Baking sourdough is a challenge.
It’s much harder than baking a traditional loaf as the yeast needs longer to ferment and develop flavor. And it's also sensitive to its environment.
In fact, baking sourdough is a bit like the Goldilocks of the breadmaking world and needs everything ‘just right’.
The main battle with getting your sourdough to work is getting it off to a good start, and keeping it at a consistent temperature between 75-82°F.
This was the problem faced by home baker Erik Fabian, who turned to fellow baker and industrial designer, Jennifer Yoko Olson, to create The Goldie — a problem-solving gadget to keep the sourdough starter at the correct temperature without having to heat your whole house.
How does Goldie work?
Goldie is designed to keep your dough at the perfect temperature to help it rise faster and more consistently. So, if your impatience has put you off trying sourdough before, this could start your adventure into sourdough baking.
The Goldie is available now from Williams Sonoma for $134.
All you need to do is place your sourdough starter jar on the warming base of the cloche and cover it up. Then turn it on via the attached USB cord, press the auto-warming button on the back and let it get to work.
The base includes a heater and thermostat that monitors the temperature, and indicates whether the starter is in the Goldlilock’s zone.
Colored LED lights indicate the progress: blue is too cold, red is too hot and yellow is just right.
If the temperature gets too hot, you can place a cooling puck, which is filled with gel, and has been in the freezer, on the top of the jar to adjust the temp.
Sourhouse states that apart from making the sourdough process easier, the Goldie also shaves an hour off the typical coupling time that a starter’s kept in a fridge or on the countertop. That's good news for those impatient bakers among us.
One bonus is that the cloche is made of glass and you can watch the magic happen. Plus, the Goldie won’t look out of place on your kitchen countertop. Despite it being able to hold a quart jar, it has a small footprint of 9 inches tall by 5 inches wide.
What's next on the menu from Sourhouse?
Since Goldie’s launch in 2022 the product has won Best Kitchen Gear 2024 in the U.S. Good Housekeeping Awards.
And now, Sourhouse has launched the DoughBed, which will be available to purchase in May.
It's latest product is designed to proof all dough, not just sourdough, to the perfect temperature during the first proofing stage, taking the headache out of juggling the temperature in your home.
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