Basic Sourdough Starter:
1 Cup of All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup of Luke Warm to Warm Water
Mix together in a mason jar (or any clean glass jar). It should resemble a thick pancake batter. Then cover it with a paper towel, a piece of cheese cloth, or a coffee filter and secure it with a rubber band. Set it somewhere where the sun isn't beaming on it and let those yeasties bloom!
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Throughout 2020, as we all sat in our homes with very little to do but doom scroll on social media, a national idea popped into the psyches of many:
Oh hey, let's make bread!
Not only did we collectively decide to make bread, but we bought up all of the yeast! Aside from toilet paper, it seemed to me that the hardest thing to find at the grocery store was dry active yeast! Never fear, though, somebody on the internet decided. Yeast is wild and FREE! A true fact. It's just hanging out in the AIR of all places! So, with that information, it was collectively decided that it was the best idea ever to make sourdough bread. I thought so too...hive mind, I tell ya.
What is sourdough, exactly? It's a culture of microorganisms made up of yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (and whatever else is floating around your house, honestly) that make their home in your flour/water mixture. You just keep feeding them flour and water and they keep growing in numbers and maturing and...well, here's the science right here.
I'm no scientist and I'm no pastry chef, so I had my ups and downs. I was successful in cultivating my own sourdough starter in my kitchen after a few weeks. I lost a few jars of pretty awesome sourdough starter to mold, had to start over a few times, smashed one by accident, started again but I ended up with several very nice boules of bread. To me, it was a great accomplishment, especially since I didn't feel like I was accomplishing much else sitting around the house.
Here's what it looks like to start from scratch:
I'd say give it a go! Because this is a series (and we can do this together), I'll be posting my own progress, slip ups included, because learning and sharing information is necessary and fun! Stay tuned for more info and progress on my sourdough starter AKA my Wild Yeast Farm.