• Organic all-purpose flour
• Room-temp water
• A clean glass jar with a lid
• A food scale
• A spoon or rubber spatula

1. Put your dehydrated sourdough starter flakes in a clean, tall jar and crush the flakes into smaller pieces.
2. Using a food scale, add 15 grams of room-temp water and stir to dissolve. It’s ok if there are some lumps. These will slowly rehydrate over the next few hours.
3. Cover loosely and let sit for 4 hours. This allows the yeast to “wake up.”
4. After 4 hours, stir your starter a few times to incorporate any lumps that didn’t originally dissolve. Then add 30 more grams of room-temp water and 30 grams of organic all-purpose flour. Stir until there are no dry patches of flour. 
5. Cover loosely and let sit on the counter for 24 hours.
6. After 24 hours, throw out half of the starter (you can eyeball this) and then stir in 50 grams of room-temp water and 50 grams of all-purpose flour.
7. Cover loosely and let sit for 24 hours.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 again for two more days: discard half of the starter and then add 50 grams of room-temp water and 50 grams of all-purpose flour. Mix and let sit loosely covered for 24 hours.
9. Your starter should be bubbling by the end of the third day. If not, continue repeating steps 6 and 7 until your starter rises and falls. The timeline could vary based on the type of flour you use and the temperature of the starter.
10. Once your starter is active and bubbly, move onto the next section: Using and Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter.

If you will be baking often, keep your starter out at room temperature and feed it every 24 hours. This is not necessary, however, since you can simply keep your starter in the fridge between uses.

Sourdough is typically a two-day process. Day 1 consists of mixing, fermenting, shaping, and proofing the dough. Day 2 consists of scoring and baking the dough.

If you are baking a single loaf of bread, the recipe will likely call for 100g sourdough starter. The easiest and most fool-proof way to make sure you always have starter ready to use is to keep 10g of starter in a jar in the fridge at all times. The evening before you plan to prepare your loaf, take the jar out of the fridge, feed it with 50g flour and 50g water, and leave it on the counter overnight. Approx 12 hrs later, the starter will have doubled in size and will be ready to use. When your starter is ready, take out 100g of starter and mix with fresh flour, water, and salt according to your recipe. The remaining bit of starter in the jar goes back into the fridge where it can sit until the next time you bake.

The next time you want to bake, simply take the jar out and repeat the above process.

Starter can last in the fridge for a very long time, but you might start seeing a dark liquid form on the surface after some time. This is called hooch and it's just a sign that your starter is hungry. Do not throw away your starter if you see hooch, just feed it. The only time you should throw your starter away is if you see mold. Mold will look like pink/orange streaks or like dark spots. Once you see those signs, your starter has gone bad.

Sourdough discard refers to sourdough starter that is in the "hungry" phase. In other words, when your starter is past its peak and has fallen again, it is considered "discard." "Discard" does not mean "throw away" in the sourdough world. You can keep a jar of discard in your fridge and add it to almost any flour-based recipe. Simply add a glug or two of your discard to your favorite quick bread or sweet treat. Adding discard will not give your baked goods a sour flavor, it will simply change the texture by making it lighter and airier.

Some ideas:

• Pancake or waffles
• Banana bread
• Coffee cake
• English muffins
• Biscuits
• Make flatbread by mixing ½ cup starter, ½ tsp baking soda, salt, and a drizzle of honey. Let sit for 1 min and then cook like a pancake in a buttered pan.

• The reason you are able to keep your starter at room temp without it spoiling is because you have created a hospitable environment for all the yeast to grow. If you forget to feed your starter for a day or two, that is ok! Simply feed your starter again or put it in the refrigerator. 
• Make sure you do not completely tighten the lid on your starter. Gasses are being produced as your starter grows, which will create pressure inside the jar if it is tightened all the way. You want to give the gasses a bit of space to escape so your jar doesn't break.
• If you see a layer of dark liquid on top of your starter, don’t be alarmed! That is called hooch and it’s just a sign that your starter is hungry and needs to be fed. Simply feed your starter like normal. 
• Sourdough discard is awesome, so don’t throw away any excess starter that you have. You can add sourdough discard to almost any baked good. It’s one extra step that really elevates your baking. When adding it to banana bread, for example, let the batter sit at room temp for at least an hour so that the sourdough has a chance to reactivate.