Breads Sourdoughstarter (All) | LAURA LEE ALICE COOK

Sourdough Starter

First of all, I am by no means an expert in sourdough. I have made sourdough

bread for many years before it became a household word. But I am going to

share my "system" of making sourdough starter and bread. It IS NOT rocket

science, but you do need two things to start-water and flour. And a warm

place to put it. The water cannot be from the tap, it needs to be good

filtered water*. And the flour must be a good quality unbleached flour, in this

case, the simpler the better. I also use glass containers and wooden spoons.

Step 1 of making your sourdough starter (in the pictures above) show how it

looks after the flour and water looks are mixed. Normally I put a rubber band

on the jar to mark the top of the mixture but this time (not always) it is on the

cup and a half mark on the jar. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Sourdough Starter

First of all, I am by no means an expert in sourdough. I have made sourdough bread for many years before

it became a household word. But I am going to share my "system" of making a sourdough starter and

bread. It IS NOT rocket science, but you do need two things to start-water and flour. The water cannot be

from the tap, it needs to be good filtered water*. And the flour must be a good quality unbleached flour, in

this case, the simpler the better.

Ingredients

• Flour (1 cup to begin with, you will need more)

• Water (preferably filtered, free of chlorine and other contaminants, including fluoride)

You will need a glass container to mix, and preferably store your starter. I like to use a large jar (a quart to

begin with; eventually a half gallon) that has a screw-top.

Instructions

1. Day one, add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of room temperature water to the jar. Mix thoroughly until there are

no dry bits of flour, then mix again. Place a single layer of a tea towel over the top of the jar, and walk

away. I like to use a rubber band to keep the tea towel in place.

2. Day two, discard half of the starter**, add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water. Mix as before, cover and walk

away.

3. Days three, four and five, repeat step two.

4. Day 6, discard and feed every twelve hours.

5. Day 7, discard and feed. By this point it should rise quicker, be bubbly and smell very pungent just a few

hours after feeding. If so, you can begin to use it in your recipes. Or if not using it right away, refrigerate.

*We are on "city" water and do not drink it. Our refrigerator has a filter but even that is not good enough.

I have a ZeroWater and that seems to work. It really depends on where you live and your water situation.

**Start another jar, share it with a friend, or put it in your compost