I asked around on the Book of Faces and there seemed to be a lot of interest in this, so here goes a complete experiment! I’m going to use a combination of text (blog posts here) and video (facebook? youtube? still figuring it out!) to teach you what I know about sourdough starters and bread baking.
Goals
By the end of this course, you should be able to…
- Start a successful sourdough starter from only flour and water*.
- Maintain a sourdough starter, both when you are using it regularly and when you are not.
- Bake a loaf of bread with your own starter.
*Although we will also try the water, flour and pineapple juice method. Grab some pineapple juice if you want join in on that experiment.
Requirements
I am trusting that everyone who chooses to do this has a basic level of understanding how to use their kitchen safely. Other than that you need to have:
- Flour*
- Water
- A container for your starter with a lid
- A stirring implement
- A kitchen scale that can measure in grams or tenths of an ounce
- A bowl to mix in
- A functional oven
- A baking pan, small dutch oven, or loaf pan
Flour! Flour is the most important ingredient when starting your starter from scratch. You will want to have 2 flours on hand: all purpose flour and a whole grain flour. Your all-purpose wheat flour needs to be unbleached. For the whole-grain flour, either a whole-grain wheat or rye will work. (Organic flour is helpful but not necessary.) We will only be using a few ounces of flour at a time until we are actually baking bread, so a small bag of each flour should be fine.
Sound interesting? Sign up for the event on facebook. It won’t start until Wednesday, March 25th because I want you to have time to get supplies.