My latest obsession has been learning all things sourdough! Call it nesting or call it it whatever you want, but all I have wanted to do is bake all the bread and organize every room in my house. That being said, I have become fascinated with the art of sourdough, starters, and recipes! It truly is an art and I cannot wait to learn more.

This post is simply going to be about the sourdough starter I have created. From my understanding, the “starter” simple replaces the need for store bought yeast in a recipe. According to Dr. Google: the starter is a fermented dough filled with natural, wild yeast and a bacteria called lactobacilli. The starter is what makes sourdough bread rise.

I will admit, I was super intimidated by the idea of this at first, mainly because you have to keep it alive. I do have pets and child but I remember to feed them. All of the plants in my house are faux because I am not the best at remembering non-verbal living things. But so far, so good on the starter- I have named her Betty!

You can easily get started without a starter but I did find a dehydrated starter on Etsy that is over 140 years old and came with instructions- perfect for someone like me who does way too much research and just ends up confusing myself or just simply not doing it because of all of the information.

The instructions that came with the one I bought are as follows:

Day 1:

• In a large glass jar, taller than it is wide, combine:
  • 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup + 2 TBSP lukewarm filtered water
  • 1 TBSP sugar
  • 1 package of starter powder (linked here and above)
• Mix thoroughly. If starter chunks don’t dissolve completely, wait a few hours and stir again. Cover the jar with plastic cling wrap to encourage fermentation. Put the jar on the counter in a room where temperature is 65-70. Too high temperature will kill your yeast

Day 2:

• Stir the mixture and re-cover the jar with plastic cling wrap

Day 3:

• Feed the starter by mixing in another 1/2 cup unbleached flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water. If you see bubbles- remove the cling wrap and cover the jar with a towel. If you do not see bubbles, continue to cover with cling wrap. The consistency should be of that of pancake batter

Day 4-6:

• Feed the starter by mixing in another 1/2 cup unbleached flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm filtered water. By day 6, your starter is ready to use

Day 7:

• If you intend to bake within the next few days/week, continue to keep your starter at room temperature and feed a 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 water daily. If you don’t intend to bake, put the starter in the fridge (sealed shut) and feed it at least once or twice a week. Remove the fridge at least one day before baking.

*When the starter becomes full, you can pour of excess starter to make room for feeding- but don’t waste it- BAKE WITH IT!