- Hey, guys, it's Katie and
today is a brand new day
and I thought it would be really fun
if I made my own starter for
sourdough bread from scratch.
Let's call my friend Marissa
who makes bread for a living,
and she's gonna help us figure this out.
Let's do it.
(phone ringing)
- Hey.
- Hello, how are you?
- I'm great.
- First question, what is a starter?
- So a starter is just a
mixture of flour and water
and it's what you're
eventually going to use
to leaven your sourdough bread.
I use a mix of 100 grams of warm water,
50 grams whole wheat flour,
and 50 grams bread flour.
And you mix it up and
you cover it with a lid.
Then I put a rubber band
around the outside to mark movement.
You're looking for a
consistent rise and fall
of the starter.
Let's walk through what
that first week is like.
- We're gonna check in on the starter.
I'm gonna take a look
at it, and I'm gonna see
if there's any signs of fermentation.
I'm looking for a sweet, funky smell,
see if there are any air bubbles,
and if we're seeing those bubbles,
we know it's time to give it feeding.
If you still don't see those signs,
you can wait another day.
The feeding is when we
discard a lot of the starter
from the container and we
feed it fresh water and flour.
And that allows the colony of yeast
to grow within the new flour and water.
Keep doing this process
daily for about a week.
It's possible that it could
take a little longer though,
depending on your environment.
- This was super helpful, Marissa.
I'm gonna get to it, get in it.
- Awesome, I'm excited.
And check in with me during the week.
- Okay, I will check in with you.
You know I'll need to.
- Bye.
- Bye.
(playful music)
Okay, after talking with Marissa,
I'm gonna start my starter.
First, I have a scale.
This is just gonna help you measure
a lot of bread recipes
are in, as you can see,
grams, or ounces, a
scale is awesome to have.
I've got a clear container
that I'm gonna put it in.
Tare this so this goes to zero.
And then I have some wheat flour
and I have some bread flour.
And some water.
I'm gonna set this on my kitchen counter
because it's pretty warm in my kitchen.
Day one and done.
See you tomorrow.
(playful music)
It looks like it rose just a tiny bit.
Ooh, you guys can see those bubbles
that are growing on there?
So definitely have some life.
It has a little bit of
sweetness, I definitely think,
like Marissa said, we
should wait another day
and check on it, and
we'll see you tomorrow.
Yeah, I just got out of the shower
and I saw my starter,
and I'm pretty excited.
Take a look at it, whoa.
It's so alive.
It was pretty warm 'cause I
shot in my kitchen yesterday,
so I think that really helped.
Let's look inside, lady.
Oi, whoa, all the bubbles.
So since this is going strong,
Marissa said we need to
discard almost all of it,
we're gonna keep two tablespoons,
and I'm gonna give that
a 100 grams of water
and a 100 grams of flour.
And then with the discard, you
don't have to throw it away,
you can cap it, put it in the fridge.
I'm gonna use it for
pancakes tomorrow morning.
Bye.
Day three, done.
(playful music)
Okay, it's another morning and
my starter has risen again.
Not quite as fluffy but
it looks like it came up,
you can see that line right there
and it kind of shrunk back down.
And there is a lot more bubbles.
Oh, definitely more sour smelling today,
still sweet, but it's
got more sour in there.
So I'm gonna discard all of
this except two tablespoons.
Again, I'm gonna add a
100 grams of warm water,
a 100 grams of flour, and
I'm gonna make pancakes
with this discard and my
discard from yesterday.
Whoo!
How do you get it more round?
Chris is filming, my husband.
- Hello.
- Show yourself.
Show yourself.
- Hey.
- [Katie] Oh, yeah.
All right, Chris.
- That looks really good.
- [Katie] Yeah?
What are you--
- Sorry, I'm eating broccoli.
- Good for you.
- Those are really good.
There might be more of
that whole wheat pancakes,
they're kind of more like that.
It's really good.
I think they're great.
(phone ringing)
- How's it going?
- It's going.
I'm checking in because it's day five
and I'm just not getting a
lot of movement on my starter.
And I don't know if it's
because it's so cold
in my house right now.
- Yeah, I think you could wait
for a little bit more bubbles on the top,
those signs that we've talked about.
And then feed it.
It will start to level out,
it's still really new and young
and learning the process.
- Okay, great.
All right, well, I'll just keep going,
I'll keep observing it.
- Okay, good luck.
- Yay, all right, bye.
(playful music)
Okay, so it's day seven.
Five and six, I just left this guy alone.
Marissa said, if it's not
really rising that much,
let it sit and do its
thing before you feed it.
But now today, on the seventh day,
it has a lot more action going on.
So I'm gonna discard most of it,
especially 'cause I let
it sit for two days,
and then I'm gonna feed it again,
a 100 grams of water and
a 100 grams of flour.
And then I think that
we're gonna have starter
that I can make bread with tomorrow.
(phone ringing)
- Hey, everyone.
I know I said I'll be checking
in with Marissa tomorrow,
but I just, I had to
show her my starter today
'cause it basically doubled in size.
- Awesome.
- And just so you know,
day five and day six,
not much was happening, there
wasn't many bubbles on top.
Today I had all these funky
bubbles when I opened it up,
and then I fed it.
- I mean, to me, that sounds
like you're being intuitive.
We can say feed every day,
but those first few days,
if you wanna let it go a little longer
to see a little more of
those signs of funkiness
before feeding, sounds like
you did the right thing
'cause look at it now.
- Right, as long as you
don't see any black molds.
- If it's like a sludgy,
brown-black layer,
that's called hooch and
you can pour that out,
but if it's fuzzy at
all, black mold, blue,
unfortunately, you might
have to start over.
But this is looking great.
Let's just try the float test.
Get a cool cup of water and a spoon.
- Okay, on it, I'll be right back.
I have it.
- For the float test, you're
gonna take a clean scoop
of the starter, and then you're
gonna put it into the water.
And when I say clean scoop,
it's just what you did,
we're trying not to stir it up
because you wanna see those bubbles.
- [Katie] Oh, it's so floating, Marissa.
- Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,
I wish I could be closer.
- Ooh, it's just kinda fun to do
but I don't wanna waste my starter.
What should we name this baby?
- The name Priscilla came into my mind.
- (gasps) Ooh, Priscilla.
I love Priscilla, this can
definitely be Priscilla.
Do you think she'll be ready
to mix and make a loaf?
In a couple days?
- Yeah, I think we should give it a shot.
Let's say after you make that bread,
you know you're not gonna
bake for a few weeks.
What I would do next is feed your starter
and then put it in the refrigerator.
You can keep it there indefinitely,
just feed it once a week.
Do a refresh.
- So final question.
If people watching wanna make bread,
when should they feed their starter?
- If you wanna mix your
bread in the morning,
you could feed it right before
going to bed, about 8 hours.
If you wanna make dough in the evening,
you could feed in the morning.
About 8 hours, you just need to make sure
it passes the float test.
- Marissa, this was so
helpful, thank you so much,
I'm so proud of myself and Priscilla.
I hope you guys try this at home.
If I can do it, you definitely can do it,
and if you guys have
anymore baking questions,
hit Marissa up at Baker Buie on Instagram,
and check out our bread making video
when that comes out and
make a loaf with us.
Peace and loaves?
- Peace and loaf.
- Peace and loaves, all
right, I'll see you later.
Bye.
- Bye.
- [Man] Oh, yes.
