Sourdough people

[Carrie12345]

I started my first starter Wednesday night!

I don’t know if I can live the sourdough lifestyle, lol, but I’m going to give it a whirl. Any suggestions for the least expensive “must haves” for success? 
Tips and tricks?

[KungFuPanda]

There’s nothing expensive about it. You just need basic bread making ingredients. I have a starter that’s about 12 years old and trained to thrive on neglect. I like sourdough for the sourness so I can get away with less care. 
 

If you want sourdough that day and you don’t want deal with the time and planning, find a recipe that uses the sourdough for flavor and yeast for rising. It’s cheating. Eat the evidence. 
 

Try to remember that if you want a nice loaf that’s purely made from sourdough that you have to plan ahead and be flexible with the rise times. Also, NONE of the steps are difficult or time consuming, you just have to plan ahead. 
 

A nice tip for knowing if your starter is active enough is to drop a glob of it (about a teaspoon) in a glass of water. It floats when it’s ready. This is a nice no-knead recipe if you have a Dutch oven:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2020/04/27/how-to-make-no-knead-sourdough-bread

Just do a few simple recipes before you go off the deep end. It can get complicated but it can be really simple too. I wouldn’t buy anything until after you’ve made a few dozen loaves and know you’ll keep doing it. 
 

ETA: I wouldn’t even bother with bread flour until you made a few loaves. I do the above recipe with all purpose flour ALL the time. It’s fine. 

Edited January 26 by KungFuPanda

[Miss Tick]

I dislike the step where you are supposed to pitch some of the starter before you feed it. I started frying that on the griddle pancake style but sprinkled with salt or other flavors and eating it warm like injera bread. If I was feeling more into it I made sourdough pancakes, I don't remember if there was a recipe, per se.

[Carol in Cal.]

I like the Kitchn method of making round sourdough loaves.

It involves no kneading but rises like crazy.

Key are the low temperature ferments, and the preheated Dutch oven for baking.

My bread is just like Parisian brand San Francisco sourdough used to be!  The ultimate!

[Pawz4me]

If you want a traditional sandwich type loaf the King Arthur easy everyday sourdough bread is good. I see now that there's a link in the recipe to one of their own Pullman type pans for baking. When I started using the recipe they were recommending this one, and it works very well and is a little less expensive than theirs.

[busymama7]

I actually find it easier to fit into my life then from scratch yeast/baking powder baking.   I already ground my own wheat and made bread and this is easier because the steps happen in different days so the mess is cleaned in stages.  I also hate mornings so having something 90% ready when I wake is so nice.  If you weren't already a from scratch baker it will be a bigger learning curve but worth it.  The items are so delicious and our stomachs feel so much better. We didn't even notice that it didn't feel good with traditional bread products until we switched.