Hit 500 loaves of sourdough this week and still can't believe it

I started keeping a tally on my little chalkboard above the oven back in March 2022, mostly to see if I'd actually stick with it after that first brick of a loaf. This past Tuesday I pulled number 500 out of the oven and just kinda stood there staring at it. It's not like I'm a pro or anything, just a home baker who got obsessed during the lockdown days. The weird part is that I can count on one hand the number of times I got that perfect oven spring everyone posts about. Most of my loaves are a little lopsided or the scoring looks like a toddler did it. But hitting that number made me realize how much small repetition adds up even when each individual loaf feels like a failure. Has anyone else tracked their bake count just for fun or am I the only weirdo with a chalkboard tally?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby83617d ago

Hold up, I gotta push back a little on the 500 number. That is an awesome milestone no doubt, but you gotta count the total bakes not just the finished loaves. I keep a similar tally and I count every batch I mix up, even the ones that turn into croutons or get tossed. The number 500 is impressive but it doesn't tell the whole story of all the science experiments and fails along the way. Your chalkboard should really reflect the full journey, the ugly ones count too.

riverf3417d ago

Totally agree with you @abby836, and Ive actually gone through this same thing with my own baking log. The ugly loaves and the failures are where you learn the most, so leaving them out of the count feels dishonest to the process. I started a separate tally for "total mixes" on the bottom of my board, and it makes the 500 feel like a real accomplishment because you see the whole mountain of work behind it. It's way more satisfying to look at the full picture, even with all the mistakes baked in.