Living Dough - 233 Year Old San Francisco Sourdough Starter Culture - Active & Live Organic Sourdough Starter for Baking - For Artisan 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!

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.

Her instructions are simple and detailed and after two days the starter was more than doubling in size. I’ve had issues when baking with my own starter, but this starter is perfect and for once helped me create my first good loaf! I can’t wait to bake more with it!

I am a complete beginner at all things sourdough, and this starter has made my experience so much easier and more enjoyable! The starter came with clear and comprehensive directions. The steps were easy, and on day three, my starter was so active that a few hours after feeding it, it had overflowed its container. I started my first loaf of sourdough that day, and it was delicious! I love the fun history of this starter, and am excited to use it to keep the sourdough tradition going. I would highly recommend this for newbies and more experienced bakers alike!

I recently started using this 233-year-old living sourdough starter, and it’s been such a different and interesting experience. Once I committed to feeding it daily with unbleached flour and spring water, it became active and puffy. It can feel a little intimidating at first—especially knowing its long history—but it’s also exciting and to work with something that’s been alive for generations, I suppose. I’m hopeful and nervous but also can’t wait to see how our first bake turns out. We’re planning to either grill or pan-fry the bread and will update with more details once we do!

Like many of you out there, I binge watched a LOT of how to sourdough videos.... And then took the plunge. Ordered this spunky old 900 yr old Dutch starter! It arrived a few days and opened with a loud Pop, and a lovely aroma! I fed it with 1:1:1 and said a prayer 🙏 the very next day it was bubbling over and insanely active! So I figured I'd go ahead and give it a go. I'm insanely shocked how beautiful my first loaf is.... It was like Christmas morning when I opened the oven this morning 🥰 I highly recommend this high quality starter.... (I also made Claire Saffitz sourdough pancakes this morning and they were incredible!!) If you're on the fence and nervous about sourdough, don't be.... It's very easy to do!!