Baking Sourdough at Home
Like Duolingo, but for Baking Sourdough at Home. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Building and Handling Living Dough and Timing, Shaping, and the Bake. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Baking Sourdough at Home
- A sourdough starter is powered entirely by equal parts flour and water
- Wild yeast and beneficial bacteria already live in flour and the environment, so commercial yeast or sugar are unnecessary
- A starter at its peak has doubled or tripled in volume compared to its starting line
- A domed surface signals it is still holding maximum gas, whereas a sunken top means it has collapsed past peak
- Placing a rubber band around the jar right at the freshly fed starter line provides a baseline
- Straight vertical jar walls make it easy to see exactly when the starter has reached twice its original height
- Cold refrigerator temperatures chill yeast and bacteria into dormant hibernation
- A refrigerated sourdough starter only needs maintenance once a week instead of daily counter feedings
- Without discarding, the volume of starter snowballs exponentially and wastes massive amounts of flour
- Removing old starter prevents harsh acidic buildup that eventually weakens the wild yeast
- Flour and water start forming gluten bonds on their own simply by hydrating, without any physical kneading
- Adding starter later allows enzymes to break down starches and soften the flour first, making the dough stretchy effortlessly
- High-hydration sourdough dough is too wet for aggressive countertop pounding, which just sticks to hands and tears gluten
- Gentle stretch-and-folds directly in the bowl easily align and strengthen wet sourdough strands
- Early sourdough dough feels slack, flat, and puddles in the bowl
- Repeated periodic folds pull the dough upward into a smooth, dome-like mound with surface tension
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Baking Sourdough at Home the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You want to feed your sourdough starter on the counter. What are the only two ingredients it needs?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Baking Sourdough at Home takes you
Demystify wild yeast, master hands-off dough techniques, and bake rustic sourdough loaves with blistered crusts and open crumbs in your home oven.
- 1
Building and Handling Living Dough
- Keeping Starter Healthy Without Drama
- Developing Dough Structure Hands-Off
- 2
Timing, Shaping, and the Bake
- Reading Fermentation and Shaping Loaves
- Harnessing Steam and Heat for the Bake
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Baking Sourdough at Home is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Food & Drink on Tomo
The Mechanics of Sourdough
Bridge the gap between following sourdough recipes and truly controlling your bake. Master dough tension, open crumb architecture, hydration limits, and fermentation chemistry.
Sourdough Baking for Beginners
Stop buying bread and start growing it. Learn to manage a living starter and bake your first crusty, tangy loaf using the power of wild yeast.
Mastering Sourdough at Home
Stop buying expensive loaves and start baking your own tangy, crusty bread. Learn to keep a starter alive and bake your first masterpiece using just flour, water, and salt.
Sourdough: Baking with Wild Yeast
Stop following rigid recipes and start understanding the living ecosystem of wild yeast to bake crusty, tangy bread at home.
Bake Your First Sourdough Bread
Stop buying expensive loaves and start baking your own. Learn how to manage a starter, read the dough, and get that perfect crispy crust right in your home oven.
Sourdough Bread from Scratch
Master the art of wild yeast. Learn to keep a starter alive and bake your first crusty, tangy loaf using the power of time instead of effort.
Start Baking Sourdough at Home today.
Download Tomo, search Baking Sourdough at Home, and play your first lesson in under a minute.