Sourdough Sidekick

This appliance is a game changer

Fantastic tool! I pulled some starter out of my freezer and used the auto mode. The result was a perfect, bubbly sourdough starter for my bread. On the second batch now.

I started my sourdough journey about two months ago. Made my own starter. Then cooked my first artisan loaf. It was okay but I overworked the dough. My next attempt turned out well. Then I decided to try sourdough sandwich bread. What a game changer, my family loved it. Watching and feeding my starter was becoming quite a chore. The sourdough sidekick changed that. I now bake bread twice a week and my starter is always ready. I have also started making chocolate chip brown butter cookies using the discard. I usually set my sidekick to give me a little extra for baking.

Do I recommend the Sourdough Sidekick, absolutely. I have plan on ordering one for my daughter at Christmas time.

High class product. Makes starter maintenance a breeze without ever having to refrigerate. It creates the most perfect starter resulting in the softest crumb bread with a golden crust and generous spring.

I recently purchased the sourdough sidekick and I LOVE it! It's made maintaining my sourdough starter much easier. My only concern is that the flour, water, and starter don't always fully mix together and tend to clump on the spatula. I hope this can be improved in a future update. Otherwise, I'm very happy with my purchase!

With my work schedule, I've never been able to keep a vigorous starter going. I've usually needed to refrigerate it for several weeks and then struggle to get it healthy. I just finished my first AUTO program and have a lovely, active starter after a week of hands-off feedings. The program finished right on time.

My only issue is that I would like a target for the AUTO program of less than 400 g. I usually make a double batch and only need about 250 g (200 for my recipe and 50 for seeding the next batch with a safety margin).

I love this! I’ve made multiple loaves already.

Something that would be great is a guide that can help with translating different feed recipes into how to use for the sidekick, as well as additional context on the different ratios for sourdough newbies.

But this is truly a game changer.

I love this thing. I’m making more sourdough things just so I can have an excuse to make more starter

All worked as expected,created starter from scratch took three discard cycles (made Waffles, Pancakes, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and Blueberry Cornbread), Used auto to make First Sourdough Loaf that gave it four days to create and two day to make a round loaf with the no-knead recipe. Looks fantastic and created a 10" loaf.

Wow!!! What a machine. I used autolyse method with the flour with a 2 hour time. Then I watched Rick’s same day sourdough process (great YouTube). I followed it religiously. Ii produced the BEST loaf of sourdough bread in my 6 years of trying the craft. After this experience, I have 2 friends ready to buy the machine. Wish they offered commissions. LOL

The Sidekick is amazing! I had stopped baking with sourdough because I go tired of babysitting the starter and wasting so much flour. The Sidekick takes care of everything with no waste. I only bake with einkorn flour so I had the Sidekick create the starter from scratch following their instructions. It was viable in just four days. I had a few hiccups along the way that were due to operator error. Since then, I’ve baked several delicious boules, an amazing sourdough discard pizza (King Arthur’s website recipe), crackers, pancakes and the list goes on. This is the most fun I’ve had without the stress worrying about wasting flour or that I’ll kill the starter. Once in a while I will notice that some flour is clumped on the paddle. I’ve learned that I can remove the crock (in Auto mode at least) and use a small spatula to push the lump off the paddle and mix it with the starter. I then put it back into the Sidekick and it picks right up where it was (it does complain while I have it out).

The instructions are very well-written and easy to follow. The device itself is also user friendly. They couldn’t make it any more compact. They clearly put a lot of thought into to the design.

I bought this because I was intimidated by the care and feeding of sourdough started. I have had this device for a couple of weeks and baked 5 loaves of bread so far. it makes getting the right amount of starter very easy. I am loving it.

Love the sidekick. I have never tried sourdough baking before and now I’ve been making loaves for the neighbors.

From the moment I opened my SDSK I was amazed to see this new product. I actually only knew anything about sourdough from the FB groups I'm part of. So I had a lot to learn quickly, ehich was actually very fun@ From my very first auto batch, to this last batch..I have had absolutely no problems with my SDSK..thank you so much First Build and King Arthur. This is a very amazing machine at a price point that cannot be matched...I love my SDSK!

Best invention since sliced bread!
Makes keeping your Sourdough Starter active and at its peak on your own schedule. Let the Sourdough Sidekick do the work for you. Relax, find new recipes while the Sidekick feeds and mixes your starter so you don’t have to. 3 was to make it your way, Auto, Ratio, or Custom. Something for everyone.
Makes fresh starter ready on the day you want to bake. Need to wait a week, no problem, need it in 48 hours, done! I just love it, completely simplified my baking prep.
Customer service is A+, plus their Facebook page everyone is just so helpful and amazing.

Rough start but got things worked out. Excellent customer support!! Now on my fourth bake, must say this machine has made a huge difference in my bread. I have a very busy life and maintaining a starter was challenging at times. Now my starter is strong and robust and I find I’m baking more often, and the results are wonderful. Thank you SDSK Team!

What can I say. Just as advertised. Fill up the flour and water. Enter the day and time you want to make your project and TRUST THE PROCESS. Only had it a week and have made a couple loaves of Rick's Easy Sourdough, apple fritter bread, blueberry muffins, English muffins, chocolate chip bread. Easy Peasy. LOVE IT!

Love this little machine! The key to good sourdough is consistency, and the Sidekick handles keeping your starter consistent and happy. If you’ve maintained your starter yourself this will be different- you have to trust the micro feeding process and know it will be ready when you set it to be. I’ve gotten some of my best bread with the starter maintained by the Sidekick in Auto mode. Now the only thing I need to worry about is what recipe to make next!

Love my sourdough sidekick. My only trouble is connecting the Wi-Fi to my app on my phone. Likely it is my fault, but I still have not been able to resolve that issue.