06/17/2024
Hi! It’s me. A recovering perfectionist. I have been working lately on coming to terms with enjoying the process and not just outcomes, especially in my baking. Being a learner and not someone who just does and nails it immediately.
If you’ve been following along on my stories you’ve been seeing the journey of Sebastian, my glutinous sourdough starter. I honestly thought this would be a one and done situation. I have had a starter before (although in hindsight my pandemic starters and loaves were dense and lacklustre). I thought if I bought a perfect fancy jar, and found just the perfect recipe I could grow a blooming starter in just 8 days!
As you now may know that was not the case. This took a few weeks and a lot of trial and error! Which gave me a few firm tips if you want to try this out and learn from my mistakes:
🥖 Use filtered water and good quality flour. Unfiltered water and bleached flour kill the bacteria you need brewing
🥖 Yes a warm spot is good but too warm can develop a crust or “cook” the starter and the starter can still grow at counter temp even in Calgary 😂
🥖 Too wide a jar with too little starter means the bubbles pop before the starter can rise
🥖 Any starter won’t be likely be to ready in 8 days. It does take time and patience
🥖 I used to eyeball how much starter I had and just fed the starter a bit. Which is why I think I never had a good one before. You need to feed the starter more flour and water than starter. So a 1:1:1 ratio or a 1:2:2 ratio, etc.
🥖 The jar needs a covering that lets in some air but not enough it will crust over. It needs to be thick pancake batter consistency
So you don’t need a fancy jar (the small mason jars gave my starter the boost it needed), a perfect recipe, or exact perfect conditions to grow a starter. You mostly just need a lot of patience and persistence. Which for me doesn’t come easily but I was greatly rewarded yesterday with a springy loaf, great scoring, and a chewy crust on my first loaf
Have you grown a starter before? Share your growing pains with me so I’m not alone 😂
