Jaidon was kind enough to leave us his sourdough starter. So, despite my lack of love for baking, we got the recipes he used from my brother and finally got the starter to a point where I could attempt to make Jaidon’s bread.
As I watched video after video trying to figure out how to do this, I made a huge mess, flour everywhere. I cried my way through combining all the ingredients and dug my hands in to follow the instructions.
As I sat in the kitchen at the counter where he used to do this all the time, my tears turned to laughter as I thought about my kid who had such massive sensory issues that touching anything sticky would send him flying to the moon.
Kneading and mixing dough was a sensory mess that I just couldn’t envision him enjoying. I smiled as I thought about how he probably wore gloves or found some other way to avoid this mess on his hands.
Not to mention that this is not only a complicated, science-filled process (which was probably why he liked it), but it was incredibly time intensive!
How did my impatient, sensory child, who found every loophole possible to shorten and ease every process decide to pick up baking sourdough bread as a hobby?
20 hours later we had bread. I didn’t do as good of a job making it as he did—I mean, let’s be realistic, HE would have been who I would have asked to help me—but I felt compelled to continue making his bread as he intended.
I have some big shoes to fill to be able to bake like he did.