Starting from Scratch!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my sourdough starter blog!

You may be curious about what exactly a sourdough is and how a starter is created. Before I share my own sourdough starters and observations with you, I would like to provide a brief introduction and overview of the experiment. You may want to try this at home one day! 

Sourdough: Sourdough is a type of bread that results from a long fermentation of dough. This process uses naturally occurring bacteria and yeast, which creates the sour taste. 

Starter: A sourdough starter begins as a mixture of flour and water that must be fed in order to grow. These starters can eventually be made into sourdough. 

Microbes: There are many microbes, or microorganisms, that have the ability to cause fermentation. Sourdough starters often contain lactic acid bacteria from the Lactobacillus genus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is most commonly known as baker's yeast. 

https://wholelifestylenutrition.com/recipes/sourdough-basics-what-is-a-sourdough-starter-and-what-is-sourdough-bread/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-of-sourdough-how-microbes-enabled-a-pandemic-pastime/

MY EXPERIMENT

To conduct my experiment, I am beginning with two sourdough starters. My control starter consists of flour and water. My experimental starter consists of flour, water, and applesauce. Although I had whole apples, I decided to use applesauce since it would be easier to mix in with the flour and water. The applesauce I used is unsweetened with nothing added. The ingredients in the applesauce were simply apples and water. 

I began my sourdough starters at approximately 8:00 am on January 27th. Below, you will find step-by-step images of the beginning of my experiment. 


1 TBSP of flour
Control and experiment cups
of equal size and shape
All-purpose flour used
in each cup


2 TBSP of flour in each cup
1 TBSP unsweetened applesauce
Fruit used for 
experimental cup


 

After adding 1 tablespoon of unsweetened applesauce to the experimental starter cup, I added 2 tablespoons of water to each cup. I then mixed the contents within each cup. 



The mixture containing applesauce was thicker and not as smooth as the mixture that only contained flour and water.


Located on the top rack of my arts and crafts cart near 
my dining room, my sourdough starters should be in a safe place 
out of my dog's reach and not in direct sunlight.







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