Demystifying Sourdough

Sourdough can seem like a long, super-intensive process but it can be simplified and made easy. The first step in your sourdough adventure is creating a starter. I was intimidated by creating a starter before I learned just how easy it is. Creating a starter is simply mixing equal parts of water and flour. When left at room temperature the natural bacteria take over and the fermentation process takes place. So, creating a starter is generally a 5-10-day process. On day 1 to keep things simple combine 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of water and mix thoroughly in a jar or container. Using whole wheat flour will work best because the bacteria like feed on the protein in it, but any flour will work. On day 2 remove half a cup of the starter and discard (or keep for scallion pancakes which I will detail later). Next, feed the starter with half a cup of flour and water, cover, and leave out at room temp. Days 2 – 7 will look the same discard and feed. After day 7 your starter will be active, mature, and ready to bake. I mentioned that you can use your discard to make scallion pancakes. All you must do is pour the discard in the pan and sprinkle scallions and salt on top. Flip after it starts bubbling like a normal pancake. Use a little soy sauce or dumpling sauce to dip your pancake in and now you have a nice lunch made from your discard. There are so many more discard recipes out there, but this is my favorite. Now that you have an active, mature starter you can bake anything from a loaf of sourdough to biscuits. My favorite sourdough bread recipe is from one of my favorite YouTubers binging with babish. The recipe walks you through step by step what to do and when to do it. The reason this is my favorite recipe is because of the included schedule. Baking a loaf of sourdough does require many hours of work but most of it is hands-off so it’s not terrible labor-intensive. The included schedule helps simplify the process and keeps you on track to obtain your sourdough dreams. I have linked the recipe below. Happy Baking!

https://basicswithbabish.co/basicsepisodes/sourdough-bread