Frequently asked questions
A sourdough starter is essential for making sourdough bread. You can order one online or find one from a friend, but why not make it at home? It’s simple and requires very little hands on time. Wait for 5 days, and you’ll have grown your own starter—out of thin air! Buy it: To shortcut the process, you can buy a sourdough starter instead. We’ve tested this one and it works well. A starter is literally full of life! There are 50 million yeasts and 5 billion lactobacilli bacteria in every teaspoon of starter dough. Sound weird? Actually, humans have been doing this for thousands of years; the process is as old as bread itself. For over 5,000 years, humans have mixed flour and water, waited for it to ferment, and then used it as leavening for bread. Interested in the science behind sourdough starter? Read more here. For our sourdough starter recipe, we use a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour to give the start a jump start. Once the starter is active and vibrant, we switch to all purpose flour for regular feeding of the starter. That’s right, we said feeding a starter! Since this little dude is alive, you’re going to have to feed him or her regularly. See our post on How to Feed a Sourdough Starter. You may want to give him a name too! (Ours is named Starty. Original, right?) Now, jump right to our full recipe for how to make sourdough starter!
A covered jar to store your sourdough starter (any will work: we use this one) Whole wheat flour All purpose flour Filtered water, at room temperature (we use this pitcher to filter our tap water) Kitchen scale (here’s the one we use)
Outside of bread, there are all sorts of things you can make with sourdough starter: pancakes, waffles, cookies, pizza crust, and muffins. Check out some uses here: Beyond the Loaf: The Many Uses of Sourdough.
How to Make Sourdough Bread: The Simplified Guide How to Feed Sourdough Starter
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