If you have wanted to get started with sourdough, and don’t know where to start, this is the guide for you! I will detail all of the tools you need to make sourdough below, as well as share my favorite add-ons, and go-to recipe!
Just as a back story, I started getting into sourdough after moving to Georgia from California, and I was unable to find any good sourdough that tasted like what I was used to sourdough tasting. Through trial and error, especially with the sourdough starter, I finally found what I was looking for, and hope that this guide helps you to achieve the same results!
(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase a anything from my links, which will be at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business!)
Table of Contents
How to Get a Sourdough Starter?
There’s a few options here. You can make your own, get some from a friend who already has one, buy one online, or you can hope that a local bakery is willing to share some (or sell some) with you.
I initially started with a sourdough starter that was given out during a sourdough class in a friend’s home, but no matter the recipe I tried, it never tasted right to me. So, then I decided to try buying a starter to revive on Amazon (that had great reviews), and I had the same issues. So, then, I decided to buy some dehydrated starter from The Sourdough Mama’s Etsy shop, and that was when I won the jackpot! All of my doubts about why my bread wasn’t coming out as it should really did come back to the starter not being right. So, instead of wasting all of your time, I would suggest just going straight to her Etsy shop and buying some starter for yourself! You spend a few dollars, she will send you a packet of dehydrated starter and then you spend a week or so and bring it back to life!
What Type of Container do I Need for my Sourdough Starter?
Stick with glass! The containers that I use that have been great, both on the counter and in the refrigerator, are these glass jars that measure on the sides, so that you can see how far your starter grows after you feed it.
What do I Need a Kitchen Scale for when Making Sourdough?
You will need a kitchen scale to measure out the starter, water and flour when feeding your starter. You will also need a kitchen scale when measuring out the ingredients for the actual sourdough loaves that you will make. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy or expensive, just something that can measure in grams. I never bought a sourdough-specific scale, and have always just used my husband’s coffee scale. So, you can be creative, as long as it works!
What Kind of Mixing Bowls do I Need to Make Sourdough?
Everyone will tell you something different, but the easiest and most efficient way will be for you to get a large glass, Pyrex dish, and use a spoon and your hand to mix the dough. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.
What is a Banneton & Why do I Need One?
Along with sourdough comes extra wait times and extra steps in the bread making process. After mixing your dough, waiting on it to do stretch and folds, you then need to store it in a bowl (or banneton) in the refrigerator prior to baking your loaf. A banneton is a proofing basket, that helps shape the loaf overnight when you coldproof your loaf in the refrigerator. If you do not have one, you can also use your large glass bowl.
When you put your loaf in your proofing basket, you want to either make sure to coat the bowl with flour, or you can put in a linen towel as a buffer and flour the linen towel and put your loaf on top of that.
What Pan Should I Use to Bake Sourdough?
There are a lot of options, but cast iron always wins out. There is a range from cheaper to more expensive options, including Lodge and Staub USA dutch ovens, to the Challenger Bread Pan. While they all work, and if you are just starting out and aren’t sure if this will be a hobby you pick up, I would recommend going with a Lodge Dutch Oven because they work and are on the cheaper end. However, if you are going to get serious about sourdough and find it a worthy investment, I would go for the Challenger Bread Pan because it cooks the sourdough really well, you can play with your cook times and temperatures to get your crust as you would like it, and it makes it easier to lift the pan out of the oven and to remove the lid without burning yourself. (My only con with the Challenger Bread Pan is that it is pretty heavy to lift in and out of the oven all the time!)
Some Other Fun Sourdough Tools You Might Enjoy
Bread Mat
Another thing that can be really useful, but isn’t always mentioned, is a bread mat. Some people use parchment paper in between their loaf and the pan in which they are cooking it, but there is also a genius invention called a bread mat that Rosehill Sourdough makes for different sized and shaped bread pans that is super useful, prevents your loaf and your hands from burning, and allows you to easily move your loaf from your bread pan to a cooling rack.
Scoring Lame
To be really honest, you could go get a small, basic box cutter and use that to score your sourdough. However, if you want to get fancy, you can get a scoring lame that allows you more flexibility to score different angles and after the loaf has been baking for a while. For this, I would recommend checking out the Wire Monkey shop.
Dusting Wand
Besides the fact that this is such a fun kitchen tool, it can also be really helpful to dust out even amounts of flour at all points when you need a dusted surface for sourdough, such as shaping the loaf, dusting the counter, dusting the loaf before proofing it overnight, etc.
Natural Food Coloring Powder
It is honestly so amazing to see what people can come up with when they add a little food coloring and imagination to their loaves! I have used natural food coloring powder for fun for my kids, but I have also really admired how sourdough artists use food coloring powder to come up with some awesome creations. If you want some inspiration, I would recommend looking up @the.sourdough.mama on Instagram!
What Sourdough Recipe Should I Use?
I might have tried out too many different recipes, but I can say for sure that there is one that I always go back to because the ratios just work the best with my starter and it has the yummiest end taste! You can access the sourdough recipe here.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in the following reviews:
- My Honest Kitchenaid Bread Bowl Review – After Using it for 2 Years!
- Tried & Tested Hurom H70 Review
- What is a Toddler Tower & Why Yours Needs One! (this is especially necessary if you have a toddler that can help you with your sourdough!)