Sourdough Bread!

Bread flour, AP(all purpose), cake, WW(whole wheat), rye, a blend of flour, organic or non-organic...plenty of options to choose from. There's plenty of information out there on which flour works best, but I want to find that one out for myself by the end of this project. The more important pieces of information I'm looking for are is what kind of equipment will I need for this, what is the process of making a sourdough starter, and most importantly, what IS sourdough to begin with.

So let's get this out of the way...

What is Sourdough?

Joy. (2018, September 25). Sourdough bread [online image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/33993074@N00/30900963888

Sourdough is a naturally leavened bread. Meaning it doesn't use a commercial yeast like active dry or fresh yeast you might find at the grocery to rise. Instead it uses a 'starter' to kick start the leavening process in your dough mixture. 

So that brings me to the next question, what's a sourdough starter and how's that made?

A sourdough starter is a stable mixture of water, flour, beneficial bacteria, and yeast found naturally in the air and in the flour that's maintained with regular 'feedings' and used to leaven and my favourite part, FLAVOUR dough. The wild thing about this is that if you keep feeding it, it can last indefinitely and the flavour can grow more complex the older it gets! Looking through several very useful pages out there some things are certain, I'll need the following to make this work:

Glass jars with lids - rubber seals removed or not screwed on as we want to keep some of those gases inside but still allow extra gas to escape so our jars don't explode...yes they can do that
Kitchen scale - baking is more of a science compared to cooking and for consistent results relying on your eye/volume based measurements won't always yield the same results so weighing by the gram will give the consistency we need in this project
Flour - obviously... (from the list I made at the start I'll be using bread, AP, cake, WW, rye, and I'll make three blends, a 50/50 rye/WW and a 50/50 rye/AP, and a 50/50 rye/bread)...8...that's 8 different starters
Filtered water - this is important as the yeast and bacteria found in the starter are more delicate and need more time to develop compared to their commercial counterparts
Thermometer - controlling the temperature is a must
Silicone Spatula - indispensable in any kitchen, makes cleaning a breeze and also minimizes waste
Rubber Bands - mainly to keep track of growth rate, a sharpie can also work

The actual process of making the sourdough starter will take about a week, but the longer you feed, it the better it will taste and as I've mentioned before this can be an indefinite product; you could even entrust it to someone in your will after you're gone. 

My references for in this project came from a bunch of different sources that I collected and compared so what I've said here are my own words, but they are an interpretation from the following sources:

https://truesourdough.com/which-flour-to-use-for-sourdough-bread-a-complete-guide/
https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2019/03/beginner-sourdough-starter-recipe/
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/7-easy-steps-making-incredible-sourdough-starter-scratch/
https://www.ful-filled.com/2020/02/19/basic-sourdough-bread-guide/
https://www.ful-filled.com/2020/04/19/basic-sourdough-starter-guide/