So You Got A Piece of Margaret, Now What? Pt. 11

TOOLS TO MAINTAIN YOUR SOURDOUGH STARTER

What do you need to maintain your sourdough starter?

Scale

Any kitchen scale that uses grams is perfect.

Spatula

For scraping your jar and mixing

Flour  

We use a combination of bread (80%)  and rye flour (20%) to feed our starter, or sometimes 100% rye.  You can use any flour (AP, bread, rye, wheat) to feed your starter.  We like the flavor of rye but feel free to use whatever you have on hand.  Using an all rye flour creates quite a stiff starter while the bread and rye combo is looser.

Water

Most sourdough recipes that you find online are developed in the global north and call for room temp or warm water (75F – 90F). This is based on the assumption that your working environment is colder than the Bahamas (that your kitchen is 71F-78F).  If your kitchen is temperature controlled feel free to use warmer water.  The Mu’Dough kitchen is not and we use cold water that’s about 40F.

Time 

Sourdough bread baking requires time.  A typical sourdough loaf can take us 48 hours from our first starter feed to pulling it out of the oven.  You’re allowing the flour and water to ferment and develop all of the beautiful and complex flavours that we associated with sourdough bread!