Swore sourdough starter was a gimmick until my 3rd attempt actually worked

I spent 8 weeks babysitting a jar of flour and water that just moldered on my counter, thought everyone was lying about the magic. Then I switched to a whole wheat rye blend and kept it at 78 degrees consistently, and that sucker doubled in size overnight on day 11. Anyone else have a recipe or trick that finally made your starter take off after killing multiple batches?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona9851mo ago

Did your starter end up actually tasting good or was it still kind of flat? I had a buddy who tried for weeks with tap water and blamed his flour, then switched to filtered water and his starter finally bubbled up on day 9 after he fed it a mix of whole wheat and unbleached AP. He kept it in the microwave with the light on to hold temp and said that small change made all the difference.

joel_hall171mo ago

Whole wheat rye at 78 worked for me too after two failed batches with plain flour.