Everything You Need to Get Started with Sourdough

Are you ready to jump on the sourdough bandwagon? It’s never too late to get started with sourdough, and once you do you’ll find out how easy it is, and wonder why you waited so long! Find out what equipment you need to get started with sourdough.

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To get started with sourdough, you’ll need a few items. First off, you’ll need water and flour. You can catch wild yeast and grow your own sourdough starter with just water and flour, which is a little more tricky, or you start with a sourdough starter (you can even buy a sourdough starter kit or a live sourdough starter if you’re looking for the easiest way).

Here are some sourdough starter recipes from some of our blogging friends:

Sourdough Starter Recipe 2 Ways: This recipe includes a no discard method using yeast water in addition to the traditional method of creating a starter.

How to Make a Sourdough Starter: Making sourdough starter at home is so much easier than you imagine. A batch of starter only takes 7 to 14 days, perfect when you don’t have yeast.

How to Make a Mini Sourdough Starter is a step by step guide to creating your very own Sourdough Starter from scratch. This method creates an active mini starter using only flour, water, and time.

No-discard Sourdough Starter: Does discarding starter seem wasteful to you? Then this is the starter recipe for you!

Kefir Sourdough Starter: Want to get started with sourdough? Try this extra quick and easy milk kefir sourdough starter that’s ready in about one day!

Homemade Yeast: Khamir, commonly called as homemade yeast/sourdough starter. No need to put up for 7 days but gets ready in less than 24 hours and can be used to make breads, pav, bhature, jalebi and many more recipes asking for yeast. If used in a specific manner, can be utilized for unlimited period of time.

Rye Sourdough Starter: Starting with rye flour makes this sourdough starter get active more quickly.

Tools to get started with Sourdough

Once you’ve figured out what type of sourdough starter you want to make, you’ll need a couple more items.

A jar or container

You can buy a fancy container for your sourdough like this Weck Jar or a crock, but you don’t have to have something fancy. A nice clean wide mouth canning jar will work just fine.

A Kitchen Scale

While you can make a sourdough starter without a kitchen scale, baking by weight is much more accurate than baking by cup measurements. You will end up with a more consistent starter if you weigh the ingredients.

Proofing bowl/ proofing basket

While not a required item, many people like proofing their sourdough in a proofing bowl or proofing basket. This is what gives your bread those gorgeous circles.

Bench Scraper

A bench scraper makes it much easier to divide the dough, and scrape up any dough that sticks to your working surface. If you find that dough is regularly sticking to your working surface, try flouring the surface more beforehand.

Danish dough whisk

A Danish dough whisk is nice and strong, and is able to withstand whisking the thick sourdough starter. And forget spending 10 minutes trying to clean the dough out from the inside of a regular whisk. The design of a Danish dough whisk makes it a breeze to clean!

Bread Lame

A bread lame isn’t a necessary tool, but you’ll find it very helpful. Due to its extremely sharp blade, you can score your bread without the worry of accidentally flattening your bread. This one comes with two styles of bread lames, plus extra blades.

Sourdough Books

If you’re just loving making sourdough bread, here are some fun books you will want to check out that will give you tons more information on getting started with sourdough.

Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets, Savories, and More by Sarah Owens

Starter Sourdough: The Step-by-Step Guide to Sourdough Starters, Baking Loaves, Baguettes, Pancakes, and More by Caroll Pellegrinelli

Sourdough Cookbook for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Introduction to Make Your Own Fermented Breads by Eric Rusch

Baking Sourdough Bread: Dozens of Recipes for Artisan Loaves, Crackers, and Sweet Breads by Göran Söderin

Bread Bread Bread: Recipes, Advice & Shortcuts by Martin Johansson

Sourdough Every Day: Your Guide to Using Active and Discard Starter for Artisan Bread, Rolls, Pasta, Sweets and More by Hannah Dela Cruz