The Art of Baking Artisan Bread - The Magic Behind Sourdough Bread

Last Thanksgiving, I bought a loaf of sourdough bread. Me being me, and in one of thosemoods, I wondered, "how hard would it be to make it?" I knew that to make sourdough you needed sourdough starter (also known as wild-yeast). But, my ADD mind said there must be a way to make it. So, I surfed my way through the Internet, site after site, until I found one that gave me the remarkable recipe for sourdough starter. Are you ready for it? Here it is:

The magic recipe for sourdough starter is flour and water.

Yes, dear readers. Sourdough starter is nothing more than flour and water. Those two things, plus time, and lots and lots of patience, make sourdough starter.

Oh, did I forget to mention the air?

Air has a great deal to do with the flavor of your starter. Every location on earth gives starter a different flavor. Have you ever had San Francisco sourdough bread? Well, you will never have it any where else on earth unless the bread you eat was made with starter started in San Francisco. The wild yeast that thrives in the air you breath gives your starter, and so your bread, a unique flavor. Unique to where you live. The bread I make with starter made (read wholly originated) in the Rockies is not going to taste the same as bread made in Jacksonville, Florida, or Lexington Park, Maryland. Recently, my sister gave me starter given to her by a friend from New England. It will have the taste of Vermont sourdough, although made in Colorado.

The fact that the starter is here (we'll work with Colorado for the moment) and fed here makes it Colorado starter. After awhile I won't be able to say it is Vermont starter. Chances are, once upon a time, the starter in San Francisco didn't start in San Francisco. What is important is that wherever your starter is...wherever you are feeding this starter...it becomes YOUR starter.

For the beginner, use unbleached white flour or unbleached bread flour. I will explain more about flour later. Basically, this is what you do.