Instructions

1. Day 1: Combine one cup flour and ½ cup water in a container and stir it together to make a sticky paste. You don’t want to have any dry flour in it. Once everything is mixed you are going to cover it and leave it on the counter for 24 hours.
2. Day 2: After 24 hours you are going to feed it. Get out 2 bowls. In the first bowl you will dump all the starter into it. Then take ½ cup of the starter and place it in the second bowl. To the ½ cup of starter add an additional ½ cup of warm water and 1 cup of flour. Mix well until you do not see any dry flour. This mixture will go back into the clear jar. Discard the extra in the first bowl. Let the mixture sit for an additional 24 hours.
3. Day 3: You might start to see some bubbling going on and the starter might smell fruity or a strong yeast smell. Repeat all the steps from day 2 except now you are going to start feeding your starter every 12 hours, or as close as you can get to 12 hours. The easiest way is to feed the starter 1st thing in the morning and then again in the evening.
4. You will continue this process of feeding every 12 hours, 1 cup flour, ½ cup starter and ½ cup warm water, over the next 10 days. You want your starter to start doubling in size within about 6 hours. When this happens your starter is ready, YAY!
5. When your starter is officially ready you can place it in the fridge and feed it weekly. This means, once a week you need to take your starter out of the fridge and let it sit in a warm place for at least 8 hours or until it doubles. Then you will feed it but instead of tossing the discard, you will use all that delicious discard to make anything and everything sourdough!
6. All your hardwork will pay off and you will not only love all the sourdough things you can make but you will feel good eating them!