Sourdough Starter
A sourdough starter or liquid levain is a natural yeast that you can make with just water and flour. If you don’t have the patience to make your own, you could also go to your local bakery and ask for some (although during this time, maybe not). Many people on the inter webs are doing this because the abundance of time. I started my levain on March 20th and am happy to report that it is going strong and has developed a nice aroma.
To make your own liquid levain:
You will need a glass jar with a clean piece of cheesecloth or fabric (I just used an extra fabric square), a rubber band, filtered water and unbleached all purpose flour, preferably organic.
Day 1: Mix equal parts warm water (I microwaved the water for 20-30 seconds) and flour into your container. I would suggest 30 grams each of flour and water. Put the fabric cover on top and seal with rubber band. Let sit in a warm place for two days. You don’t have to do anything on day two.
Day 3: Using your scale weigh out 30 grams of the starter, 60 grams of warm water and 60 grams of flour, mix all together and put in the warm spot. The leftover levain is discarded, although as your starter becomes stronger you can put it to many other uses.
Keep repeating this process until you die, lol.
If you want a healthy starter you should feed it everyday, and I like to clean out its container with soap and water, this I feel prevents bad bacteria or mold growing in my levain. Also, if the first few days the levain smells bad, that’s normal. Here are some resources if you have more in-depth questions :
Here are some photos of my starter in chronological order:
Update May 14, 2020 -
My starter is still going strong and has developed a nice aroma. I was able to bake with the starter two weeks ago and got a great result. The process took two days, but the hands on time was really easy and the bread was tasty. Here is photo below of my sourdough boule.
