What causes it to ferment?

Lactobacilli and wild yeast in the flour

You need even amounts of water and flour.
Start with 100g of each.

Day 1:

In the morning mix the 100g of flour with the 100g of water in a container that can hold roughly 1 liter (just to be on the safe side).

Cover it with a tea towel, or a loose lid.
Don't close it.

Day 2:

In the morning, discard 2/3s of the mix, and add 100g water and 100g flour to the remainder and mix it well.

Day 3:

Repeat what you did on day 2.

Day 4, 5, and 6:

You now do the feeding in the morning, and then again in the evening, roughly 12hrs later

Day 7 and onwards:

You should now have a pretty stable starter, that will rise and fall fairly predictably every day after feeding.

When refreshing it from this day on, you can discard 3/4 of the mix.

To be able to successfully mix water, flour, and salt, I must have this gadget

As with any hobby, it's easy to go on a shopping spree getting all the gear that some websites say you need to be able to bake a bread

Bannetons for proofing

Dough proofer

Bread lame for scoring

Special jars for your starter

thermometers for gauging your dough temperature

And while these all may be necessary to bake the perfect loaf every.single.time, part of the charm (in my opinion) of baking, is that no two loafs are the same

Bench knife / dough scraper

Spatulas

Great for mixing your starter

Cast iron pot

Aim for something between 25cm-30cm diameter

A kitchen scale

Chances are you already have one, otherwise, I recommend it. Makes it easier weighing your ingredients.

My dough proofer

One of my bannetons...

...another of my bannetons

My "bread lame" and cast iron pot

My starter jar

• Non-bleached or organic wheat flour
• If you can get strong white flour, then get that
• ⛔ Don't buy self-raising flour, as it contains baking powder

You need white flour because it holds the most gluten and protein, and thus gives the bread structure. Usually 60% of the flour in the bread should be white flour.

The rest you can mix up the way you like (chickpea, wholemeal, rye)

I normally use 80-90% white flour, and then add other types for the rest

The Levain

1. Take 25-35g of your ripe starter
2. Mix it with 55g white flour, and 100g water
3. Once mixed, let it rest covered for 6hrs

Around 5mins

1. Add 480-500g of water to the mix more water means a wetter dough, and thus somewhat harder to work with
2. 15-20g fine salt
3. 750g flour

Around 10mins

Mix it

The lazy part of this method, is that after mixing it, I leave it covered for 6-8hrs (or until it has roughly doubled in size)

It's lazy because a lot of recipes tells you to stretch and fold it every 90-120mins. This is to work the gluten, so you get better structure in your bread. I skip this step because... well, I'm lazy.

...6-8hrs later...

Around 10mins

Next up...

• sprinkle the center of a tea towel with flour, and move your dough onto it
• Lift up the corners, and dump it in your banneton of choice, arrange the corners of the tea towel to cover the top of the bread
• Stick it in the fridge.

I leave it in the fridge overnight, somewhere between 10-14hrs.

Next morning... move the bread from the "banneton" to the cast iron pot, and score it

I recommend cutting out a piece baking paper to cover the bottom of the cast iron pot. It will stop your bread from sticking to the bottom of the pot while baking.

...Bread in the pot, scored, and ready to bake...

Heat your oven to 240-250°c

Put the lid on the pot, and once the oven is warm, put the pot in.

After 30 mins, remove the lid...

...After another 30mins...

Starters are very forgiving

When I don't use mine, it lives in an airtight jar in my fridge

His name is Samuel Bakeit

In the beginning I would feed it for 2 days (4 feedings) before I could bake with it, and used 100g flour/water for every feeding

I'm now using just 50g flour/water for each feeding

I only need to feed it twice (morning, and evening) before I can use it for baking

If I want to bake a bread Saturday morning/noon, Plan goes like this

• Thursday: Discard almost all the starter, and feed it 50g water/flour in the morning, and again in the evening

• Friday morning: mix the the levain - let it rest for 6hrs
  Friday afternoon: mix the levain with the flour, salt, and water- let it rest for 6-8hrs or until roughly double in size
  Friday late: minimal stretch and fold (not really necessary), shaping, put it in the "banneton" and stick it in the fridge

• Saturday morning/noon: Fire up the oven, tip the dough into the pot, score it with a knife, put a lid on, 30mins with lid on, 30mins with lid off