I finally started baking bread in 2023. “Finally”, because I’ve always had a soft spot for making dough. I grew up in the part of China known for noodles and lots of flour-based foods. I always make dumpling wrappers and noodles by hand. But I just never made bread, not the “Western” bread, at least. It was not an essential part of my diet.

But then I moved to Ireland. My consumption of bread increased dramatically as my partner ate it regularly (he loves soda bread, I don’t; we agreed on sourdough in the end). In the beginning, we bought a loaf from the grocery store once every week. Then there was a day we bought a loaf at an artisan bakery. That subtle difference in the consistency of the gluten, the aroma of the wheat, and the texture of the crust triggered something resembling my homesickness for actual, hand-pulled noodles. My full-bodily love for a good dough was awakened. Bread must be made.

It was destined to be sourdough because I actually have all the ingredients at home (I only have high-gluten bread flour because that’s the closest thing to what is called “dumpling flour” in Nothern China): bread flour, salt, water, a kitchen scale, and some form of containers. I read a few recipes and then was convinced by one Irish baker, Patrick Ryan’s (nonsenseless) video.

One of the greatest joys in the process of feeding the sourdough starter is experimenting with sourdough starter discard. (A starter is a mix of equal weights of flour and water; then you just add water and flour every day and wait for nature to work. But the jar is only so big that a few days later, you can only discard some before adding in new.) My favourite invention is making white flour injera using the discard.

Anyway, I started making bread. And as any cat snorter knows, the unit of a cat is a loaf. So here we are. For each bread I bake, there’s a pairing cat pic. I hope you enjoy the combo.

(This page will be updated…periodically.)