. But the actual bread part is a struggle. And it's not just me!

The reason I'm writing this blog post isn't just to yak on the internet about what I'm doing--it's to record the success and failure of using different ingredients and equipment to make something I'm already not good at making for any other English speaker who's curious to try.

Let me explain. Of course, you have flour, water, ovens, etc., in Korea. You also have a plethora of sourdough breads and blog posts on how to make it too. I could have done this the easy way and just followed a Korean recipe (and that's probably what I'll do next), but I wanted to use the recipes from The Clever Carrot. Her breads just look so good!

Now, a logical person is probably asking how this is different. And that's where the science part comes in. As Emilie Raffa (the woman behind The Clever Carrot and author of Artisan Sourdough Made Simple) notes on her blog, all flour is different and has different water content. She had to experiment to get her recipes right, and the recipe I'm currently following has only used two specific kinds of flours--ones I can't get in Korea. Also, for those of you who have traveled abroad (I'm from the US, for context), you've probably noticed the difference in breads, cheeses, and fruits (just to name a few examples). One of my best friends (she's German - for context), and I have both noticed how different Korean breads and pastries taste. The textures are different as well. A lot of it is probably baking styles and schools (more Korean bakeries seem to be inspired by French patisseries?).

However, some things seem to be more about preference. The cookies are often very dry and crumbly, more like cake or scones, and most cakes are extra fluffy but pretty tasteless. In general, desserts are less sweet, which makes sense. Traditional Korean desserts include fruit, rice-based pastries (far less sweet), or involve ingredients such as soybean powder (볶은 콩가루), red beans (팥 - not like kidney beans!), or mugwort (쑥). When I have made American-style cakes or cookies for friends or students, there are always one or two people who fall in love with the style, and probably half who tell me that it's "good but WAY TOO SWEET."

I tend to fall in the middle, with a lot of desserts in the States being too sweet for me too, but sometimes I still want a little bit more from the cookies or cakes here.

Did I mention I'm distractible? Back to the point--the flour here bakes differently. Based on what I've read on several blogs now, I think the flour is less dry. I'm sure the general sweltering humidity of Korean summer isn't helping either! I often have had to adjust recipes' wet ingredients (butter, milk, water, etc.,) for other things, but that can easily mess up the flavor and texture of a baked good. In addition, my oven only goes up to 230 degrees Celsius (just under 450 F), and that isn't high enough for a lot of dough to bake the same way.

So, the recipe I'm currently following is this: (Source: The Clever Carrot) - with my modifications in parentheses

150g active sourdough starter

250g warm water (reduced to 230g)

25g olive oil (didn't have olive oil on hand so I used grapeseed oil, lol)

500g bread flour (Used widely-available brand 백설, 강력밀가루 - i.e., "strong flour," which all the blogs seem to use for bread, and it says "bread" on it so . . .)

10g fine sea salt

I do not have a Dutch oven so I'm using a 돌솥 pot - a Dolsot - the pots used for bibimbap (you can see it in the oven picture above). It's too thick, so I tried a loaf in a foil pan, but that has the opposite problem. Ultimately, my loaf cooks best in the dolsot if I leave it in the oven at about 230 degrees and let it thoroughly preheat before putting my loaf in. You can see the pictures in the gallery below.

I also experimented with wheat flour (Korean wheat flour is far less coarse and looks like unbleached flour in the States). I used 200g of wheat flour to 300g of bread flour in that loaf. That one was my biggest success yet -- but I still plan on following one of the recipes on Naver blogs to see if it makes a difference for my ingredients.

At any rate, if anyone reading this has had great success making sourdough bread in their home kitchen using standard Korean flour varieties, let me know!

~Until next time ^^

My scale is so cute!

Starter and bread growing here

Bonus: Pancakes from discard