Sourdough Bread Step 1: The Starter

So I love bread, I love the whole process of making bread and the baking science behind it. Reading about making bread is like reading a romanic book. I got this book Tartine Bread from my friend for my last birthday. I curled up in bed and read though it, giddy with joy. But it's been a long time coming I needed to make some bread from these beautiful recipes.

Here's what was stopping me, finding good quality bread flour for a fair price. Which with some hook ups I did. One 25kg of organic 70% whole wheat bread flour for $37.00 what a deal! (mind you it was suppose to be unbleached white but that is another story) and I got another 10 kg of unbleached organic white bread flour. So now with all this flour I had to get making bread.

This evening I started my starter. Lets call it "the mother". To make the mother I made a 50/50 blend of whole wheat and white flour. Then in a small plastic container I put some warm water and added my 50/50 flour mix until I had the thick paste. After that I clean up and set the container on the counter with a dish towel over top. Now time to wait.

Tartine Bread Book and the starter

A close up of the mother doesn't look like much yet

NOTE: my starter died after I didn't feed it for to long. I'm going to try again but I'm kind bad at feeding something that doesn't meow like my cats!