900 Year Old Dutch Sourdough Starter Culture for Baking, Fresh & Versatile

Got my starter, Im on day 2 of feeding and its sloooowly rising. Pilot error because I used very cold filtered water from my refrigerator as to why I believe its a tad sluggish so I put in oven with light on as instagram recommends. Its bubbling now so Im thrilled. On my next feed I will make sure water is room temp water or nuke it for 10 seconds. It may be a few more days to activate and bake per the instructions; it says that when its ready it will grow in 3-6 hours. That said, instructions are solid and easy to follow as a newbie. I had a delivery issue with USPS but Joe from customer service (he may be employee or owner I dont know) but immediately resolved the issue, he was fantastic and that alone deserves a 5 star! I have not made my first loaf but will update review soon! I know the starter is great and this will all come down to proofing (bc the last 10 loaves of regulat bread I made it was always my proofing time thats been an issue!). For me, the starter was a head start as I really wanted to make sourdough. I really did not want to make my own starter and fail; that was a huge concern. For me, purchase was no brainer and making this sourdough journey more approachable and less intimidating. 😊

I couldn't help but be curious about a long living starter! I decided to go with the oldest one. It shipped promptly, and arrived sooner than expected. It was well packaged. The seal on the jar was intact. When it hissed open I was met with a rich aroma. I got roughly 60 grams of starter and fed it at 1:1:1 with unbleached bread flour. Very quickly I was seeing activity and a healthy rise. There was lots of active bubbling to be seen! The first time around took about 6 hours to peak, give or take. Every 1:1:1 feeding after that had it doubling and then peaking in less than 4 in my warm kitchen. I fed it peak to peak 3 times before I baked with it. The first loaf turned out beautifully! The rise in the dough was quick and consistent. I did have medium rye for 1/6th of the flour and the rest bread flour, all King Arthur Organic Unbleached. The rye does get a faster rise, but this is my usual blend and this rose noticeably faster. The dough smelled heavenly. It did have its own distinct characteristics in smell. It was fascinating to see how this starter behaved in comparison to my previous starter. Even during the long cold proofing my loaf rose a bit more with this strain. Everything looked and felt good. Definitely had a distinct higher performance. I finally got my loaf into the oven. The oven spring on the loaf was very good! The crumb was lovely. Even though I served it before it fully cooled it was still fluffy and light. The bread had delicious and distinct aromatics! This starter certainly has character. I asked the seller about this strains origins and history. They responded quickly with some really interesting information! I was so jazzed to read about it. This strain in particular is in a European Sourdough Museum (Belgium, I believe) . I'm going to look into that museum to see if I can see what details their testing found. Since this strain has some early origin lore in Wales, I had to think of a proper name. Since legends say that's where Merlin came from, I felt I needed to honor that. Since I already have a strain named Sir Lanceloaf (Since I use King Arthur flour mostly) i had to tie it all together. As I watched the starter rising it occurred to me. I named it Excalibread. If you're even the mildest bit curious, or just starting your own Sourdough Journey, I cannot recommend this brand enough. I can't recommend this strain enough! It's a powerful and healthy little starter! I was so pleased with my loaf that I decided to let Sir Lanceloaf take a fridge vacation and I'll be maintaining Excalibread on the counter for the foreseeable future. It was such a great experience all around. So, allow me to be the little Amazon devil on your shoulder, add to cart!!!

This stuff is awesome and so easy to use!!! The bread is incredible and cutting out preservatives of store bought is much easier than we thought. Recommend 1,000%

I started my original sourdough starter from scratch myself, so I wasn’t sure I even NEEDED this. But when guests were coming in 7 days and I needed a second active starter FAST, I ordered the Living Dough Organic Sourdough Starter from Amazon and I am SO glad I did! This starter is made from a 900-year-old Dutch yeast culture and you can absolutely feel the difference. My original starter has been going strong — I’m convinced it’s because I added a culture to it earlier this year — and now I have this one bubbling away beautifully right alongside it. Here’s what I love most: ✅ Ships fast — straight to your door ✅ 100% organic ingredients ✅ SO much easier to work with than people think ✅ The instructions make it approachable even for beginners ✅ Active and alive — this thing is STRONG Getting it started is way simpler than people make sourdough out to be. The key is just consistency — keep it like peanut butter thickness if you’re storing in the fridge between feedings, or loosen it up to a plain yogurt consistency when you’re ready to bake. Feed daily, discard half each day for up to 6 days, and you are OFF to the races! 🙌 And don’t sleep on those discard recipes — Cheez-Its and waffles made from the discard are an absolute game changer in our house! 🧇 If you’ve been intimidated by sourdough, this starter is genuinely the perfect place to begin. And if you’re an experienced baker like me, it’s a fantastic addition to what you already have going.

Incredible flavor and a vigorous starter! Made a loaf today and pizza crust a few days ago. The crust on my loaf was perfection. Crisp and lovely. The inside was soft and airy. Highly recommend!

Delicious vigorous starter. Used until I had had gained 12# and then dried and also froze alliquots for later use. Boiled of classic sourdough, sourdough beer rye, sourdough pickle/onion rye, sourdough mixed grain, sourdough sweet upset and pumpkin all baked up magnificently. I stuck to baking boules in my cast iron Dutch oven - why mess with success? Discard made great crackers and awesome sourdough/sweet potato/molasses crunchies which our dogs, the neighbor’s dogs and our friends’ dogs gobbled. In fact the crunchies are a mandatory b-day and Christmas treat for the aforementioned. I heartily recommend this starter to any and all who want to give a go at knock a reliable sourdough starter tucked in the back of the fridge - oh and this starter went two weeks in the back of the fridge w/o a feed and can’t roaring back within 24 hours when fed. Can’t beat it.

This starter comes hydrated, which makes it much easier to get started, unlike dehydrated starters. It smells great! Mine began to double after the first feeding. By the second feeding, it had more than doubled in size, and I took my chances at baking a loaf with it. It was delicious!!! Light, airy, beautiful crumb, great rise, and perfect crust! The method I used was to let it bulk rise in the oven with the light off and on for a few hours, and then in the fridge overnight. For the second rise, it was on my counter for about 3 hours. Of note, my house does not stay at a warm temperature because I run my AC at night and throughout the day, so I kept my starter in the pantry during feedings. I fed it bread flour and filtered water. After feeding my starter the third time, it was a monster and began to push through the cloth I had secured over the jar! I had so much starter that I baked a second loaf, as well as three 12-inch pizzas! I won't be ordering pizzas from anywhere anymore. Making them at home from this is now the only way to do it!

This is probably the easier way to get into sour dough. I had zero experience with this venture, but the instructions were clear and even though it comes in a tiny jar with maybe 1/4 cup of starter, once you feed it for a week you’ll have more starter than you know what to do with. It had a really slow start for the 1st couple days, only because it took me that long to realize the flour I used was too old, so once I bought fresh stuff it overflowed. If you don’t make a whole lot of bread like me, and don’t want to continue throwing away you’re starter and wasting, it just feed it once a week after it has woken up out of dormancy, and keep it in the fridge. It’s very active bubbly, and healthy stuff