The year 2020 has made some interesting changes to the way we live our lives. For a lot of folks, this has been spending more time at home than ever before. If you didn’t have anything but your thoughts to keep you company during the unrelenting hours, you might yourself going mad. Luckily, some of our Hill Engineering team members have found fun hobbies during the quarantine, for those rare moments when their minds are not occupied by residual stress.
Camille has been an avid baker for a long time, but in 2020 she decided to attempt more involved baking projects—namely, baking sourdough bread from scratch.
While her first attempt didn’t go as well as it could have, Camille says her second try at making a sourdough starter was a success, and she continues to maintain it today. She affectionately refers to her starter as Roy II (the successor to the ill-fated Roy I), and has used the starter to make several loaves since its inception in July.
“When I started to create my starter,” she says, “I never realized how much attention to detail is needed. I knew that feeding the starter was a key part of the process but didn’t know that how much flour and water is used can alter the chemistry of the starter—and this affects the activity level of the wild yeast that’s present in the mix. Even the type of flour that’s used can change things.”
Sounds like a wild time. Her plans moving forward are to try more recipes to see how different baking techniques affect the taste and texture of the loaves.
Stay tuned for more hobby spotlights from your friends at Hill Engineering. If you have any questions about residual stress and the measurement methods we employ at Hill Engineering, feel free to contact us.