If your friend doesn't come through, like Murphy 224 said, you can make your own by mixing white flour and a pinch of white sugar with some pure water in a jar. Cover the jar with a cloth and set it in a draft free area of the kitchen, preferably in a mildly warm place. In a few days, you will start to see some bubbles from the natural, wild yeasts that have come to live in the happy home that you've provided for them. Let it sit out and bubble on your counter. You may want to add another tablespoon of white flour to the mix in order to feed it and keep it going. After that, put a lid on it and keep it in your refrigerator. You're supposed to keep feeding it, but frankly, I never do and it is still always active when I go to use it. I just refeed it when I use it. I started this batch of starter 9 years ago and it is still going strong.
Some tips:
-Always put it in a fresh, clean jar after you use it, so that you don't start growing things like molds, which you certainly don't want.
-I like to use just white, wheat flour, not whole wheat, or other flours because the bran portions don't break down readily and that makes a mess and invites other pathogens to take hold.
-If you let it rest outside the fridge for at least a day before you use it, it will be more sour and active. Same goes for the, "sponge," or dough. The longer it sits out in a warm, draft free place, the sourer it gets and the better it will rise.
~ C
Last edited by tropit; 07-01-2020 at 10:09 AM.