Jenny Derrickson

If you’ve entered the world of sourdough, chances are you’ve encountered discard. You feed your starter, remove some of it, add fresh flour and water...and then stare at that perfectly good little pile of starter wondering: Am I really supposed to throw this away?! Good news: you don’t have to. But here’s something else I want every new sourdough baker to know: You also don’t have to create huge amounts of discard in the first place. Let’s talk about what discard actually is, how to manage...

One of the questions I hear often is: "How do I make my sourdough taste more sour?" The answer isn't one magic trick. It's actually a combination of how you care for your starter and how you ferment your dough. At Bread and More, our sourdough has a much milder flavor than many people expect. That's intentional. I keep Frodough (yes, my starter has a name!) well-fed, healthy, and he lives on my countertop year-round. He almost never goes into the refrigerator unless I'm away on vacation. A...

If you’ve ever followed the exact same sourdough recipe twice and ended up with completely different results, you’re not imagining things. One of the biggest variables in sourdough baking isn’t the flour, the starter, or even the recipe itself, it’s the weather. Sourdough is alive. Your starter contains wild yeast and bacteria that respond constantly to their environment. Unlike commercial yeast, sourdough fermentation isn’t always predictable because it reacts to temperature, humidity, and...