SOURDOUGH STARTER PART ONE

I’ve been wanting to experiment with trying to make my own sourdough starter for a while. It’s one of my favorite breads, and I find the whole process of making a sourdough starter intriguing. How you have to keep feeding them. How people keep them for years and years and they keep growing. I’ve heard people refer to their sourdough starters as their pets, and people who even go as far as to take them on holiday with them to make sure they get fed. Clearly it's worth trying out!

After researching a few recipes online, I finally decided to try a basic sourdough recipe from the Kitchn. I figured as this is my first try at making a sourdough starter, I should probably try out a simple one. This recipe has no strange and hard to find ingredients or complicated techniques, which was a bit of a selling point for me. It only has two ingredients, and then it's really just a waiting game.

Basic Sourdough Recipe (from the Kitchn)
1/2 cups flour
1/2 cups water (filtered or spring)

Directions: On day one, mix the flour and water until there are no lumps and you're left with a smooth batter. Transfer to an airtight container and leave it for 24 hours somewhere with a consistent room temperature. (The Kitchn also write that you can add a bit of yeast to the mix to kickstart the process, but I decided to omit this step and go for the real deal!). On day two, three, and four, add another 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water to the mixture and stir well, making sure there are no flour lumps. You may start to see some bubbles already on day two, and it should be frothy and fermented and ready to use by day five.

As I've heard of so many who have tried and failed at making a sourdough starter, I'm gonna try not to be too defeated if this fails. I've already started looking for sourdough bread I want to try though, so hopefully it'll work out! I'll be posting a part two to this post to let you know how it goes!