It’s January, which means Sourdough Month here at Twice as Tasty. Since 2017, I’ve dedicated this month to encouraging you to keep a sourdough starter in your kitchen and use it to bake all sorts of tasty doughs. This year, my recipes in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon will focus on a couple of sweet mother doughs that can be used in countless ways. I’ll share some of my favorite loaf and roll shapes to get you excited about using sourdough starter when you bake brioche-style doughs.

I’ve been maintaining my sourdough starter since 2014, through weeks of constant feeding as I built it up to share with hundreds of new bakers—and months of neglect as I traveled. If life got in the way of your sourdough habit, you might not have had the same faith in your unused jar of starter. But as I explain in this week’s column, wild yeast is unbelievably resilient, and an ugly starter lurking at the back of your fridge might still be full of life. If you’re still skeptical after reading this week’s column, just check out this post and photos of a sourdough starter I woke up after 2 years of dormancy.

Learn more about reviving dormant or requesting free sourdough starter in my column.

If you’ve already tossed your forlorn sourdough starter or are ready to bake with wild yeast for the first time, you can still join in this month’s fun. I’ve teamed up with other fermenters to share sourdough starter, scoby, kefir grains, and more through the Sharing fermented starters Facebook group. Join us in sharing the love of fermentation by becoming a member of the group and offering or requesting starters.

If you’re not a Facebook user, you can contact me with your request for sourdough starter. For a more personal project, learn to make sourdough starter from scratch. Once you start baking, be sure to share your creations.

Make it, share it.
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Twice as Tasty

To help you share and care for sourdough starter, I created a series of PDF guides last year. You can find them under the Files tab within the Sharing fermented starters Facebook group or in this blog post. Feel free to download and print out these guides to use in your kitchen as you start baking with sourdough—and give them to others as you share your own starter.

Now let’s get baking! I’ll be sharing sweet sourdough recipes all month in my Flathead Beacon column. While you wait, here are some from past years that I bake regularly; you can find even more sourdough recipes on the blog.

• Overnight Sourdough Pancakes
• Sourdough Power Waffles
• Sourdough Pizza Dough
• Sourdough Empanadas
• Pillowy Sourdough Pita
• Twice-Baked Sourdough Pita Chips
• Stovetop Sourdough English Muffins
• Herb-and-Salt Sourdough Focaccia
• Sourdough Cabin Bread

You can also find my answers to some common questions from new sourdough bakers in this blog post.

Need starter? Join the Sharing fermented starters Facebook group to request sourdough starter, scoby, kefir grains, and more, any time of year. If you are not a Facebook user, contact me by January 31, 2025, with your request for sourdough starter.