Living Dough - 233 Year Old San Francisco Sourdough Starter Culture - Active & Live Organic Sourdough Starter for Baking - For Artisanal Bread, Pizza Dough, Waffles & More

I couldn't help but be curious about a long living starter! I decided to go with the oldest one. It shipped promptly, and arrived sooner than expected. It was well packaged. The seal on the jar was intact. When it hissed open I was met with a rich aroma. I got roughly 60 grams of starter and fed it at 1:1:1 with unbleached bread flour. Very quickly I was seeing activity and a healthy rise. There was lots of active bubbling to be seen! The first time around took about 6 hours to peak, give or take. Every 1:1:1 feeding after that had it doubling and then peaking in less than 4 in my warm kitchen. I fed it peak to peak 3 times before I baked with it. The first loaf turned out beautifully! The rise in the dough was quick and consistent. I did have medium rye for 1/6th of the flour and the rest bread flour, all King Arthur Organic Unbleached. The rye does get a faster rise, but this is my usual blend and this rose noticeably faster. The dough smelled heavenly. It did have its own distinct characteristics in smell. It was fascinating to see how this starter behaved in comparison to my previous starter.Even during the long cold proofing my loaf rose a bit more with this strain. Everything looked and felt good. Definitely had a distinct higher performance. I finally got my loaf into the oven. The oven spring on the loaf was very good! The crumb was lovely. Even though I served it before it fully cooled it was still fluffy and light. The bread had delicious and distinct aromatics! This starter certainly has character.I asked the seller about this strains origins and history. They responded quickly with some really interesting information! I was so jazzed to read about it. This strain in particular is in a European Sourdough Museum (Belgium, I believe) . I'm going to look into that museum to see if I can see what details their testing found.Since this strain has some early origin lore in Wales, I had to think of a proper name. Since legends say that's where Merlin came from, I felt I needed to honor that. Since I already have a strain named Sir Lanceloaf (Since I use King Arthur flour mostly) i had to tie it all together. As I watched the starter rising it occurred to me. I named it Excalibread.If you're even the mildest bit curious, or just starting your own Sourdough Journey, I cannot recommend this brand enough. I can't recommend this strain enough! It's a powerful and healthy little starter! I was so pleased with my loaf that I decided to let Sir Lanceloaf take a fridge vacation and I'll be maintaining Excalibread on the counter for the foreseeable future. It was such a great experience all around. So, allow me to be the little Amazon devil on your shoulder, add to cart!!!

I am absolutely OBSESSED with my San Francisco sourdough starter from The Living Dough! As someone brand new to sourdough, I was nervous to start, but this starter has been amazing and so active. I lovingly named her Doughreen 😂🍞She’s actually inspired an entire social media series for me called “No Oven, No Problem,” where I experiment with making sourdough recipes in my air fryer because the oven in our travel trailer doesn’t work. I never expected a sourdough starter to become part of my personality, but here we are lol.The flavor has been incredible, the instructions were easy to follow, and it’s been such a fun hobby to dive into. If you’ve been thinking about starting your sourdough journey, this is your sign!

Bought a dehydrated starter in powder form. This stuff was unbelievably difficult to work with. I eventually decided sourdough baking wasn’t for me and gave up. I had a good experience buying kefir grains from Amazon so as a last ditch effort I decided to buy this starter from Amazon. If it didn’t work I truly would have never attempted sourdough again. THIS STUFF IS AMAZING. It is SO FORGIVING, I have used it now for so many different recipes and all come out PERFECT. I am no longer exasperated by sourdough baking but excited and relaxed by it. This starter is strong, I baked my first loaf within 3 days. The rise is phenomenal. Even when it is hungry and needs to be fed I can still make an incredible springy loaf with it. Instructions are great. Thank you!!!!

This starter is soo good and has completely changed my consistent bread making fails into success! Every. Time. Got it in the mail and within 3 days it was ready to go. I baked the most delicious and perfect loaf of sourdough bread I’ve ever made. The flavor is mild and not too tangy. I’m sure the longer my starter, Luke Risewalker, lives, the more complex and rich the flavors will be. I’m making a second starter to have as insurance. If you’re struggling to get a starter going or your bread sucks, get this now. It will help make you feel like an expert baker!

Strong starter! Perked up within hours of feeding it and started making sourdough bread the next day.I had struggled to get a good starter going, fussing with it too much, probably, so this was a good way to get a starter I could actually use while getting through the learning curve.It's not fussy at all. I save a couple of tablespoons from each batch and put it into the fridge, pull it out when I want to use it, feed it the amount of flour and water I need for the recipe and a few hours later, it's ready.It's not as sour as I'd like, but it's reliable and delicious.