Breadtopia Live Sourdough Starter | Organic Non-GMO Ingredients | Active & Ready to Go | It's Alive - Must be Fed Immediately on Delivery

I’ve tried off and on to learn how to make sourdough bread, always craving that San Francisco sour taste and texture we all love. I have ordered King Arthur starters in the past, but always gave up. The flavor was never there, and every loaf was too dense. This go-around, I decided to order a new starter from Amazon for fast shipping, and I’m so glad that I did. I can’t keep up with this very active starter! It is like a pet that needs constant feeding! And so that translates to dough that rises and has nice big bubbles in the texture. And the sour flavor is there! I am a hero at home with sourdough bread coming out of the oven at least 3 times a week. And that’s with me working full time. Here is my process, using King Arthur’s recipe and a few other things I’ve learned:If dinner plans for the next day involve sourdough bread, then the evening before, when I arrive home from work, I take my starter out of the fridge, give it a little stir and feed it about 1/4 cup of flour. I leave it on the countertop while going about our evening routine. A couple hours later, after the family has had dinner and the kitchen is cleaned, and I’m about to close the kitchen for the night, I’ll start the bread. The starter by now looks happy and bubbly. Almost foamy bubbly. You can take off a pinch and put it into a cup of water. It will float if it is ready. So then I pour about a cup of the starter into a container that has a lid. At least a 2 liter container. Then I go back to feed my starter up to a cup of flour (depending on how much room is in my jar) and an equal amount of water, mix, cover, and return to fridge. Then back to the container of freshly poured starter, I add 3 cups unbleached white flour and 1.5 cups water. Stir really briskly for 1 minute. Cover and put in fridge for the night.The next morning before work, I add 2.5 teaspoons kosher or Himalayan salt, and 1 more cup of flour. I stir this just till the flour is absorbed. The dough looks kind of raggedy, but the salt and flour is mixed in enough to start the next phase. Let this sit for 30 minutes. Then just before leaving to work, add up to a cup more of flour while kneading into a soft and slightly sticky dough (feels tacky but doesn’t stick to hands). I can’t usually get more than a 1/2 cup in there. So for the recipe I end up using a total of 4.5 cups. The recipe calls for up to 5 cups.you don’t want the dough to be too heavy bc you’ll love the light airy and bubbly texture of the finished bread. Knead until smooth. Return the dough to the container and keep covered. This will be about 1 liter of dough. Now if someone isn’t home to help me with the next steps, I’ll bring the dough to work. This just means i won’t be able to start cooking it until 5:30 or so. The next process is easy. Every hour, the dough needs to be gently lifted and stretched and folded over itself while carefully preserving the air that has filled the dough. Having slightly wet hands helps. Go around the container and do this 4 times to get all 4 quarters of the dough lifted and folded over itself then cover and wait another hour. Each time you do this, you’ll notice the dough is changing! After 4 or 5 times, the dough is ready to rise in its proofing container. This is about 2:00 pm for me. I get a piece of parchment paper and a bowl about the size of a regular sourdough boulle. I wet the parchment paper and wring it out like a wash rag so it is soft and mouldable to the size of the bowl. Line the bowl with the wet paper. Then lift the dough out of the container, being careful not to lose any of the air that has developed in the dough. Remember there is no added yeast helping out your starter. The starter is doing all the work, so try not to lose what it has done for you. Gently fold into a soft ball of dough, tucking edges underneath till top is smooth. Lay the dough gently into the parchment paper-lined bowl. Cover, and let rise 2 hours. Preheat oven to 425° with a lidded Dutch oven inside that is about the size of a sourdough boulle. The Dutch oven pot will get very hot. Cut a 1/4” deep slice or two across the top of the dough at this point. When the oven is preheated, remove the Dutch oven and lift the dough by the parchment paper, carefully setting it down into the hot pot. Put the lid on the pot and return to the hot oven. After 20 minutes, remove the lid. Continue baking until the bread is a deep golden brown. Remove from the pot, pulling up by the parchment paper to lift. Set your beautiful bread on a cooking rack. Discard the parchment paper. Allow to cool completely before cutting!!! That is the hardest part!! My favorite way to eat is toasted with butter. My family also likes to add honey. It is also delicious plain! Good quality flour is important. If your flour has a cheap smell to it, do not use! I also use filtered water to both feed my starter and for my recipe.

After trying to start my own starter and failing I decided to just buy a starter. After doing research I ended up purchasing two to be on the safe side and I went with this breadtopia and a King Arthur starter. Well let me just say that I have yet to get the King Arthur one that was supposed to arrive a week ago. This one, however, Arrived two days sooner than expected! I received it yesterday at 3pm I fed it and it was about to burst out the jar by 7pm so I moved it to a bigger jar. This morning I woke up with it doubling in size so I fed it and it doubled again within 2 hrs! So safe to say I’m starting my bread today! 100 percent recommend!!!

I love making bread! I moved out of where I was living and wasn't able to do bread making. I missed it so much. Moved in with my sister and I am excited to begin my sourdough (and discard) journey again.I was daunted with making a starter from scratch. This got such excellent reviews I decided to give it a try. I was very, very pleased. Easy to follow instructions on the video. My starter performed well quickly. Though some think this might be a little costly, I don't feel that way. Making my own starter from scratch would have cost more in my mind because of all the flour. With this live starter I was able to actually bake very quickly.I have a new jar coming to me this coming Monday. So this is a repeat purchase, which I think, shows that I indeed liked this product. I am excited to start my starter again! Now to think of a cute name...

Amazing sourdough starter. I’ve made several loaves since I purchased it two months ago. It’s sooooo incredibly active. I don’t feed it very often until there’s only about 1/4 cup left. I fed it three days ago and put it in the fridge, today it’s still rising and almost blew the lid off. Way better than my own starter that I made a few years ago. It has a very strong sourdough taste, and highly recommend it, especially for beginners.

This is good. I somehow killed mine unfortunately. I’m sure it was my fault. I’ll try again when I have more time to dedicate to it. I thought that this would be the best route since I knew I wouldn’t have the time or the attention span to start my own from scratch. I still managed to screw it up lol.

I followed instructions to rejuvenate the starter, but I found it too dry. It should work this way, but I added an extra Tbs water. I have years of experience making sourdough bread. My starter always has the consistency of a thick cake batter. A wet starter, tends to rejuvenate faster.You may wonder why I am buying a starter. I accidentally killed my earlier starter. The way I did it is: I make sourdough bread every week and I keep the starter in the fridge. When I go on vacation, it could be in the fridge for 4 weeks. To activate it before making my dough, I briefly (~5 minutes) put it in the oven on low, to bring the temp up to about 80 - 90F. I forgot about it and the starter overheated, killing it.

Within 2 feedings it was rising and I made several successful loaves. I've since put the starter in the fridge and pulled it back out multiple times and it's doing well. Very happy.

Best starter, bread was airy , soft and delicious.