Beginner Path System

Here, you’ll find important Sourdough Bread tips and recommended articles about baking sourdough bread.  Most of Sourdough Beginners’ questions are answered by reading these posts first.

Baking Sourdough Bread: How To Shape Sourdough “The Right Way”

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Mindblower, game changer ⤵️

Okay, so last November when I started to grow in followers, I shared this bit of sourdough baking advice that I couldn’t believe no other sourdough baker was teaching

And I WAS SHOCKED because surely, I didn’t invent this, I just stumbled upon it…

And when I shared this back then, SO MANY of you told me it’s how you plan on baking sourdough bread from now on

SO WHAT IS IT?  WHAT DO I DO DIFFERENTLY?

Well, it’s the way I shape my sourdough bread!

NO, this isn’t about using 

the tri-fold method vs 

the envelope method …or even vs 

the new trendy caddy clasp method I see now…

My sourdough baking CHANGED when I realized I could shape my sourdough bread with WATER instead of FLOUR

Yes, you read that right☝️

You see, I have a really very small kitchen, 

With an even smaller counter space

So kitchen real estate is very previous

And so doing things this way has SO MANY BENEFITS:

  1. LESS MESS to clean up —no flour everywhere
  2. No eating raw flour (more on this below)
  3. Less flour used = more money saved

💡How does this work? ⤵️

The whole point of folding is to build the gluten network so the dough holds its shape. 

And Shaping is really just a series of rapid folding/kneading.

While you are building this gluten network through your folding and shaping, the surface of the dough starts to get SMOOTH and TAUT. 

This is the gluten network building right before your eyes. 

THIS IS WHAT STOPS THE DOUGH FROM STICKING to you, your liner, your banneton, etc.

As long as you are building surface tension in your dough, the dough doesn’t get sticky.

💡So what do I do EXACTLY?

Instead of dusting my table with flour, I wet my hands and wipe the table with a tiny layer of water and then I shape my sourdough dough

And instead of dusting my banneton with flour, I simply just place my dough in my banneton that’s lined with a cotton tea towel

As long as you are building surface tension in your dough, the dough doesn’t get sticky.

VIDEO TUTORIALS:

In this ☝️ video, I’m shaping my soft white sourdough —a LOW hydration dough (67%). It’s a stiff dough, but once fermented, it acts like a blob. It is one of the easiest doughs to shape —so it has always perplexed me why so many people shape this kind of dough with so much excess raw flour.

⭐️ COUNTRY SOURDOUGH ⭐️
In this ☝️ video, I’m shaping my country sourdough —a HIGH hydration dough (74%). It’s a wetter dough, so will be a bit sticky. No worry, the method is the same as in part 1.

All you need is your trusty metal bench scraper. Simply wet it down with some water and you’re good to go. Follow along with me in the video!

It also helps to wet your hands and work surface lightly before you dump the dough on your work surface.

⭐️ WHOLE WHEAT SOURDOUGH ⭐️
In this ☝️ video, I’m shaping my whole wheat sourdough —a VERY HIGH hydration dough (84%). It’s a much, MUCH wetter dough than the last two doughs so it can be very sticky. Not to worry, the method is the same as in part 1 and 2!

All you need is your trusty metal bench scraper. Simply wet it down with some water and you’re good to go. Follow along with me in the video!

It also helps to wet your hands and work surface lightly before you dump the dough on your work surface.

In this ☝️ video, you see the final reveal of each three of the sourdough breads in this shaping tutorial.

My opinion, conclusion:

The industry standard of using flour to dust your dough for shaping and proofing, is unnecessary –you’re only just introducing raw flour so late in the game.  This is why some people get gassy and bloaty when eating sourdough –because all that excess raw flour is not fermented!  So guess what’s fermenting it?  YOU!

Is the type of flour I use important? And how does it affect my sourdough baking?

