Activating your own Sourdough Starter

I made my starter! You can too :) 

It's just flour & water mixed to a thick pancake batter consistency.

Keep it covered (I use a quart mason jar with a paper towel on top held down by a metal ring) you want it to be able to "breathe" & stay at room temp while you're getting it started.

Everyday (every 12-24 hours) you need to stir it, discard half & then re-feed flour & water to double again looking for that thick pancake batter consistency.

Do that for 7 days & AFTER 7 days your starter will be ready to use in sourdough discard recipes like pancakes, or pizza crusts or crackers!! 

A few weeks later you will notice it has become super active and rising/falling when you feed it - it may even bubble over so keep a plate or bowl underneath. When it gets super active like that you can use it to make bread instead of having to add commercial yeast.

Some sourdough pro tips:

- try to avoid using a metal spoon for mixing or a metal bowl for proofing overnight. A metal bowl for mixing is fine you just want to avoid prolonged exposure to metal as it can deactivate your starter.

- use filtered water to mix with your flour when feeding your starter or if you HAVE to use tap water leave it sitting out overnight to evaporate out the chlorine.

- buy organic flour!!!! I'll post another blog with all the reasons WHY but trust me. Spend a few extra bucks on non-gmo organic flours & your body will thank you! I prefer King Arthur Organic All Purpose or you can buy organic wheat flour & wheat berries in bulk through bit.ly/AzureOrganics 

- always work with your starter with CLEAN hands so as not to contaminate your starter. After the starter is nice and active it's actually really hard to contaminate because the presence of the GOOD bacteria almost immediately kill off any invaders - pretty cool!

- NEVER eat sourdough starter, or batter, or dough, raw. Those sourdough cookie dough balls will look SO very tempting but DO NOT eat them raw. Tell the kids. Tell the hubby! I even cover mine & leave a scary note on them to deter late-night snackers! 

Hope that helps! Happy Baking 😃