Sunday, September 10, 2023

One Productive Thing To Do in This Heat Wave...

... make a sourdough starter!

Oh, Friends: this post is a long time coming.

Nearly every week I am asked if I have a tutorial on how to make a sourdough starter, to which I always answer No and then suggest: Save yourself the trouble: buy it!

The truth is that until a few months ago, I never found building a sourdough starter from scratch to be worth the effort. Invariably the process would take over two weeks, during which I would waste lots of flour not to mention time.

Knowing how little it costs to buy a strong, ready-to-go starter online, I didn't dare encourage such an undertaking.

Earlier this year, however, I came across a passage in Peter Reinhart's Perfect Pan Pizza, which outlined his tried-and-true method for making a sourdough starter, one he's shared in several of his other books as well. Peter's method calls for starting with pineapple juice as opposed to water because "the acidity in the juice helps shorten the time to get the process started." I very much liked the sound of this.

I will spare you all the details here, but having tried his method multiple times this summer and having more than once successfully produced a starter that doubles in volume in just 4 days, I feel confident that, should you attempt this project, your efforts will be worth it.

While there are multiple variables that contribute to how quickly you can build a starter from scratch, namely using good flour (see post for details), I do believe warm weather to be of utmost importance.

Friends, with temperatures still unseasonably high and with baking season upon us, there couldn't be a more perfect time to tackle this project. Let me know if you have any questions along the way. And if you have any tips of your own to add, please share!

Homemade Sourdough Starter

PS: If you've been curious about sourdough but don't know where to begin, I have a free email course that covers the basics: Sourdough Demystified 🍞🍞