Homeschooling has its benefits for sure. One of my favorites is the fact that the kids are encouraged to learn and find out things on their own! They can follow their current interests, and, as we all know, that is when the BEST learning happens!

Lately, the middle Squid, @SnekLady, has been SUPER into cooking! You name it, she wants to COOK it!

That is a good thing, of course. The more SHE cooks, the less I have to cook! Win-win! Well, one morning, she decided she wanted to make her own gluten-free sourdough starter. She loved the idea of catching wild 'yeasties' and growing them in a jar, and THEN being able to make delicious BREAD out of them! Well, I'd like to introduce you all to Sarah the Slime, the sourdough starter! Or, as it is now referred to, Sarah-dough!

Now, Sarah has been quite the successful project. She has been added to many dishes already.

For example:

Brownies

Gluten-free rolls

And, of course, sourdough bread!!

Sarah the Slime has been in a few other things as well, such as pancakes, waffles, and even regular bread.

Sourdough starter needs to be fed every day, and there ends up being some starter discarded if you do not bake bread daily. Being the non-wasteful family that we are, we use her in anything we can!

Making sourdough starter is easy. You only need flour, water and a jar to keep it in.

• Day 1: Mix 3/4C flour with 1/2C water
  (The measurement will vary a little depending on what type of flour you are using. Pretty much any grain flour can be used for this. You want a thick batter.)
  Cover with a breatheable covering, such as a washcloth and rubberband.
• Day 2: Feed the starter. (Basically make another batter mixture like on Day 1, and mix that into the jar as well.)
• Days 3 and 4: Feed the starter. You continue feeding as normal. You will probably need to remove about half the starter before adding the new batter, depending on how much starter you want to end up with. Use the discarded starter in some of the things I mentioned above.
• Day 5: Your starter should have become nice and bubbly and full of yeast, rendering it ready to use!

Now you can use your starter in any sourdough recipes you want to try!

We decided to make gluten-free starter, that way we can make gluten-free items for those in our household that are sensitive.

As it turns out, you can use the gluten-free starter to make wheat bread as well; it is interchangeable and just as useful as the wheat-based starter! Rather than maintain two starters, I can just have the one and use it for either product.

To maintain your starter, you need to discard about half per day and feed it as above.

If you are too busy to maintain it daily, you can store it in the refrigerator and reduce feedings to about once a week.

This girl loves her 'Sarahdough' starter and has been having a blast baking things with it!

It's definitely one of my favorite projects that she has started. This is ever so much more useful than a cardboard cat-maze, and less messy than glitter slime! (Not to mention, DELICIOUS!!)

Thanks for stopping by! How many of you out there maintain a sourdough starter? What are your favorite things to cook with it?

Have a wonderful day!! ♥

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