How to Start Your Sourdough Journey as a Complete Beginner
Everyone is making sourdough right now. Sourdough everything; bread, crackers, cinnamon buns, pancakes. You name it. It was becoming such a constant in my social media feed that I felt I had to give it a try. Besides, who would complain about having a steady supply of fresh home-baked bread? But I didn't realize is that the process is seemingly overwhelming when you're a complete newbie.
I recently started on this sourdough journey. So recently, in fact, that by rights I have no business writing a 'how to' blog about it. But because I found the starting point so daunting I thought I would share my initial findings and experiences so I can hopefully clear the way for someone else to join the sourdough movement.
The first step would be to understand the lingo.
Starter - this is the mixture of flour and water that begins to ferment and is the foundation of sourdough. To make your own starter, mix equal parts flour and water and leave in a warm place to start the fermentation process. Start small, around a 1/4 cup of each. Some articles will tell you weights and others will tell you volumes. I've created two batches of starter, using each method and haven't noticed a difference.
Levain - usually referred to as 'fed starter' the levain is very similar to the starter, but rather than starting from scratch, a small amount of ripe starter is mixed with fresh water and flour and left to ferment. At their core, both the starter and levain are preferments, the biggest point is the levain is used to make bread and the starter is used as a leavening agent to make the levain.
Discard - As the name suggests, this is the portion of the starter that is discarded before the starter is fed with fresh water and flour. This is done for two main reasons: it helps to maintain the bacterial growth and acidity levels in the starter, and it helps reduce the amount you must feed your starter. When feeding (refreshing) your starter, you add more fresh ingredients than there is the actual starter. So, if you have a 30g starter, you'll need to feed it more than 30g of water and flour. So, if you have a starter that is upwards of 250g, the volume you'll need to feed will be huge. So, you discard some.
Bulk fermentation - the process of allowing the dough to rest and ferment, while all in one batch. This step takes place before the dough is shaped.
Proofing - the process of allowing the shaped dough to rest and ferment. This can be done at ambient temperatures or in the fridge (known as cold proofing).
These main terms encompass the major steps involved with creating sourdough. I'm definitely no expert on the matter, but I have really enjoyed the process so far. I've been baking yeast-based doughs for years so this was an interesting swap for me. I appreciate that the steps are broken up and spread out over a day or so, whereas with a yeast-based dough, you have to be fully committed for 4 or so hours at a time.
Equipment:
You can find a lot of information on the internet stating that you have to have fancy bread bowls (which I learned are called bannetons) and a dough whisk. But, if you pause to critically think about the history of sourdough, you'll realize that's all a bunch of BS. First of all, sourdough has been around as early as 3000 BC. I'm just saying, but I'm quite certain they didn't have boujee bread baskets and whisks. They used what the good Lord gave them: their hands.
That being said, some things will make your life easier:
a kitchen scale - most recipes are in grams so it's easier to follow along if you have a scale. But, once you get the feel for how the dough should look and feel, it's totally fine to skip this part and go by volume and sight.
A glass / see-through bowl - having a bowl that you can see through just makes it easier to see the air bubbles created during the fermentation process. Seeing the bubbles gives you a hint of whether you need to move your dough to a warmer location to aid the fermentation process. Plus, it's really satisfying to see.
Dish with an oven-safe lid - most recipes refer to a dutch oven for baking your bread in, since it requires some steam to help bake it and give that texture.
Parchment paper - because the dutch oven that you need to bake your bread in has to be pre-heated, having parchment paper is really useful because you can use it as a sling to put your bread in. Otherwise, you risk burning yourself.
I hope that this blurb will help to clear things up for some of you fellow beginners. When I first started, I ran into information overload because it seems everyone does things a bit differently. My one piece of advice is: don't overcomplicate or overthink it! When I received my sourdough starter as a gift from a coworker, I immediately started to interrogate him about how to get started and the whole process surrounding sourdough. Eventually, he cut it and said, "You need to calm down, it's just bread!" And he's right. Even if you don't make a masterpiece the first time, don't freak out. Make notes of what worked and what didn't and try again. Because it is just bread.
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