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Now let’s talk about flour

General Rules of Thumb

White / Light

  • means commercially sifted flour, 
  • extracted to get most of the bran out of the flour
  • less protein than whole
  • Less bran = you need add less water
  • Less bran = gives you more ovenspring
  • Less bran = gives you lighter, bigger, fluffier bread
  • Gives you white bread

Whole / Dark

  • Still sifted but not as much as white, 
  • Bran left in the flour, gritty
  • More protein than white
  • Bran = you need to add more water
  • Bran = gives you less ovenspring
  • Bran = gives you more dense bread, a meal within a slice
  • Gives you brown bread

Different Flours and what it means

White Bread Flour

  • Gold standard in bread baking
  • Gives you a really beautiful sourdough bread with a great ovenspring, great ear, great belly
  • It’s got high protein, high gluten and no bran to cut the gluten down
  • Hydration is capped at around 72%
  • But you can force it to accept more water through autolyse and bassinage

Whole Wheat Flour

  • The “whole” version of ANY wheat flour
  • Any flour that is not sifted, contains the bran of that flour
  • Whole wheat sourdough needs to be high hydration
  • At the minimum, 84% hydration

Attention:  

  • To check what type of whole wheat flour you have, see the ingredients list.  
  • HARD/WINTER wheat = high gluten (bread flour) and 
  • SOFT/SPRING wheat = low gluten (AP flour)

All Purpose Flour

  • Low gluten flour = less water
  • Made for cookies, cakes, pies, muffins —anything that doesn’t need to be chewy
  • Can still make bread, but will be cake-like instead of bread-like, meaning
  • It gives you bread that is less chewy, more soft like cake

Ancient Grain Flour

  • Flours like Einkorn, Spelt, Rye, Kamut, etc.
  • They’re very nutritious and tasty 
  • —but have LOW GLUTEN content and HIGH fiber
  • It will NOT behave like white bread flour
  • FLAVORFUL, but much, much denser
  • Will not have a great ovenspring unless you cut it with AP or Bread flour and/or
  • Add sweeteners to aid in taste and speeding up fermentation

Home Milled / Fresh Milled Flour

  • Behaves like whole wheat flour –but even denser because even the whole wheat flour you find at stores is sifted a little
  • even if you sift it yourself at home, you will never, NEVER be able to extract all of the bran
  • I have tried with a medical-laboratory-grade mesh sieve of 180 microns and it is so tedious and impossible, it’s not worth the money and effort to do this
  • ALL Sourdough bread made with Fresh milled flour will ALWAYS behave like whole wheat
  • Needs to be high hydration (min 88%)
  • Faster fermentation because of the high hydration

Sourdough Bread Baking Cheatsheet

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If you’re a sourdough beginner, or a baker with a few sourdough breads under their belt, this is a good reference tool to look at every once in a while,

I made this myself, carefully thought it through to be as simple and straight to the point.

Roselle’s Sourdough Bread Baking Infographic Slideshow

Roselle’s Sourdough Bread Baking Infographic Side 1

Roselle’s Sourdough Bread Baking Infographic Side 2

Condensing the sourdough process into 7 easy steps:

1. Sourdough Starter

Feed your sourdough starter.

When it peaks, it’s ready to mix with the rest of the ingredients.

👉(Typically 4-8hrs)

2. Mixing your Sourdough dough

As soon as the starter is mixed with the other ingredients, the fermentation clock begins

👉AKA “Bulk Fermentation” Typically 5-6hrs

3. Folding your Sourdough dough

Fold the dough as it rises during bulk fermentation to build a strong dough that will hold its shape.

4. Shaping your Sourdough dough

After bulk fermentation, around the 5-6hr mark for this Country Sourdough bread recipe, shape the dough, put it in your banneton (proofing basket) and get it in the fridge by hour 6.

5. Cold Proof your Sourdough dough

👉AKA “Cold Retard/Second Rise” Typically 12-16+ hrs, depending on the recipe

Cold proof the dough for min 12 hours, max 16 hours

6. Score your Sourdough dough

When the oven is done preheating at 485-500F, score your dough with your lame

7. Baking Sourdough Bread

Bake dough in your Dutch oven (lid on) for 20 min at 485-500F, lid off for 15 min at 450F

Attention:

Steps 2-6 is the ENTIRE fermentation timeline (bulk proofing PLUS cold proofing)

Cold proofing is optional –you can skip it entirely if you want to bake sourdough bread sooner rather than later.

All you have to do is:

After shaping your sourdough dough and putting into your banneton, simply leave it out at room temp for 2-3 hours then follow the rest of the steps.

The physical Sourdough Baking Cheatsheet infographic comes included (physically mailed to you) with all of my sourdough courses.

Want this infographic physically mailed to you?

This infographic plus 3 recipe cards from my sourdough bakery is included (physically mailed to you) when you buy the Sourdough For Beginners Course

Sourdough Starters Vs. Commercial Baker’s Yeast

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Who’s the winner?

