Whether you're on vacation or simply having a hectic week, making the time to feed your sourdough starter can be a huge commitment. But despite this, sourdough baking has never been so popular. Now, two companies have joined forces to solve the number one problem home bakers face.
GE Appliance’s innovative hub FirstBuild and the King Arthur Baking Company have just announced the Sourdough Sidekick. It’s the first gadget that automatically feeds and builds sourdough starter totally hands-free, and on your schedule.
How does the Sourdough Sidekick work?
According to King Arthur’s 2024 Bread Baking Survey, 60% of bread bakers now maintain an active starter. And this is not a small undertaking, as countless sourdough forums and threads online will tell you.
The Sourdough Sidekick eliminates the chore of daily starter maintenance — one of the top frustrations for sourdough bakers, not only by doing the feeding itself, but by automatically adjusting its temperature to ensure your starter is in its ideal environment.
André Zdanow, FirstBuild President, says, “By combining our hardware innovation expertise with King Arthur Baking Company’s centuries of baking knowledge, we’ve created a solution that eliminates the demanding daily maintenance schedule while making sourdough more accessible even when life gets busy."
Features
The Sourdough Sidekick has three main features which are designed to make life easier for the baker, all based around a smart feeding system that does the hard work for you.
The “auto” mode allows you to tell the device how much starter your recipe needs and when it’s needed, down to the day and hour. All you’ll need to do is fill the flour and water hoopers, add a seed amount and leave the Sourdough Sidekick to do the rest for up to 7 days.
There’s also a “custom” mode for experienced bakers that tackles scheduling issues, while maintaining preferred feeding ratios and frequency, so you can even keep your starter happy while you’re away.
Thirdly, it features a temperature sensor that adjusts the feeding of the starter based on the environment.
You can discover more about the Sourdough Sidekick and how it works here.
When will it be available?
The Sourdough Sidekick will be launched on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo on March 25, but it’s not expected to be shipped to backers until January 2026. In the meantime, if you’re keen to get your hands on this device, you can sign up on the waiting list.
The rising popularity of sourdough
The popularity of making sourdough grew during the pandemic, but it continues to remain in favor with home bakers. A recent study from King Arthur revealed that 60% of homebread bakers now maintain an active starter. What’s more, the company’s sourdough content attracted 18.4 million views in the past year, with its sourdough starter recipe topping 1.3 million views.
King Arthur’s Fresh Sourdough Starter is its top-selling direct-to-consumer item, indicating the continued interest in sourdough baking.
Karen Colberg, CEO of King Arthur Baking Company, says, “We’ve helped generations of bakers master the art of maintaining a sourdough starter, and with the Sourdough Sidekick, we’re building on that expertise. This innovation makes sourdough more accessible — whether you’re a seasoned baker or just starting out.”
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