Sourdough bread baking has become a very popular pastime in the last two years.

Originally Published 09/03/2021

With everyone stuck at home during shutdowns, lockdowns, and what have you. We’ve returned to some slower, more time-consuming, yet beautiful, soul-mending, and delicious hobbies.

I am a sucker for Sourdough bread. Always have been. Anytime the question is asked on what bread, my instant reply is Sourdough! It’s tangy, crusty, chewy, and just all-around lovely.

About seven years ago, I started the journey of learning how to bake Sourdough bread myself. And so Sea Monkey was born. Oh, yeah, Sea Monkey is my sourdough starter’s name lol. Every good starter deserves a name. To me, the process of starting a starter is a lot like the magical sea monkey kit you get as a kid. “Just add water!”

Have you ever stopped to think about what a Sourdough Starter is? How it works?

A Sourdough Starter is at its base elements, flour, water, air, and time.

Chad Robertson of the acclaimed sourdough book Tartine Bread writes,

“A culture is created when flour and water are combined, and the microorganisms – wild yeasts and bacteria present in the flour, in the air, and on the baker’s hands – begin fermenting spontaneously.”

Every Sourdough starter is unique because of this! No two will ever be the same. This is what makes the famous San Fransico Sourdough taste different from a loaf you might buy in France. 

So yes, a starter is just flour, just water, just air.

But what kind of flour? What minerals are in the water? Is the air salty ocean air, desert air, or air from an apartment in the middle of the city? Also, whose hands have shaped that starter? Perhaps a strange (and maybe somewhat disturbing thought, but hey it gets baked at 500 degrees) but Sea Monkey is a tiny part of me! 🤷🏼‍♀️

The nerd in me just gets so excited about this awesome natural chemistry! So even if you got a starter from a friend, over a little bit of time, it would become uniquely yours, attuned to you and your home environment! No two starters are the same and that is amazing!

Is Sourdough a superior type of bread?

Yes.

Haha, I may be biased, but it is naturally better for you.

It’s because of your starter! Remember how I said your starter is uniquely attuned to your home and you? 

Well, when you use your sourdough starter to bake bread, you are using ingredients your body already recognizes! Because the wild yeasts and “probiotic-friendly, lactic-acid bacteria” are in the air we breathe, they’re familiar.

Also, grains that are used to make flour contain phytic acid – these phytates, “reduce the digestibility of starches, proteins, and fats.” Breads that use commercial yeast can retain up to 90% of this phytic acid, whereas sourdough’s slow fermentation process helps neutralize the acid, making the proteins more absorbable and the starches more digestible. Additionally, the lactic-acid bacteria also eat sugar, lowering “the glycemic index of the bread” Overall, this bread is just easier on your insides! (Information gathered from MaryJane Butters – Wild Bread page 23)

The ever-wise Paul Hollywood says, “This is the vintage single malt of bread.”  He’s not wrong!

So are you ready to develop your very own Sourdough Starter?

There are many different ways to get a Sourdough Starter up and going.

But today, I’m going to share King Aruthr’s, Paul Hollywood’s, Maryjane Butters, and of course, my own which is at the bottom of the page.

I would highly recommend Paul Hollywood and MaryJane Butter’s bread baking books! So many amazing recipes! And King Arthur is always a constant source of extremely helpful information and delicious recipes!

Any of these recipes will help you create a starter and get you going on this awesome Sourdough bread baking journey!

It’s going to take time. 

The starter will take time to mature and be strong enough to bake beautiful loaves of bread. It will take time for you to build your skills. I can’t tell you all the dense, flat, ugly loaves of sourdough my chickens have enjoyed over the years! 

I think it took me, not even exaggerating, 3-4 years of baking sourdough and experimenting with techniques to get a nice-looking loaf of bread! 

Don’t give up!

There is an indescribable feeling when you open that oven door and find the most gorgeous, perfectly risen, crusty loaf of bread that you made with your very own Sourdough Starter!

You’ll know what’s gone into it from start to finish. You’ll have chosen all the ingredients. This loaf of bread will be all yours down to its molecular makeup! How cool is that!? You can do it! I have faith in ya! 

So, pick a starter recipe and get going on this awesome journey! ❤️❤️❤️

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Austin Claire’s Sourdough Starter

A recipe to create your very own Sourdough Starter. This will take you all the way from day one to bake day!

Equipment

• 2.8qt plastic, airtight, food storage container with lid
• silicone bowl scraper
• 4C. Pyrex measuring bowl

Materials

Starter Ingredients

• 145 grams Bread Flour
• 145 grams Water warm

Instructions

Day One

• Mix 145g bread flour w/ 145g water, just warm to the touch, in 4C. Pyrex measuring bowl. Once thoroughly mixed, pour into a 2.8qt plastic container and set the lid on top, but don’t seal down. Let it sit at room temp for a day.

Day Two

• Pour 145g of the mixture from the container back into the clean 4C pyrex bowl and add in 145g bread flour, and 145g warm water.

Discard what is left in the 2.8qt container and rinse it out. You don’t need to wash or dry the container. After it’s thoroughly rinsed out, tip upside down in the dish strainer to drain excess water while you’re stirring your new mixture.

Once you’re done mixing in the pyrex, transfer the starter back to the now cleaned out 2.8qt container, loosely cover, and leave it on the counter at room temp.

Days Three – Seven

• At this point, your starter should be bubbling some. We’re going to up the feeding schedule to twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.

Twice a day, for the next five days repeat step two, discarding all but 145g and feeding accordingly. Soon, you should be able to watch your starter rise and grow hours after it’s been fed. You can mark the container by wrapping a rubber band around it, marking the starting level, to then have a  comparison of it at its peak height. It will rise up all bubbly and then fall back down again. This means it’s almost ready to make bread!

Day Eight

• Your starter may strong enough by now to bake a loaf of bread, but it may also take a couple more weeks of feeding it. You can try the water test to check! After you’ve fed your starter and you’ve given it 4-6 hours to rise up and get bubbly, take a scoop out of it and drop it in a cup of warm water…if it floats it’s ready to make bread! If it sinks, don’t worry, you can still create some tasty sourdough recipes with the discard as you continue to grow the starter. Once your starter is strong enough it can be stored in the fridge and fed once a week.

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