Sourdough trials

Old World Sourdough Starter

I love sourdough bread and I really wanted to bake my own. How hard could it be? I watched lots videos and read lots of blog posts and articles. I thought — I’ve got this! I’ll be making sourdough bread in no time! In fact, I was so confident, I daydreamed about quitting my job and opening my own bakery to sell my magnificent creations.  Well… it turns out making a sourdough starter and bread making in general is not as easy as I thought.

I tried and failed.

I tried again and failed again.

And for good measure, confirming I’m not ready for the Great British Bake Off, I tried another time. Guess what? I failed again.

At this point I realized the bakery I dreamed about was not going to be a reality. I’m not ready to put in my two weeks notice just yet.

But y’all, I’m not a quitter.

I decided I’m not going to give up.

I’m going to try and try again until I have a successful starter that I can turn into a beautiful loaf of bread.

Here’s my plan — I went to Baker Creek’s website (rareseeds.com) and noticed that they sell a dehydrated sourdough starter, a technique I have never tried. It sounds interesting so I added the starter to my cart and checked out. It should be here in a few days and I’ll take you on the journey with me. Fingers crossed, this time will be a success.

Details about the starter:

Old World Sourdough Starter

7 grams of highly effective (we’ll see) dehydrated sourdough starter.

16 reviews give it 5 out of 5 stars

Several reviews mention that its flavor is not as sour as they would like.

Cost 10.95– I thought this was a little expensive for what you get but if it works it will be worth it.

Update:

Sourdough ingredients

I recently received the sourdough starter. It was packaged beautifully. It came with clear, easy to follow directions and recipes for when your starter is ready.  I followed the directions exactly—I even used spring water because I read that chlorine in tap water could cause problems with the starter.

And……… IT FAILED!

The starter looked really strange almost from the beginning. I never really saw the promised bubbles that would show the starter is alive and active. It was a gloppy mess from the start.  I continued to add my flour, water and stir.  After a few days I noticed that the starter separated into layers with liquid on top. I would stir it again and  it would eventually settle back into the layers. This continued for several days.   went to the place everyone goes to find out the answers to life’s questions….Google. I found out that I did not make a sourdough starter —instead I made “hooch”. Seriously.. hooch!

Corrupt sourdough starter

I had to laugh…I mean, I never would have expected that. Oh well, I just chunked it all in the trash and decided to start over again. I found an article on The Spruce Eats with details on how to use active dry yeast to make a sourdough starter. I am intrigued because it seems using the active dry yeast makes it more likely to be successful. Interestingly, I also read that my failures may be due to a lack of yeast in the air where I live. This would result in the starter not becoming active. I’m excited to try this method and I’ll keep you posted.

Fingers crossed…..again!