Dehydrated Sourdough ​Starter

I have a passion for helping people get started on their ​sourdough journey. Do you want to make sourdough ​bread but don’t want to make a starter from scratch?

This strong and healthy starter will have you ready to ​bake beautiful sourdough loaves in no time. Comes with ​one packet containing 10grams of dehydrated starter ​plus simple Rehydrating Instructions and help if you need ​it!

I am happy to answer any questions you have along the ​way.

About

Hi! I’m Julie

My journey to making sourdough bread began as a ​result of constantly getting asked “Do you make ​sourdough?” Soon after starting my home bakery ​and selling cakes and other goodies to my ​community I was being asked about sourdough so ​often that I felt it was time to teach myself how to ​make and keep a sourdough starter alive, and how ​to make delicious sourdough bread! I wanted to ​give my customers what they were asking for!! I ​didn’t realize how much I was going to love making ​sourdough. I truly love making bread, sharing bread ​with others and helping others begin their sourdough ​journey!

If that’s you too... let’s connect!

Blog

Recipes

Thank you to those of you who have purchased my dehydrated sourdough ​starter “Nelly”! Here is all you need to know about getting her rehydrated and ​ready to bake some delicious bread.

A few things you may want to have to get started: 16oz glass jar, 32oz glass jar, filtered or ​bottled water, unbleached bread flour, kitchen scale.

DAY 1: Pour all 10g of dehydrated starter into a glass jar, add 20g of room ​temperature water and stir. Let sit for about 30 minutes. Now add 10g of ​unbleached bread flour. (I like the King Arthur brand). Stir until well ​combined. Cover the jar loosely and leave at room temperature for about 24 ​hours.

DAY 2: Now that your starter has sat for 24 hours, add 20g of bread flour and ​20g of room temperature water to the jar. Stir until well combined. The ​consistency should be similar to a thick pancake batter. Cover loosely and let ​sit for another 24 hours.

DAY 3: Repeat Day 2. You may now be seeing some activity with your starter, ​like bubbles, and it may even be rising and falling. I like to put a rubber band ​around my jar so I can see how far it rises.

DAY 4: Now it’s time for a bigger feed. You may want to move it to a bigger ​jar! Add 50g of water and 50g of bread flour to your starter. Stir well and ​cover loosely. Let sit for 24 hours.

DAY 5: Measure 50g of your starter into a new jar (discard the rest or use in ​recipes), add 50g of water and 50g of bread flour. Stir until well combined, ​cover loosely and let sit for 24 hours. Repeat this step daily until your starter is ​consistently doubling in size. (It is likely doing this already!) This means it is ​time to BAKE! Feed your starter daily to keep it alive! Now would also be a ​great time to give it a name, now that it’s your baby to take care of :)

Now that your starter is active and ready you will be able to use it over and ​over again, indefinitely! You can choose to continue feeding it daily if you ​plan to bake often, or you can put it in the fridge between bakes. Just pull it ​out the day before you want to use it, let it come to room temperature, feed ​it, and it will soon be ready to go!

I hope you enjoy baking sourdough bread as much as I do. Be sure to check ​out the recipe section for some easy recipes to get you started.

Happy Baking! xo Julie

Click on the links to see videos!!

Ingredients

• 500 grams Unbleached Bread Flour
• 350 grams Room Temperature Water
• 100 grams Sourdough Starter (at it’s peak)
• 10 grams Salt

Things you may need: Kitchen scale, Large bowl, Kitchen towel, Banneton, ​Plastic bag or Plastic wrap, Bread lame, Dutch oven

Method

1.Add Water and Sourdough Starter to a large bowl, whisk to combine. Then add Flour and Salt.

2. Mix everything together to form a loose, shaggy dough. Using wet hands is very effective for this step!

3. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

4. For the next two hours you are going to complete one set of stretch and folds every 30 minutes. For a total ​of 4 sets. To do the stretch and folds, first wet your hands, then grab one edge of the dough, lift, and stretch ​it up and over to the other side of the dough. Turn the bowl a 1/4 turn and repeat. Do this a total of 4 times ​so that all sides of the dough have been stretched. Then cover the bowl and let rest for 3o minutes. Repeat ​the stretch and folds every 30 minutes, for a total of 4 sets.

5.After the last set, cover your bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 4 - 10 hours. This ​bulk fermentation time varies depending on the temperature and humidity. Your dough is done resting when ​you see bubbles on the top and sides of the dough, it has noticeably risen, and jiggles when you move the ​bowl.

6.Now it’s time to shape the dough. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface, using wet hands gently pat ​down dough to create a rectangular shape. Then pull up the bottom edge of the dough and fold it up to the ​middle. Repeat with the left and right sides, and top of the dough. Then roll the dough from the bottom all ​the way to the end of the dough, like rolling up a newspaper. Next, rotate the dough using both hands, ​dragging towards you to create tension and to form a smooth ball.

7. Lightly flour the top of the dough and transfer smooth side(top) down, into a floured banneton or floured ​towel lined bowl. Wrap your banneton/bowl in plastic wrap or tie in a plastic bag.. Refrigerate overnight, 12 - ​18 hrs.

8. Time to Bake! Place your dutch oven with lid into your oven, then preheat at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. ​Once preheated, take dough out of the fridge and turn out onto a sheet of parchment paper. Score the top ​of your dough using a bread lame, sharp knife or scissors. You can search scoring online to see all the ​design options and techniques.

9.Carefully remove the dutch oven and take off lid. Lift the dough using the parchment paper and gently ​lower into the dutch oven. Replace the lid and return to the oven. Bake for 25 mins, then remove the lid and ​bake an additional 20 minutes.

10. Remove bread from dutch oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy! You did it!

Send me all your bread pictures!