Making my own sourdough starter

[username1224]

OK I've never done this before, this is an absolute first and today (day 4) I am starting to see some results, so exciting!!
I never knew it was that easy.

This is how:

All you need is some all purpose flour and some wheat flour and water as well as two glass jars. I am using canning jars with covers.

I mixed 1 cup of wheat flour with 6 cups of all purpose flour.
Also, I am using bottled water and any recipe I saw said to discard at least half of the starter every day. I didn't do that, too frugal!

OK here is my sourdough starter journey so far:

Day 1: I put my bottle of water in a bucket with hot water to make sure it was at room temp. No recipe I saw asked for that but it's pretty cold in the house.
I mixed 1/2 cup of the flour mix with 1/4 cup of water.  The result was a pretty thick mess.
I put it in a glass canning jar but only put the top on lightly.

Day 2: All I did here was remove the cover for a few minutes to give it enough air.

Day 3: I took half of the contents of the jar and put it in a second jar instead of tossing it. This will give me a sourdough starter for a friend as well.
I added 1/2 cup of the flour mix, 1/4cup of water to each jar (slightly warm water again, using the same method as day 1). But I didn't think it was enough water, so I added a bit more until the result was easier to handle.

Day 4: Added 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water to each jar. Today, the sourdough starter began to bubble a tiny bit, so it seems I'm doing something right.

To be continued :)

[username1224]

Day 5: Well this is exciting, it started to live! It more than doubled in size.
I just can't make myself discard as much as I'm supposed to discard so I just keep dividing it over more jars. I now have 3 jars, and I'll have 4 tomorrow. I added 1/2 cup of the flour mixture and 1/4 cup water to each jar today.

To be continued..

[username1224]

Day 6: I removed more than half of the mixture from each jar, then I added some to a new jar and the rest to yet another jar. I then added 1/2 cup of the flour mixture and 1/4 cup of water to each jar except the last one. That one, I put in the fridge and I'll use it at a later time.

I now have 4 jars on the counter and one in the fridge. The 3 jars I had doubled in size overnight. I can't believe how well this is going.

I read a few articles about this last night. You can even dry and or freeze the sourdough starter. Now I would like to find out if I have to give it another feeding tomorrow because it sure looks done to me.
The way to find out whether it's done or not is by putting a little but of the sourdough starter in water. If it floats, it's ready. I'm going to try that tomorrow.

[username1224]

Day 7: Bad news, none of my sourdough starters grew overnight. I am going to have to do some more reading up on it to see what happened.

To be continued..

[username1224]

Day 8: Meh! I had saved some in the fridge. I took it out, brought it up to room temp, added water and flour, and nothing, it's not getting any bigger.

I added some sugar to it this evening to see if maybe that will do the trick.

To be continued..

[username1224]

Day 9: It is starting to look like the end of the road. I fed it twice more but nothing is happening.
I'll start a new one this coming weekend, stay tuned.

[username1224]

Let's try this again :)

Day 1: I mixed 1/2 cup of flour with 1/4 cup of bottled water.
Now it has to sit for 2 days. It looks thicker than my previous attempt but this time I am strictly sticking to the instructions.

I forgot to pick up wheat flour so I used all purpose flour.

[username1224]

Day 2: I gave it a good stir. All is well so far. It's getting bigger yet, but that's not supposed to happen until day 3 or 4.

[username1224]

Day 3: I have it in a warmer place than my first (failed) batch. To my surprise, it already doubled in size on day 3 and it's showing bubbles.
I split it into two jars and added 1/2 cup of regular all purpose flour and 1/4 cup of bottled water. I did that 5 hours ago and it somehow has not gotten any bigger.
We'll see what happens tomorrow.

To be continued.

[username1224]

Day 4: It looks like we might have yet another loser. It did nothing overnight. I'm going to feed it late tonight and hope for the best.