In Part 4 of The Hankerie Sourdough Series, Han Ker shares a beginner-friendly guide to understanding sourdough starter care, feeding routines, and fridge maintenance for consistent baking success. Learn how to activate your starter, prepare it for baking, and keep your “mother starter” healthy with simple weekly feeding habits. Perfect for home bakers starting their sourdough journey in Australia.
Your First Sourdough Loaf: Mixing, Folding & Shaping for Beginners
We’re making your first loaf from scratch — mixing the dough, building its strength through stretch-and-fold, and shaping it into something that looks and behaves like real artisan bread.
No stand mixer. No special bench. No experience required. Just your hands, your active starter, and this method
How to Activate & Feed Your Sourdough Starter (The Right Way)
NEW BLOG POST: Part 2 — Waking Up Your Wild Yeast ✨ Your sourdough starter isn’t a fussy laboratory experiment or a high-maintenance pet—it’s a resilient, living culture that simply wants to thrive once you understand its language. In Part 2 of our Beginner Series, we strip away the guesswork to show you exactly how to activate a dormant culture, decode feeding ratios, and read visual cues so you know precisely when your starter is ready to bake. Best of all, we share the exact strategies to make your starter fit into your real life using your fridge, keeping it sustainable for busy schedules. Stop guessing, learn the language of fermentation, and read the full guide here:
Why Every Australian Kitchen Needs a Sourdough Starter
This blog series is my answer to every one of those doubts. Over six posts, I’ll take you from complete beginner to confident home baker — giving you the science, the method, and the mindset to bake sourdough that fits your real life. Not a perfect life. Your actual one.
We’re starting at the very beginning — with the one thing that makes sourdough completely different from every other bread you’ve ever made.
Hankerie Has Been Officially Nominated for Outstanding New Business Awards
Hankerie has been officially nominated for the 2026 Northern Districts Local Business Awards – Outstanding New Business Category Award.
This nomination belongs to every single one of you who has taken a class, bought a kit, shared a post, or simply cheered this little business on from the sidelines. Thank you. From the bottom of my flour-dusted heart.
The Science of Sour: A Masterclass in Calibrating Sourdough Flavor
Managing the sourness in your sourdough is a biological balancing act between lactic acid (creamy and mild) and acetic acid (sharp and vinegary) that you can calibrate by adjusting your fermentation environment. To achieve a more assertive tang, you should use a past-peak starter, incorporate mineral-rich whole grains like rye to buffer acidity, and extend your cold proof in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours to favor acetic acid production. Conversely, if you prefer a milder, buttery profile, focus on using a “young” levain before it reaches full ripeness, shortening your overall fermentation timeline to prevent acid buildup, and maintaining a frequent feeding schedule to ensure your starter remains sweet and vibrant. By treating variables like temperature and hydration as “levers,” you move beyond following a recipe to intentionally designing the flavor profile of every loaf you bake.
Nyonya Acar Awak from Malacca: A Heritage Peranakan Pickle, Reimagined at Home
If Korea has kimchi, Malacca has Nyonya Acar Awak.
Bold, crunchy, sweet, sour, and gently spicy, this iconic Peranakan pickle is more than a side dish—it’s heritage preserved in a jar. In this post, I’ll show you not just how to make Acar Awak, but why every step matters, so you can recreate this beloved Nyonya classic with confidence in your own kitchen.
Malaysian-Style Stir-Fried Golden Clams (Lala)
There’s something magical about a weekend stroll through Eastwood Market — the chatter of shoppers, the sparkle of fresh seafood laid on ice, and that moment you spot plump, golden clams just waiting to be turned into a fragrant Malaysian stir-fry. This recipe brings the taste of a seaside feast right into your Sydney kitchen — juicy lala clams bursting with the aroma of garlic, ginger, and coriander stems, tossed in a glossy sauce of Shaoxing wine, mirin, and light soy. Fast, fiery, and full of wok hei, it’s a dish that captures the essence of Malaysian home cooking — comforting, nostalgic, and impossibly delicious.
How to Make Super Delicious Chilli Crisp Oil with Malaysian Spices
Discover the magic of homemade Malaysian chilli crisp oil — a golden-red, aromatic condiment that transforms any dish into a flavour explosion. Infused with toasted star anise, cinnamon, fennel, and fragrant lemongrass, and loaded with crispy garlic, shallots, and chilli flakes, this oil brings heat, crunch, and irresistible aroma to tofu, dumplings, noodles, and more. Simple to make, endlessly versatile, and full of nostalgic Malaysian flavours, it’s a little jar of culinary joy waiting to elevate your everyday meals.
Fluffiest Sourdough Pancakes
This is my ultimate guide to Quick & Fluffy Sourdough Pancakes. It requires no overnight prep, no complicated steps, and it comes together in less than 30 minutes. The result is a stack of pancakes so impossibly light, so wonderfully tender, and with such a beautiful, subtle tang from the sourdough, that you will find yourself feeding your starter just to have an excuse to make them. This isn’t just a recipe for using up discard; this is a recipe that celebrates it. So, let’s turn that jar of potential into the best breakfast you’ll have all week.