Welcome to TartDough.com
I’ve enjoyed cooking, and especially baking since I was a young child. Three years ago—on my husband’s inspiration—I used the natural yeast from the skins of our plums to get a sourdough starter going. I’d been hesitant to get started with sourdough, because everything I’d seen about it was very complicated and almost scientific—something that I didn’t think I’d have time to work into my schedule as a homeschooling mother with four young kids. I went ahead and jumped in, a friend of mine suggested that I dry the starter if I needed to take a break and it worked wonderfully! I’ve shared it with several friends and now it’s bubbling in multiple states and even across the Atlantic! I’ve been using it for pancakes, waffles, English muffins, bagels, pizza crusts, and more… I hope you have as much fun with it as I have!
Oriyah Owen
Activating Your Dry Sourdough Starter
- Crumble 1 ounce of dry starter into a glass bowl or canister (if you’re using a canister, make sure to remove the seal so the starter can breathe).
- Pour 1/2 cup of room temperature water onto the dry starter.
- Let it sit for 2-3 hours. After sitting, you should start seeing tiny little bubbles in your water.
- Stir the softened starter and add a heaping cup of flour (all purpose or whole wheat) add 3/4 cup of room temperature water. Stir together very well and cover with plastic or a towel making sure to leave some breathing space on a couple of edges. It should be the consistency of pancake batter.
- Set in a warm place for 8 to 12 hours. At this point, you should see lots of bubbles forming in your starter.
- Feed your starter another heaping cup of flour and a cup of room temperature water. Mix very well and cover.
- Let it sit for another 12 hours in a warm place. Now your starter should be very bubbly and “happy”, you are ready to start baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use any type of wheat flour you’d like.
All-purpose white flour will give you a more mild sourdough bread.
An organic whole-wheat flour will tend to give a stronger flavor to your sourdough.
Typically 75-80°, the main thing you need to know is that the warmer the environment the more active the starter will be, the cooler, the more sluggish it will be.
