Making My Own Sourdough Starter

This past week I started making my own sourdough starter from scratch, using freshly ground whole wheat flour and well water. And I’m so excited to see that it’s maturing beautifully.

In the past, my daughter maintained a sourdough starter that she/we inherited from our neighbor, who led a class on sourdough breadmaking in our barn a few years ago.

While I made bread with that starter a time or two, it was my daughter who typically cared for it and baked/made all sorts of goodies with it — along with bread. And now she’s living up in the mountains full time.

This year, since I’m back on the homestead, hoping to remain here more often than not, I thought, let’s start fresh with a new batch.

Up until now, this starter I’m making has not been ready for bread baking yet. But I’ve been accumulating a daily discard for the past few days that I’ve been itching to use. (The first discard went to the chickens.)

So, this morning, I grabbed my Daily Sourdough book by Lisa Bass* (which I bought months ago and have yet to use). And I found a recipe to try: Parmesan Crackers.

I followed her advice and didn’t bother cutting the rolled-out dough into little squares but rather kept it in a single sheet. The intention is to roughly break it apart into smaller pieces after the baked sheet cools completely.

I know it’s not very pretty, but I already broke off a piece, and it tastes yummy to me. 🙂 That’s what matters most, I’d say.

Today marks the 8th day since I started the sourdough starter. So, tomorrow morning, when I prepare for the next feeding, I’ll test it to see if it’s active enough to begin making bread with it. (I’ll keep you posted on that endeavor.)

What About You?

Do you have a sourdough starter? Have you ever tried making one from scratch? (Tell me about it below.)

I’ve attempted to make my own sourdough starter on several occasions in the past, but I always lacked confidence in what I was doing and eventually gave up on it.

This time, I leaned on Jill Winger‘s Prairie Homestead Cookbook* and her Heritage Cooking Crash Course to get me started again and see the process through.

And now I’m looking forward to tapping into Lisa’s Daily Sourdough book* on a regular basis from this point on. 🙂

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn revenue from qualifying purchases.