Living Dough - 900 years of sourdough cultivation - fresh and organic sourdough starter for baking - active and vibrant wild yeast entrance, Dutch sourdough bread starter

When my 900-year-old sourdough starter arrived, it was very watery and clearly hungry from its long journey. With a little patience, care, and love, I fed it faithfully and watched it slowly come back to life. After three days, it fully activated—bubbly, strong, and full of character. The reward was incredible. I baked the most delicious and perfectly textured sourdough bread, with a beautiful rise, crisp crust, and rich, deep flavor that only a well-aged starter can give. It truly felt like baking with living history. An amazing experience for any sourdough lover who values tradition, patience, and exceptional results

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!!!

Got this as a Christmas gift for my dad, who's a *very* experienced sourdough baker. Unfortunately, earlier this year, the 3 sourdough starters he made from scratch and had for MONTHS died because of a medical event, and I could tell he wasn't showing how upset he was about it. For about 6 months now, he's made at least a loaf of bread a week, but has yet to make sourdough because of the extra work it can be. He loved this!! I was really surprised at the quality of the product; the container looks nice, and it comes with printed, thorough instructions on quality paper, making it very giftable!! Also, the company is so professional and customer-oriented that they guarantee SUCCESS and have a personal email for questions, which is very rare. I forgot to take a picture, but we made a loaf, and it came out great. It had a good flavor and baked perfectly; we were very happy with the results. Highly recommend! :)

She WORKS!!! That’s all that matters! So I tried a dehydrated starter and no luck so I bought a living one and chose the oldest one they have because it’s definitely set in her ways, lol. I was suppose to have her on the 17th and was delayed two days so I was worried. When I opened her, she popped very loudly and there was a fog like steam, and so I was worried that was a bad sign. But nope. She looked fine and smelt fine, although the consistency was a little runny I figured she was hungry. I know, I keep saying her because I’ve named mine and it’s a she, so that’s her pronouns. They say to name your starter to personalize it and to remember it’s a living organism that needs to feed. When I received her, she was already two days late and I figured she was very HANGRY, especially since she popped very loudly. Unfortunately reading the instructions, they say to feed her immediately upon arrival, however all I had was bleached flour, I did feed her, and then I went out and bought unbleached flour. The instructions specifically say to feed her “anything but bleached.” But she still reacted fine, and doubled last night and I fed her again today and she is tripling in size now so tomorrow if she bubbles and doubles/triples, then I will be finally able to cook with her! Yay! I’m very grateful for how easy it is to use a living than a dehydrated one. The picture she looks great and this is day two into three hours of feeding, and I did 2oz of starter/flour/water ratio. I will update if I remember to. So thank you so much for sharing your starter with me who was having an issue with the dehydrated versions.

So, she’s started to rise! I’ve named her Doughretha Franklin and she’s on a mission! The seller was EXTRAORDINARY! He went above and beyond when my first package was lost. I’m pretty sure it was put in the wrong box by the mail carrier, so I asked him if he could check the tracking. He sent another one immediately! It came with instructions, so as soon as I got the replacement package I started the dough right away. She’s growing… I can’t wait to make my first batch of bread from this 900 year old starter. It’s so neat to me that it’s been taken care of for so long and passed down all these generations. I chose it after reading reviews on many starters and I’d purchase again simply because the company has such integrity. I pray I can make many loaves of bread for my family, just as other families have been able to for 900 years.