You can also peruse this site which is helpful for sourdough.

www.northwestsourdough.com

Welcome to the TFL!

Here is a link to the starter recipe that I and many others have had great success with. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233/wild-yeast-sourdough-starter

Thanks so much for the help. The pineapple/wheat one has me really intrigued since I have read many reports on it. I think I need to go rummage around for some juice in my pantry and see if I can get something growing!

I'm so impressed! I made  Sourdolady's pineapple starter and it worked! I used her recipe but formed it into 'sub buns' instead of one boule. I admit I sat on my kitchen floor and stared into the oven to watch it spring! Pathetic, I know but was fun! My husband and I ate all of it in the first 2 days. Now my starter is ready again and I want to bake another one. My question is how do I keep the hard crust? It had a beautiful hard crunchy top out of the oven but after it cooled down and by the next morning it was soft and chewy. I just kept them in a basket with a towel covering it? Whats the secret?

I must be in an anti-starter area. I tried for seven days to get the pineapple thing going and no go. (;_;) Maybe I'll try again at a latter time.

There are several factors that come into play when you are creating a starter that can cause problems. I will list a few:

• Flour used might not have enough viable yeast cells (old flour, processed flour)
• Water may have chloramines or chlorine
• Room temperature is not warm enough (85 degrees F is ideal)
• Starter is fed too much
• Starter is fed too frequently
• The cook is too impatient (this takes time and patience!)

Regarding the last item--so many people expect too much, too fast. Sometimes the mixture will just sit there for 2 or 3 days and appear to be dead. You need to just tough it out and WAIT! This is a normal occurance. A lot of times people think that because it is not bubbling it needs more food and keep feeding more and more. When this is done before you have an active starter it will just make it take longer to activate because you are smothering the few yeast cells with too much food. Patience is the key. It can take a week to 10 days in some cases, whereas other people will have good activity in 4 or 5 days. A week is about average.

Thanks for the checklist. Here is a basic rundown of what I did.

Last Sunday, I got me some R.W Knudsen, Organic Pineapple juice with No Sugar Added. It was a little on the expensive side considering I don't normally drink the stuff. Anyway, I mixed per instruction with KAF Bread Flour and bottle water. Followed the feedings per instruction. On the evening of the third day I did see some activity. It was encouraging.

Changed feeding according to the 4th day. Evening of the 4th day the starter was runny with hooch on top. Mixed it back in and continued. Each day after that was the same, hooch and very runny, no activity. Added 1/4 t of Apple Cider per recommendations. This evening, the starter was runny and contained hooch. So I decided that I'd try again later.

The temperature was controlled at 25C (77F) and maybe that is why I was having problems. But my room temperature is not 29C (85F). So that is why I use a proofing box with regulated temperature. Next time I will increase the proofing box to 29C (85F).

Like I said, I will try again later. Thanks.

I made my second batch of sour dough and it turned out beautiful, and tastes even better! But still wondering if someone can answer my previous question about storing my bread to keep the crust 'crusty' and not have it soften up and get all chewy? Thanks!

Thanks so much. I will try that. and thanks again for the simple and very tasty starter recipe. We are enjoying the benefits!