Kitchen
Why I bake the same loaf every Sunday
Flour, water, salt and a starter called Walter. Making one bread over and over taught me what practice actually means.
Clara Whitfield2 min read
Every Sunday for the past two years I have baked the same bread. Not a different recipe each week, not a seasonal special. One plain round loaf of flour, water, salt and a sourdough starter that lives in a jar on the counter and goes by the name of Walter.
People sometimes ask whether I get bored. I understand the question, but repetition is the only reason the bread got good.
What changes when nothing changes
When the recipe stays fixed, everything else becomes visible. A warm kitchen in July shortens the rise by an hour. A new bag of flour drinks more water. A rushed shaping on a busy morning shows up as a lopsided crumb that evening. With only one thing moving at a time, I can finally see cause and effect.
My Sunday rhythm
- Saturday night: feed the starter and mix the dough loosely.
- Sunday morning: four sets of folds, half an hour apart, between coffee and the newspaper.
- Midday: shape, then into a basket in the fridge.
- Late afternoon: bake hot in a heavy pot, lid on, then lid off.
The loaf is never quite the same twice, which is the quiet pleasure of it. Some weeks it is the best bread I have made. Some weeks it is just bread. Either way, by Sunday evening the kitchen smells of it, and the week ahead feels a little more manageable.
