Easy Sourdough for beginners

Sourdough, it’s something I’ve been thinking about diving into for well over a year now. Every time I looked into it or watched someone making sourdough I noticed they always had some massive container which freaked me out and all of these different tools.

Well I’m here to say, I dove in and decided to try this my way. An easy way, a stress free, we’ll see what happens and go with it, kind of way… and it worked.

So to start you need to find someone in your local community that can give you some starter or you need to look up how to make a starter. I highly suggest asking for starter! I had a friend that knew a friend that was able to get some starter. But I’m in a FB group with a ton of local women that I probably could have also met up with and gotten some. I asked for organic starter because I bake with organic flour.

Once you have your starter this is what you need to know.

Discard is starter that you put in another container and put in your fridge to use for recipes within a week.

We discard starter because the more you feed the starter the bigger it gets and you will run out of space for it in your container.

You can discard you starter in a container and have two staters if you want to bake a lot. Or you can just get a really big container.

When you have starter on the counter it needs to be fed daily at minimum. I feed mine daily.

If you are going out of town or want a break from feeding it, just put it in your fridge. It can hang out there for a week before needing a feeding.

If you put it in the fridge, give it a couple ours to warm up before feeding it.

I keep my discard in the fridge in a jar because I’m not feeding it.

Okay so you have your starter, how do you feed it?

About every video I watched and recipe I read – and I watched and read a lot- said you have to weigh everything.

I was for one not going to buy a scale and 2 ewww that just sounds like work I don’t want to do. Listen, I’m not lazy, I’m just realistic about my time. I like to keep things simple and use things around the house or things I’m familiar with. This was already a brand new adventure for me and I didn’t want to overwhelm myself.

I reached out to a couple friends that basically said I can’t mess it up. So I was like, okay that’s what I needed to hear. It felt like all these other “sourdough people” act like it’s such a science, weighing and timing feeds etc. And yes, baking is a science and if you want a bakery and want to have consistent products you probably should invest in a scale… but I’m just a mom trying to feed my family some clean and delicious food! Plus, I’ve worked so hard and still am working so hard to not be so uptight (from trauma) that honeslty I felt that sourdough way of life just wouldn’t work for me. I’m proud I’m at a point I can tell what would not be beneficial to my mental health, that’s a win. So anyway, I started looking up conversions for weight of items to measurements.

Here is a conversion chart you can look at. You can follow any feeding schedule you want. Many different people feed in many different ways.

Here is the conversion chart I like.

So for me I keep 1-2 tablespoons of starter in my jar, then add 4 tablespoons filtered water (stir until evenly mixed) then add 1/2 cup flour and stir until evenly mixed. Keep the cover on lose not tight.

Why does the water need to be filtered? Because their is chlorine in our drinking water and it will kill your sourdough pet. Ha, I say pet because that is what my husband and now daughter call it. “Feeding your pet mom?” Yes, Izzy I’m feeding my pet. 🙂

When you have leftover stater, that will go in your discard jar in the fridge and you can make so many things with this. Bagels, pancakes, cookies… SO MANY THINGS! You can also pass on the love and give some of your discarded starter to a neighbor or friend so they can start their sourdough journey.

I feed my pet, I mean starter in the evening right before or after dinner. You can change when you feed it or feed it twice in a day if needed based on baking sourdough bread.

This recipe by The Prairie Homestead is the first and only recipe I have followed so far for sourdough bread because it does require kneeling and folding, another thing I wasn’t ready to learn right away. I love that she has a video in there to watch if needed. This recipe came out soooo good! It would be delicious for sandwiches, eggs on toast, dipping in soup or even just having with some butter. It was honestly so good by itself without any butter. Joe and Izzy gave it 2 thumbs up! The flavor and texture was on point and we all felt like we were eating bread I got at fancy bakery. This bread has come out so soft and chewy and just so delicious.

Things in my kitchen I used for this recipe: A large bowl, a silicone spatula, a towel, a fork, a dutch oven & parchment paper

I used a towel similar to this because they aren’t linty :

I hope this was helpful and if you have any questions please ask way here or send me a dm on Instagram: @busylittleizzy & I’ll be happy to help. Please comment on a post letting me know you sent a direct message or I may not see it because I swear IG hides messages and I miss so many. If I know you sent one, I can look for it!

Happy Baking! YOU GOT THIS!

XO Eryka