Good, the bad, and the ugly…

Everyone is doing their best —and I think bread baking is a spectrum.  Some people are used to yeast bread and some feel at home with sourdough baking.

So I think a better way to frame it is:

Good, better, best.

I always say that homemade bread is good, sourdough bread is better, and homemade sourdough bread is best.

Whichever you choose, I think we can all agree that the “ugly” is store-bought bread.  —the common enemy!

Slideshow Comparison

Check out the Yeast Bread vs. Sourdough Bread slideshow I made that summarizes the difference between the two…

Difference in Flavor

When you take a bite of sourdough bread and then taste a bread made with commercial baker’s yeast, you’ll notice a big difference.

Sourdough bread is richer in flavor and also boasts health benefits!

This is especially true when you taste fresh, homemade sourdough bread.

Compare that to bread made with commercial yeast –which often has a single, sweet, beer-like aroma that stands out in breads like brioche or a classic white loaf.

Using a sourdough starter can highlight other flavors, such as the caramel and earthy notes of whole wheat or the gentle sweetness of dairy.

This enhanced flavor comes from the diversity of microbes in a sourdough starter, which is something you won’t find in commercial yeast.

Sourdough bread is also often easier to digest, offers more bioavailable nutrients, and is generally better tolerated by people who have sensitivities to commercial yeast, sugars, or other additives.

That’s not to say that homemade bread made with conventional yeast are bad —they definitely have their place in home baking.

But sourdough is in a league of its own, with so many unique qualities that make it truly special.

Cost Per Use

Yeast

When you compare the cost of using commercial baker’s yeast versus a sourdough starter, there are a few key factors to consider.

Commercial baker’s yeast is generally inexpensive and easy to find, usually sold in packets or jars that can last for several batches of bread.

And each packet contains a measured amount of yeast, making it simple to use with consistent results.

What’s the catch?

Well, over time, the cost of continually buying yeast really adds up, especially if you bake frequently.

Sourdough Starter

On the other hand, a sourdough starter has a higher initial investment in terms of time and effort rather than money.

Once you’ve got your sourdough starter going, though, it can last indefinitely with proper care, making it essentially a one-time cost.

You only need to feed it regularly with flour and water, which are relatively cheap, and that’s it!

The longer you maintain your sourdough starter, the more value you get out of it, and you won’t need to keep buying yeast for every batch of bread you bake.

In the long run, using a sourdough starter can be more cost-effective than relying on commercial yeast, especially for frequent bakers.

While there’s an initial learning curve and a bit of daily maintenance involved, the benefits —both in terms of cost savings and the unique flavors you get —can make it well worth the effort.

Plus, there’s something special about having a living, thriving sourdough starter in your kitchen, ready to be used whenever you’re in the mood to bake.

Modern vs Ancient Origins

Yeast

Commercial baker’s yeast has a relatively modern origin, developed for consistency and convenience in baking.

It was first produced on a large scale in the 19th century, when scientists isolated specific strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast most commonly used in baking today.

This yeast was cultivated and mass-produced to provide bakers with a reliable and fast-acting leavening agent.

The goal was to create a yeast that would perform the same way every time, giving predictable results and reducing the time needed for bread to rise.

Sourdough Starter

Sourdough starters have ancient origins, dating back thousands of years.

Long before commercial yeast was available, bakers relied on naturally occurring wild yeast and bacteria in their environment to leaven bread.

A sourdough starter is essentially a mix of flour and water that captures these wild microbes from the air, flour, and even the baker’s hands.

Over time, this mixture ferments and develops a unique ecosystem of yeast and lactic acid bacteria, which not only leavens the bread but also gives it its rich and robust flavor.

Every sourdough starter is unique, influenced by its environment and the ingredients used, making it a true reflection of local traditions and conditions.

While commercial yeast was developed for uniformity and speed, sourdough starters carry with them a sense of history and place.

Each starter is a living link to the ancient methods of bread-making, offering a connection to the past and a deep, rich flavor that can’t be replicated by commercial yeast.

For many sourdough bakers, the process of cultivating and maintaining a sourdough starter is as rewarding as the bread it produces, making it a cherished part of their baking routine.

Are Hydration Ratios Important? And How Does It Affect My Sourdough Bread?

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Look the picture above

This is a whole wheat sourdough dough that doesn’t have the correct hydration ratio. Because of that the dough easily tears and doesn’t behave well for you.

