Make you own sourdough
Make your own sourdough
The joy of making your own
We love being your go-to bakers, but we’d also love to help you make your own sourdough! Making sourdough is an experience we believe everyone should have at least once. Sourdough is the ancestral way of bread making. The process reconnects you to your roots as a human being. Also, feeding your family with a loaf you’ve made from scratch is the absolute best feeling. We’re all about reconnecting people to their food systems and there is no more intimate connection than baking yourself.
Remember our mission is to get everyone who wants to eat bread eating the best possible version of bread for your gut and metabolic health. That means grains are always long-fermented and ingredients are organic, simple and natural. Once you get started, every loaf you make yourself helps fulfill our mission and is as special to us as every loaf you order.
The starter
Starter is the foundation of sourdough making. Essentially starter is a community of wild yeast and bacteria feeding on flour and water. Mature starter is what produces the rise in sourdough bread.
Most bakers name their starter since the wild yeast and bacteria make it a living collective-organism. Ours is called Joe Doughgan.
Taking a strong starter like Joe Doughgan in its dehydrated form and reawakening it is a great shortcut to getting your own starter going. So you can order 6 grams of dehydrated Joe from us.
The kit comes with 6 grams of dehydrated starter, a plastic dough knife, and a qr code to these revival instructions.
You can order the dry starter kit for pickups or local deliveries. You can also order for it to be shipped. You will see the shipping option on the cart and checkout page when the dry starter is in your cart.
Making your first loaf
So step one is to rehydrate your starter.
Rehydration instructions
When you and your starter are ready to start your first loaf it’s important to find a recipe that’s easy to follow and that thoroughly explains the process. This way you’re not just following directions, you’re learning the fundamentals.
We are currently working on putting together a recipe to share, but in the meantime we recommend the one that got us started.
Elaine Boddy is a brilliant sourdough teacher. She’s as passionate about sharing information as she is about the entire sourdough process. Being self taught, she is able to explain things in a way that’s easy for beginners to understand. We recommend starting with her master recipe as we did years ago.
Elaine Boddy's Master Recipe & Process
Tips
- Although the process of making a sourdough loaf can be over 24 hours, the actual hands on time is very little, 30 minutes at most. Plan your dough around your day, not your day around your dough.
- Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Strive for proper preparation (fermentation), don’t worry about a perfect crumb. The end result will always be delicious and your family and friends will thank you.
- There are so many variables when it comes to proofing, focus on the biggest one first – temperature.
Ingredients
Flour
We recommend using an organic strong white flour to start. A strong gluten protein strength will provide a forgiving dough that will allow you to get the feel for shaping. Central Milling’s organic bread flour is a good flour to start with.
Salt
Any sea salt or table salt will work. We recommend Vera Salt because they are microplastic free and the lowest in heavy metals we’ve found. They’re also great people who care about their salt and the people that use it.
Water
Filtered or spring water are best. We use a reverse osmosis machine to purify our water then we reintroduce minerals.
Tools
Rice flour
Helps keep dough from sticking to you and the table.
Glass mixing bowl
2.5qt glass bowl to make your dough in.
Bannetons
Holds the dough in shape while it proofs.
Elastic covers
Covers and protects the dough in the banneton.
Dutch oven
The easiest method to start baking sourdough.
Dutch oven sling
Keeps dough from sticking to dutch oven.
Reach out
While we are working to put together our own recipe and process, feel free to reach out to us with any questions that come up as you follow along Elaine Boddy’s recipe or any others you have found. Sourdough is fun and we’re excited for you to get it into it!
Get 15% off your next purchase by signing up for sourdough content delivered to your inbox!
*Limit once per customer
