Kitchen Chronicles: Lovely Morning, Ain't It?
Cozy adventures with sourdough, and how to have the best baking morning.
I woke up at 5 a.m. to preheat the oven. Turning on the tiny lamp on the counter, I blinked against the light before I pressed the up arrow over and over again until the numbers finally lit up 450°F and dropped my dutch oven onto the rack where it’s always perfectly snug. I shut the door, and shuffled back down the hall to where I had previously come from. My bed.
When I decided to start two loaves of sourdough the day before, I hadn’t really been thinking about how much time it could stand to stay in the fridge overnight or when the next day I’d be able to bake the two loaves at all. Poor planning, truly.
Welcome to my Cozy Kitchen Chronicles, where I share the highs, lows, and everything in between of my kitchen adventures. From early morning dough rituals to the occasional (and sometimes comical) baking mishaps. This is where I procrasti-bake.
I had a full day of teaching ahead of me and I already promised to get part of the groceries for meals coming up that I haven’t planned yet. Plus, I was trying to get back into a slightly more active lifestyle after the past few weeks of doing the opposite of any sort of new year fitness resolution.
So, 5 a.m. it was.
In the back of my mind, as I resigned myself to the early wakeup, I figured I’d let my Hatch alarm clock wake me up. I’d get my day started leisurely after with my dutch oven preheating and a cup of coffee snuggled against my chest until I had to prep my first loaf to go in.
Of course, we already both know that didn’t happen. Instead, I set a new alarm on my phone for when my dough likely needed to go in and crawled back into bed.
Maybe it was then that I should’ve realized my morning was not going to go smoothly, let alone as planned.
Because when I meandered back out to the kitchen aglow in the light of tiny lamp approximately fifteen minutes later, I quickly came to the understanding that my dough could’ve stood to hang out in the fridge longer than just overnight. Perhaps, a lot longer.
You’d think I was used to this, and I was. Making sourdough was a sort of trial and error process. I’ve had all sorts of loaves since my first this past summer. I’ve had flat loaves, salt of the sea loaves, beautiful loaves that I still am unsure if I will ever be able to recreate. But after all these loaves of sourdough, for the past month or two, I had become confident in my skills. My loaves were rising more perfectly because I finally found the correct ratio of water to flour to starter and everything was going smoothly.
When I saw the state of the dough as I turned it out on onto parchment paper and attempted to score it in the low light of the kitchen… I knew exactly what kind of loaf this was going to turn into. I had thought the previous night that the dough looked a bit too sticky/wet compared to my prize loaves.
This moment only confirmed it.
It’s never a good sign when your bread’s razor blade struggles to tug a score through your bread baby.
My dough was not ready to be baked. But, I was here and I was going to bake it anyway. Sighing, I tried my best to cut a single line across the top for it to expand and watched as it practically oozed itself back together as I dropped it into the dutch oven. It may not have been my best loaf (not by a long shot) but it was bread, and in this household, it would never go to waste even if it came out with only a little lift… or barely any lift at all, it turned out.
Trying not to let myself be discouraged, which felt even more difficult without my coffee still, I got out my second loaf that I made swirled with brown sugar and cinnamon. This one too, could’ve waited to be baked, though it actually scored slightly better.
If only when I pulled it back out of the oven so long later, now, finally post-coffee and rushing around the house to finish getting ready for work when it was the last thing I wanted to do, I dropped this loaf down onto the cooling rack with its flat cousin. Burnt. From the top, it looked perfectly fine. One half of the bottom however…
I shook my head at it, trying not to let myself get too frustrated even though it is hard not to sometimes when you are baking bread. Though it is a simple process with simple ingredients, it is a labor of love. It takes time, and effort…
And when that effort isn’t showcased in a beautiful fluffy loaf of bread, it can feel like someone just smacked you across the face with that early morning wake up call. But I had to keep going onward to a day job, though those loaves haunted me throughout the day.
I was so upset with those loaves of bread. So upset with myself.
A quiet, cozy morning certainly didn’t turn out the way I planned.
It turns out that sourdough never ceases to have the power to humble you, no matter how long you are making it.
The Cozy Baking Morning You Should Have
Wake up slowly with your alarm or with your Hatch sunrise (seriously, I’ve been obsessed with this thing). The stillness of the morning is perfect for starting a bake. You know, if you stay up to enjoy it.
Start the kettle for coffee or tea while you light a soft-scented candle on the counter.
Put on your favorite music. Make sure this is nothing loud, just something to ease into the day.
Take out your pre-prepared ingredients, or start the process of heating the oven and getting out what you need to bake. If you are doing everything in the morning, take your time and enjoy the quiet slowness of the world around you. Maybe this is what people talk about when they say baking can be meditative.
Wrap up in a cozy apron, and maybe a blanket for those early chill moments by the oven.
Take small breaks while baking, like enjoying your warm cup of tea or coffee, or simply looking out the window as the light begins to shift and everyone else begins to wake up too.
By the time your baking is in the oven or done, your kitchen will feel like a sanctuary instead of a tiring, stressful space where you need to get so much done. Make it a space where your morning creativity, comfort, and warmth come together.
Don’t be like me in the morning. And make sure you keep your eye on the bottom of your second loaf of sourdough.
Have you all had any baking or cooking mishaps in the kitchen lately?
Were you able to laugh it off or turn it around, or was it simply a loss, lesson learned. I would love some fellow home cooks to chime in!
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