Do you need commercial yeast for sourdough bread?
No added yeast is needed. A sourdough starter cultivates the wild yeast and bacteria that already live on the flour, and those wild yeasts do the leavening for you. That is the whole point of sourdough: flour and water over a few days grow their own culture, with no commercial yeast required.
Answered by Hendrik, The Bread Code
From the book
Making a sourdough starter is very easy, all you need is a little bit of patience. It is in fact so easy that it can be summarized in a simple Flowchart 3.1 The flour you should use to bootstrap your starter is ideally a whole flour. You could use whole-wheat, whole-rye, whole-spelt or any other flour you have. In fact gluten free flours such as rice or corn would also work. Don’t worry, you can always change the flour later. Use whatever whole flour you already have at hand.
Where this was asked
Sourdough StarterRelated questions
Not quite your question? Ask Loafy