The Explorer Starter: A World-Traveled Dehydrated Sourdough Starter

Excellent start to baking - sadly not foolproof

After failing to raise my own starter I thought that purchasing a starter was my best option to get started, however after two and a bit weeks of very unhappy explorer starter despite very exact feeding with Vollkorn and 550 Flour I tried new 550 flour (Mehlzauber Bio Weizenmehl Type 550) and that solved all of my problems. -Lesson: don't use REWE BIO 550 Flour. It solved all my problems so well that I tried to start a new starter from scratch without the explorer starter and suddenly I had a second very happy starter. I've been baking with the two starters for about 15 loaves now, and try as I might I cannot taste or see a difference in the bread, so I'm unsure what makes this starter different or more travelled. Possibly there has been cross-contamination between the two starter cultures which makes them the same, but I still learned a lot about baking and flour through this starter so it did it's job in getting my foot in the door. I love the channel in general and thank you for your support. Picture is of first bread (80%550, 10% 1050, 10% 630 flour, 25% g starter, 60% hydration, 4.6% salt) baked in open oven with trays.

I tried 3 times Bread12085

I really wanted this starter to work. Per the instrustions I should be able to rehydrate "explorer" 3 times. Sadly all 3 times were a fail for me. I tried to reach out for some direction, but no response. I also purchsed the hardcover book and poster at the same time. I absolutely love the book, although it was simply designed I still need some additional help - clearly.

Wonderful Jar

This starter jar has made my baking life a whole lot less stressful. I’ve always struggled with trying to determine whether my starter has doubled in size or not. With the markings on the jar made that determination super easy. I used mason jars to feed my starter and they were always hard to clean. This jar makes it easy