The Sour Dough Chronicals Part Three - Dough Boy's Revenge

So, I started all over again. I threw out the starter and found a new recipe. This one made a little more sense to me. In the sense that this should work. It was essentially pineapple juice and flour. Over many days I changed out pineapple juice and flour and let my baby grow and rise. The theory is that the acidity in the pineapple juice will breed the exact type of tangy yeasties we want.
My little creation grew and grew and bubbled and grew. After the prescribed amount of time I proofed my homegrown yeast and let it rise! Rise!

It was a long time sitting and rising. Hours upon hours the yeast and flour mixed and combined, were born and died along with thousands of their brothers and sisters. I kept the dough properly hydrated so I had a reasonable assumption that this would turn out perfectly. I enlisted the help of my lovely wife to shape the two loaves so they would look very nice.
This little contraption we bought at the kitchen store outlet when we were in Oshkosh a couple of weeks ago. It's for baking, of course, and helps to make the loaves look prettier than if I used my own man hands to shape them.

In the oven they went amidst a great cloud of steam and fan fare. There was great rejoicing in Ranch for the bread smelled divine. There was a nice crust and splendid color but something just didn't seem right.



When I pulled them out of the pan and on to the
cooling rack, the bread felt wrong. I knew immediately that it didn't turn out. The bottom of the loaves felt dense, and while the crumb was acceptable, and the over look appealing, it just wasn't right.

I knew even when we sliced to eat it, that it wasn't meant to be. The taste was just....eh. There was no sour, there was no tang, it was just a mediocre white bread at best. Luckily we had friends over that night, one of them just happened to be a bread junkie. For me that meant constant reassurance that the bread tasted wonderful. I ditched the started that night. It wasn't worth it. It beat me. I'm defeated. I think I'll order a starter from a website. This weekend I went back to my roots and made a French loaf. I'll post pictures of these loaves. I'm sure they'll turn out.