The trick to becoming a better baker, not just a better sourdough baker is knowing

  1. Flour types (or more specifically, how much protein there is in the flour), and
  2. The right hydration ratio for that flour type

☝️ These two go hand in hand and they are VERY important to the structural make up of your sourdough bread recipe

If you change the flour in a recipe WITHOUT also changing the hydration ratio to account for the change in flour, then you run into problems

The Reason Why:

Flours have a minimum and maximum threshold of water. In other words,

  • Flours need a minimum amount of water to become dough, and
  • Flours have a maximum amount of water until it becomes gravy

To get a dough that will behave for you, you need to find out the “Min and Max hydration” for your flour.

When you work within this min and max hydration, you will get a sourdough dough that’s got a really nice texture, elasticity and pliability.

Because when you stay within the min and max hydration, you will ALWAYS pass the windowpane test.

It is within this hydration spectrum that you will find the windowpane sweet spot.

How to do it

So how do you find the min and max hydration for your flour?

IT’S REALLY EASY

Do test batches with your flour

For example:

  • Bowl 1 – 100g flour + 60g water (60% hydration)
  • Bowl 2 – 100g flour + 65g water (65% hydration)
  • Bowl 3 – 100g flour + 70g water (70% hydration)

And so on and so forth 

See how the dough feels like to you, see if it passes the windowpane test.

The bowl with the lowest hydration that can pass the windowpane test is your MIN.

The bowl with the highest hydration that can pass the windowpane test WITHOUT tearing is your MAX.

How to swap the flour in a sourdough bread recipe

Simply find the correct hydration ratio for the flour you want to use instead. Test your flour and find the MIN and MAX hydration. Once you have that, you can find your windowpane sweet spot.

Use the correct hydration for the flour you’ll be using instead of the flour from the original recipe and keep in mind that now that you’ve changed hydration ratios, you have now also changed the speed of fermentation.

The more water/hydration you use, the faster the fermentation will be. The less water/hydration you use, the slower the fermentation will be.

Recommended reading:

Is the type of flour I use important? And how does it affect my sourdough bread?

How Do You Feed Your Sourdough Starter in Cold Winter Temperatures?

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Winter sourdough starter tricks

What to do to speed up your sourdough starter so you can bake sourdough bread ASAP👇

Feed it flour that it loves

There are some flours that the starter loves because it has high amounts of a protein called amylase that helps the starter break down carbohydrates. 

These are: rye flour, sprouted barley flour, King Arthur white bread flour (includes the amylase enzyme and/or barley flour)

Add a little more water

The more hydration a starter/dough has, the faster it will ferment.  And the less water it has, the slower it will ferment.

Increase the temp

The higher the temp = the faster the fermentation.  So put your starter in a place where it will be super warm.  Like 88-98F warm.

Increase the humidity

Humidity will also increase your fermentation —but especially high temp + high humidity combined.

Put it in a proofer

If you have a proofer like I do, that would be the way to go.  You can control the temp and humidity at will.

Put it in the oven with the light on

The closer environment and heat source is enough to increase the temp to make your starter happy.

Leverage thermal mass

Here’s the absolute golden tip:

Boil water and put it in a big metal container —put this in small, enclosed area —your microwave/oven/closet and put your starter next to it.  Not touching, just next to it. 

Why?  Because water is good thermal mass (the ability of a material to absorb, store and release heat)

Doing all of this ☝️ has turbocharged my starter regardless of any winter temp.

📣 That being said, if you’d like the starter feeding schedule that I use to bake all my sourdough bread that I sell in my sourdough bakery, go here:

Roselle’s sourdough starter feeding schedule

How To Make Sourdough Starter

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Find out how to make a starter from scratch, what to feed it, how many times to feed it, where to keep it and how to use it in sourdough bread recipes…

We are going to build a sourdough starter from scratch. The more you feed a starter, the more active it will be.

We’re going to feed your starter once a day over the course of 7-14 days —but you can speed up the process if you feed your starter 2x or even 3x a day.

A a general rule of thumb, the more you feed it, the more mature it gets.

In other words, the longer you wait to use it to bake sourdough bread, the better your sourdough bread will be.

So buy enough flour. A 1lb bag should be more than enough to feed your starter this week.

What tools do you need?

Sourdough Starter Kit

Here are my #1 favorite and preferred tools for Sourdough Starters. These are the winners of three years of comparison shopping, research and testing.

