How to make a Sourdough starter

I get asked all the time how to make with sourdough bread, folk have it in their minds that it's difficult or too time consuming, when the reality is that all it takes is short bursts of activity followed by chunks of time allowing the natural yeasts to work their magic!

Before you can start making sourdough bread you need to get yourself a starter. You could get some from a friend, buy dried starter online, or my prefered method is to create my very own. There are no two starters that will ever be the same, each one is unique. This is because the wild yeasts that are found floating about in our homes (Yes, even the clean and tidy brigade have them!!!) are unique to our home. Creating your own starter will be the longest part of anything that you do with making sourdough foods. 

Making your own starter is very simple and doesn't require a lot of equipment, in fact I would hazard a guess that you have most, if not all the things you need to get started in your home right now. I've put filtered water in the ingredient list but you can use tap water if that is all you have available to you, I prefer filtered water as it removes the chlorine from the tap water, the chlorine can slow down the fermentation process and to be honest I really don't like the smell of it..... That could just be a me thing though.

Ingredients:

Bread flour

Filtered water

Day 1: Put 1/2 a cup of flour and the same of water in to a wide mouthed jar and mix well to combine. Go for a wander around the house to help gather some of those wonderful wild yeasts floating about your home. Cover with a tea towel or muslin cloth and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.

Day 2: Once the 24 hours are up pour away (discard) half of the mixture and replace with the same quantities as the previous day, mix, cover and leave for another 24 hours.

Day 3-5: Repeat process from day 2.

Day 6-7: Discard half of the starter and this time you want to feed it every 12 hours. You should hopefully start to see bubbles and your starter should rise and fall, this will indicate that it is ready to bake with. Please don't be alarmed if it doesn't happen this quickly, some houses are cooler than others which will cayse the fermentation process to be much slower, My starter that I started in 2020 took 3 weeks to be ready.

Once your starter is ready the fun begins as you get to create a plethora of delicious foods. You just need to remember to make sure to feed your starter before you want to bake with it, that doesn't need to be a chore either. If you know that you aren't going to use it for while you can keep your starter in the fridge and then bring it out and feed it 24 hours before you want to use it.