FAIL | Sourdough Starter, Round 2

The nasty weevil type bugs who raided my
second attempt at sourdough starter.

As a few of you might remember, I attempted making sourdough starter earlier this year. It was a huge fail. I couldn't get the mixture to bubble and the container I first started it out in was much too small to hold the growing mixture…I just didn't know that until after it overflowed! You can read more about that first sourdough starter making experience here.

One day I was looking through one of my cookbooks and stumbled across a sourdough starter recipe. I thought I would be brave enough to give the stuff a second try. After all, some things just take more than one shot before you get the hang of it! I didn't get around to doing anything with the recipe for almost a week, but I had it on my to-do list and finally I took the time to do it. This would be my second experience in sourdough making.

The sourdough starter before it was raided by the bugs.

The recipe was really simple and getting everything all mixed together took no time at all. Before long the mix was bubbly and looking like it was supposed to. Because I now have a screened in back porch I thought it would be a good idea to set the sourdough out there to make. It was quite a bit warmer than anywhere in my dining room or kitchen so I thought perhaps it would do better out there. And for the first two days it did…but on the third day we had problems: little weevil looking bugs were swimming in the starter!!! I was SO mad. The starter looked great, but I wasn't about to just spoon those critters out and keep going! How gross would that be?

So the starter was brought in the house and dumped out. I cleaned up everything and got ready to start on round three. Which I still haven't started... This time the starter will be staying IN the house! I really hope that the third time will be the last time I have to attempt making this stuff! It was supposed to be an easy follow-the-steps-and-have-great-bread-soon-after thing and it’s not been going that way at all.

On the first fail I learned that using a bigger container to start out is much better than going too small and having to transfer. This second time I've learned that putting sourdough starter on the back porch, even though it's enclosed, is a bad idea. Hopefully the third time will be it and we'll finally have a positive experience in sourdough making to share!