Sourdough Doesn’t Have To Be An All-Consuming Hobby — Here’s How

If you have been paying attention to food trends over the past decade, you’ll understand how sourdough has been on a generational run of popularity and trendiness ever since the pandemic. Sure, people loved it before. But it was definitely not as simple to come by, and people certainly weren’t making it at home to the same extent as they do now. It was one of those things that felt exclusive to luxe cafés and San Francisco itself. That all changed when lockdown hit in 2020 and people had more time than ever to sort out the tedious process at home.

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Moreso than ever before, home bakers took it upon themselves to master and perfect the art of a good San Francisco-style sourdough during lockdown, and it’s maintained its stronghold within the cultural Zeitgeist ever since. But now more than ever sourdough is appreciated for the art of actually making it as opposed to just the final result. While both are still important, the labor intensive techniques of sourdough take the center stage. Some people still just want the access to fresh sourdough at home without as much as the fuss, though. And that’s where TIME’s list of the Best Inventions of 2026 comes in. Three products on the roundup are designed to make at-home bread making a more streamlined and easy to manage process – and we’re all for it.

Leaven Instant Sourdough

One of the most time-consuming parts of sourdough is, of course, the starter. Not only does it take a while to develop, but the natural yeast cultivation and fermentation process require a lot of maintenance. And that’s exactly why Leaven created their instant sourdough. They take a blend of wild yeast and sourdough bacteria to not only give it that tangy, fermented flavor, but to give it everything you need to leaven your bread without the fuss of the starter. The freeze-dried product basically makes it so that you have sourdough starter on hand and ready to go without having to plan in advance for starter preparation.

While it’s not a one-to-one ratio to a traditional starter or yeast, Leaven makes it easy with their information guides to translate the Instant Sourdough into your favorite recipe. And, with the 8-oz. pack being enough to leaven 100 loaves of sourdough, the $65 price tag seems a lot more reasonable. Especially when you consider the time and effort it will save you since you no longer have to mess with a starter at all, this feels like a no-brainer to have on hand if you’re a regular home baker.

Sourdough Sidekick

Just this past year, a collaboration between King Arthur baking and FirstBuild resulted in the release of this Sourdough Sidekick that basically makes starter a completely hands-off process. So, if you don’t want to take the instant route with the Leaven Instant Sourdough, yet want to have sourdough starter available to you on demand with more ease than ever, then this is probably the best option you’re going to get. Sure it’s expensive at the $180 price-point, but it automatically feeds and maintains a sourdough starter without you having to intervene at all for up to seven days at a time. With a little bit of programming and a supply of flour and water, it feeds and maintains your starter so that it’s ready to utilize at any time. It’s designed specifically for sourdough starter, so you don’t need to worry about tweaking anything to accommodate a sourdough recipe.

Dough Dissolve

As someone who makes a lot of sourdough with themself, I will say that potentially the most annoying part of it all, far beyond the calculations and science, is the cleanup. It’s not so much that it requires a lot of ingredients and is therefore a mess in that regard. It’s more about the fact that when you were working with a mixture of flour and water over a long period of time, it’s bound to dry up and become difficult to remove at some point.

Whether it’s the bowl of your stand mixer or your countertops from shaping the boules, dried sourdough on any surface is a pain to remove. So instead of letting things soak for an indeterminate amount of time, Dough Dissolve expedites that process through a new technology that specifically targets the breakdown of starches. If you are a frequent baker, this is guaranteed to make cleanup easier and a less time consuming process.