Sourdough Starter

Thermometer and Hygrometer

My Favorite Kitchen Scale

Weck Jars

Off-set metal spatula 4.25″

Bread Flour

Dark Rye Flour

Brod & Taylor Proofer

Dough Mat

Use Code ROSELLE10 for 10% OFF

Rubber Bands

Dry Erase Marker

How To Make Your Starter From Scratch

Day 1 / Feeding 1

We’re going to begin with feeding at a ratio of 1 : 1 : 1.

Meaning that, when it’s all said and done, we will be feeding and maintaining your starter at equal parts starter, flour, and water.

starter

flour

water

total

Feeding Ratio

1

1

1

Day 1 / Feeding 1

50g

50g

100g

We don’t have a sourdough starter yet, we’re trying to build one.

So on Day 1, or rather Feeding 1, your are simply mixing 50g of flour and 50g of water in a glass jar.

Thoroughly mix everything, making sure there are no dry clumps of flour. When you think you’ve mixed everything really well, mix just a little more to be sure.

Now, with wet hands, clean the sides of the jar with your fingers and use your knuckles to lightly pound down the starter so that it’s level. Careful you don’t make it concave. You want the starter to be as straight of a level as possible.

Once you have that, put a rubber band over your jar and set it over the starter line, indicating the starting point.

Starters like it warm.

Starters thrive in warmer temperatures. They like it at 77F – 86F. The warmer the environment, the faster your starter will come to peak. Yeast will die if too hot (120-140F), though. So don’t put your starter near your stove or in your oven.

We now wait until it comes to peak.

Day 2 / Feeding 2

starterflourwatertotal
Feeding Ratio111
Day 1 / Feeding 150g50g100g
Day 2 / Feeding 2100g100g100g300g

Alright, it’s a day later. Depending on your flour, you may or may not have seen activity in your jar. You may have seen your starter come to peak and come back down, —or you may have seen zero activity.

It doesn’t matter. Time for feeding #2.

Your starter is now roughly 100g.

At this point, we’re still building up the activity, so we’re not going to discard any starter yet.

So Day 2 / Feeding 2 is simply feed the starter at a 1 : 1 : 1 ratio.

Simply add 100g of flour and 100g of water to your starter.

When it’s come to peak, it’s time to feed it again.

Day 3 / Feeding 3


starterflourwatertotal
Feeding Ratio111
Day 1 / Feeding 150g50g100g
Day 2 / Feeding 2100g100g100g300g
Day 3 / Feeding 3100g100g100g300g

Alright, it’s day 3, or nearly day 3.

Your starter has now built enough activity that we will need to discard starter before every feeding from here on out.

So today, take 100g of your starter (discard the rest) and mix equal parts flour and water.

Wait for it to come to peak before you feed it again.

You repeat this process until you’ve fed your starter a minimum of 7 feedings.

By the end of 7 feeding sessions, your starter is should be good to go.

It’s powerful enough to leaven a loaf of sourdough bread.

But only if the sourdough starter is rising and falling reliably and predictably by this point.

What if the sourdough starter stopped rising sometime between Days 3-7?

This will happen to some people and it’s what’s called the “dead phase” of making a sourdough starter.

The only recourse here is to “keep on keeping on” and continue feedings for 14 days.

You may even want to wait longer between feedings, perhaps 2 days instead of 1 so you can be sure you haven’t missed any activity.

Baker’s Percentages Explained (with calculators)

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What is Baker’s percentages?

Baker’s %s are most commonly used for bread baking.

It’s very easy –if you know how to ✖️ & ➗, you can do it.

It’s basically baker’s shorthand. It’s formulas that helps all bakers, not just sourdough bakers deduce ingredient amounts & hydration ratios –especially helpful for troubleshooting sourdough problems.

How to find percentages from ingredient amounts

There IS one very important switch you have to make in your head:

Baker’s %s is in relation to the FLOUR, not the sum.

The flour weight is always set to 100%.

For example, let’s look at this

Beginner sourdough bread recipe:

  • 500g white bread flour
  • 360g water
  • 100g starter
  • 10g salt

Here’s how that math looks:

white bread flour 500 = 100%

water = 360 ➗ 500 = 72%

starter = 100 ➗ 500 = 20%

salt = 10 ➗ 500 = 2%

Simply ➗ the other ingredients by the FLOUR amount. It’s that easy.

