How to make your own sourdough starter

It’s got a tangy flavor, chewy texture, and crispy crust, and this is what we’ve come to love in sourdough bread.

Sourdough bread isn’t made with commercial yeast. It takes a slow fermentation process using a starter that makes the bread rise.

Brandon Cochran is here to show us how to make a sourdough starter so we can make our own whenever the craving strikes.

“The only ingredients you need to make a sourdough starter from scratch are flour, water and then a little bit of patience,” he said. “Sometimes just getting started is the hardest part.”

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It takes at least a week to make sourdough starter, which is a culture of bacteria and wild yeast. Every sourdough starter has its own character and is unique, Cochran said.

“You can’t see this yeast, they’re microscopic, they exist on our hands, countertops, on flour and water to feed the starter,” he said.

Sourdough starter can be traced back to ancient Egypt, where dried sourdough starter was found in tombs, according to Cochran.

While Cochran often uses high protein, high gluten bread flour for his sourdough starter, you could use all-purpose, rye or gluten-free flour.

To make your sourdough starter last indefinitely, dry it out into flakes and then rehydrate before using.