With the mercury gradually dropping and winter just around the corner, there is no better time to get back into the kitchen and start baking bread again. Enter Sourdough Flakes – the missing ingredient to your bootleg bread-making operation. The brainchild of Ipswich locals George and Karyn Sutton, Sourdough Flakes was spawned from an ingenious plan to make sure George’s sourdough starter could travel with him to Fiji, where he was working at a local resort on Denarau Island. His dehydrated strips proved to be the perfect method of ensuring George could whip up a loaf where ever his work took him. Upon returning to Ipswich when COVID struck Fiji, George and Karyn figured locals could also make use of this method – removing at least one headache from lockdown.

Aged and dried in a quaint cottage kitchen in Queensland, these flakes will stay dehydrated for approximately a year whilst stored in your pantry – meaning you have more than enough time to perfect the art of bread making. The best part? The starter works as a great base for not just loaves of bread but also pizza bases, focaccia, crumpets and even hot cross buns. When you’re ready to jump back on the bandwagon, simply follow the flake-by-flake rehydration steps on the packet (also seen here) to create your own bubbly jar of sourdough starter, which is ready to bake into a lovely loaf in just five days. All you’ll need to make your carb-loaded creation is a packet of Sourdough Flakes, filtered or spring water, some bakers flour and all of the usual kitchen utensils. Then it’s as easy as rehydrating and feeding your dough, watching it rise, popping on the oven and finally, baking it. Eat your heart out, Nigella.

To grab some Sourdough Flakes, pop over to this website. As they say, let’s get this bread!