My First Sourdough Bake // A Recipe for Baking at Altitude

Since lockdown began in California, my husband and I have been longing to visit San Francisco. We have plans for a walking date through the city as soon as it is safe.

When we first started dating, all of our dates were walking dates. One time we took a long walk up to North Point from my apartment on Polk and Eddy. We then headed over to the Wharf to buy some famous San Francisco sourdough. Since we didn’t have much money back then, we took that loaf home and ate it with cheap pasta and sauce.

To create a little piece of San Francisco in our Southern California mountain home, I decided to try my hand at baking sourdough.

My sourdough starter has been thriving for a week or so. I had been making round after round of crackers with the sourdough discard, but I finally got the courage to bake my first round of sourdough yesterday.

I decided to use the recipe by Emma Christensen at Kitchn. The only change I made to her recipe was to shorten the bake time after removing the lid from the dutch oven (steps 23 & 24) to 13 minutes instead of the suggested 15-20 minutes. Our house is on a mountain, at almost 5000 feet altitude. This might be the reason my bread baked faster than the recipe suggested it would.

I can’t believe how beautiful and delicious my bread is. The inside is perfectly chewy and the crust is perfectly crunchy. My husband told me it is the best bread he has ever had. I think he’s right, if I do say so.

Leave me a comment below to let me know how you are bringing a bit of joy into your home during quarantine! I would love to hear from you. I hope you and your family are safe and well!