Need a calculator? Don’t worry, here it is…

[supsystic-tables id=1]

How to find ingredients amounts from percentages

There may also be times when you need to use baker’s %s to calculate the ingredient amounts.

Like when you see recipes like this:

  • 100% white bread flour
  • 72% water
  • 20% starter
  • 2% salt

This is how chefs & bakers talk to each other.

When I was in culinary school we’d use recipes written out as only %s!

How do you find out the bread ingredients amounts?

First decide how much flour you want to put in your recipe. A normal-sized sourdough bread is around 500g of flour.

When you have this number, simply ➗ the other ingredients by the FLOUR amount. Sound familiar? (see above)

I also made a calculator for this process for you to use if needed!

[supsystic-tables id=4]

FINAL HYDRATION OF DOUGH (don’t pay attention to this)

☝️ Not really that important, unless you really want to know OR you want to make your own sourdough bread recipes

When we talk about baker’s % –it’s always in relation to the FLOUR, not the sum.

This wont give you the final hydration of the dough, though.

That’s because your starter has water too.

Most sourdough starters are 100% hydration, meaning they are made up of equal amounts flour & water.

So when calculating your DOUGH hydration you will want to ➗ the amount of starter in your dough in half, & add that to the amounts of flour & water.

Then calculate the hydration the same way you calculate baker’s %s with the new totals for your flour & water.

In other words:

Final dough hydration formula

➗ the  starter in half, 

➕ that to the flour amount

➕ that to the water amount

Now, (water amount) ➗ (flour amount) = Final dough hydration

Again, finding the final dough hydration isn’t as important as knowing the hydration amount in relation to your flour.

Unless, of course, you are trying to match the final hydration of a recipe you are trying to convert into sourdough

I also made a calculator for this process for you to use if needed!

[supsystic-tables id=5]

How Roselle packages her bread

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Preferred packaging

Butcher paper and red/white twine

Links:

Butcher paper:

Amazon

Restaurant Store

Baker’s Twine

Restaurant Store

Amazon

Optional paper bag with handles (when customers buy more than one loaf)

Amazon

Runners up (will do the job, but less preferred)

Bread sleeves – no window

Bread sleeves – with window

90 second video on Instagram

Sourdough Starter Tools

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Here are all the tools I’ve researched, tested and used to maintain my sourdough starter

1) Starter container

Here are preferred containers, in order of preference:

For small batches of starter…

Plastic quart container

Weck jars (no shoulders)

Ball jars (wide mouth)

For large batches of starter…

KitchenAid 8qt Commercial Mixer (for mixing large batches of starter & doughs)

4qt Plastic Container (to hold starter while coming to peak)

8qt Plastic Container (to hold starter while coming to peak)

19qt Plastic bins (to hold starter while coming to peak)

2) A utensil to stir the starter ingredients

Here are the preferred utensils, in order of preference:

For small batches of starter…

Small offset spatula

Silicone Scraper Spatula (angled tip)

For large batches of starter…

Plastic bench scrapers

3) A kitchen scale

Here are the preferred utensils, in order of preference:

22lb Food Scale, big

11lb Food Scale, small

We are going to be measuring our ingredients by weight so a food scale is going to be a staple in your kitchen. That being said, you might as well get a good one like this since you will be using it to weigh your dough, and if you are operating a cottage bakery, you’ll be making large batches of dough, weighing 10+lbs.

4) A room thermometer & hygrometer

(optional, but very useful)

Thermometer & Hygrometer

This is a very helpful tool that lets you know the temperature and humidity in the room.

5) Rubber bands or dry erase marker

(optional, but extremely useful)

Rubber bands

Dry Erase Markers

These are very very helpful for the baker, as this will enable you to mark the starting point of the starter and will let you know how much the starter has risen.

You will want good rubber bands, big enough to stretch around a 32oz jar. If you don’t want to use rubber bands, you can just use a dry erase marker to mark the starting point of the starter, but that can easily be wiped off.

6) Proofer or Temp Control

(to control and manipulate starter temperature)

Brod & Taylor Proofer (for big starters)

Brod & Taylor Sourdough Home (for small starters)

Kombucha Heating Belt

Dough Mat – use code ROSELLE10 for 10% OFF

If you buy through my link, I get a little commission. These are ingredients and tools I use daily in my own micro-bakery, so I can personally confirm that they are the best tools for the job.

Once you have your ingredients and tools ready, it’s time to start making your starter.