Sourdough starter recipes are perfect for anyone interested in baking their own bread on the homestead. This tutorial showsyou how to get started making your own.Not all of us are lucky enough to have the best sourdough starter passed down to us from our grandmas. If you're feeling a bit adventurous you can actually make (or grow) your own sourdough starterwith this recipe!
Beginner'sSourdough Starter Recipe
What is a Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is made from two simple ingredients — flour and water. It attracts wild yeast which lives everywhere in the environment. In a way, sourdough starter is how we cultivate the wild yeast in a form which can be useful for baking. This culture of microorganisms is what will leaven your bread and make it taste so darn good!
Making your own sourdough starter may take up a little time, but you'll surely enjoy the process. Have kids in the house? Do this little project with them and cultivate their scientific minds while cultivating your food.
Making a sourdough starter involvesmixing flour and water together, then leaving it alonefor a little while. However, if you want the feisty critters tomake your bread rise, it can be more extensive. Growing asourdough starter takes about 5 days on average, andit can take longer depending on the conditions of the environment. We have compiled a simple step-by-step guideto makingyour own starter and what to expect on a daily basis. You can find the original article here.
Make Your Own Sourdough Starter!
What you'll need:
Day 1: Make the Initial Starter
|
Weigh4 ounces or 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of flour andcombine with4 ounces of water.Stir vigorously until combined into asticky, thickbatter. Cover the container with plastic wrap, and leave it on your kitchen counter or somewhere with a consistent room temperature of 70°F to 75°F. Do not refrigerate.
Day 2: Stir theParty in Your Bottle
Afterthe first 24 hours, you will alreadyfind afewtiny bubbles. This means that the yeast has already started a party in your jar! Stir the bottleevery once in a while to attract more yeast and to ‘move' the little critters towards their food. After all, yeasts don't run around the jar. They're floating and eating whatever is nearby so a little stirring here and there is just as important as feeding the sourdough starter. By the end of the day, you'll find more bubbles in your jar.
Day 3: Feed the Starter
Take a good look at your starter. You may find that more bubbles have started to appear and that's agood thing! This means that the yeast has also started making themselves at home in your starter. It's now time to feed the starter with more flour and water! Measure another4 ounces of flour and 4 ounces of water, stir vigorously until combined into a smooth batter.
Day 4: More Feeding and More Stirring
By now,your starter should look extremely bubbly and the volume should have doubled. Also, the aroma should be noticeably sour. Feed your starter with the same amount of flour and water. Stir vigorously or whisk if you prefer.Stirring will makeit easier for the yeast to get oxygen, an important factor if you want your yeast culture to reproduce.
Day 5:Time for Your First Harvest
Give your starter a good, long look. Before harvesting, make sure that your starter is already ‘ripe.' One way you can find this out istofill a glass with water and drop a teaspoon of starter into the glass. If it floats, it’s ready to use. If it sinks, don't despair. Give it an additional day andmorefeeding.
Day 6 and beyond: Maintain Your Starter
If you'll be using your starter often, discard half of it and keep feeding it with the same amount of flour and water daily.But if it will be a while before you use the starter again,cover your container tightly and place it in the fridge. Take it out of the fridge and feed it at least once a week to keep your starter going.
Watch this video by Allrecipes for another helpful guide in making a sourdough starter:
Growing and making your own fooddefinitely makes iteasier and tastier!Now that you have yourstarter ready, you can now use it in your bread recipes. Watch out for our delicious sourdough recipes!
What do you think of this sourdough starter recipe? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
Up Next:Sourdough Bread Recipe
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 19, 2017, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
FAQs
As with any sourdough recipe, before you start baking bread, you want to make sure that your sourdough starter is as strong as possible. My basic sourdough recipe uses just 50g of starter for 500g of flour (so just 10% of starter).
What is the secret to a good sourdough starter? ›
There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.
What is the best sourdough starter ratio? ›
The most common feeding ratio is 1:1:1 (sourdough starter: flour: water). This is also known as a 100% hydration starter. For example, let's say you have 40 g of sourdough starter in a jar. To feed it, you'll add 40 g of flour + 40 g of water.
What is the best flour to start a sourdough starter with? ›
All-purpose Flour
It strikes a perfect balance of softness and structure, making it an ideal choice for various recipes. Due to its wide availability and affordability, all-purpose flour is often my top recommendation for creating and maintaining a sourdough starter.
What is the ratio of sourdough starter to flour for bread? ›
So, a sourdough feeding ratio is the relative amount (referring to weight) of old sourdough compared to fresh flour and water. Typical feeding ratios are 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 (old sourdough: fresh flour: water). However, even extreme ratios like 1:50:50 would still work.
Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it? ›
It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.
What is the healthiest flour for sourdough bread? ›
Compared to whole wheat flour, rye flour is said to be the most nutrient- and amylase-dense option for a sourdough starter. Overall, it has a lower gluten protein content than wheat flour, which means it produces slack, sticky, and dense doughs.
How often should I stir my sourdough starter? ›
Your starter is like a baby, don't forget to feed, stir every day and treat him with love. You can give your starter a name, I called mine Lemmy. Discard half of the mixture and feed your starter. If you don't notice significant growth each time, feed the starter twice a day.
Should sourdough starter be thick or runny? ›
Just a note here - it is normal for a sourdough starter to be stiffer when you first feed it and then thin out a little as it ferments. It should however be mousse like and aerated when it peaks. It may become runnier if you then don't feed it and let it go back down.
What happens if I forgot to discard starter before feeding? ›
If you didn't discard a portion of your starter each time you feed it, two things would happen: Your starter would grow to an enormous, unmanageable size. Your starter would likely become more and more inhospitable to the bacteria and yeast we want as the mixture would become ever more acidic.
Premature discarding and overfeeding will weaken your starter and elongate the process. Don't discard and re-feed a weak starter before it shows increasing bubble activity or height from the previous feeding. If you don't see more bubbles or a faster rise each day, skip a feeding, and give it more time.
Can I use tap water for sourdough starter? ›
*If making sourdough is new for you, do not be discouraged if you starter takes longer to get active than mine – stick with it, it will happen! *Tap water is usually fine, if you are not sure, use boiled and cooled water, you can use it at room temperature or cool; do not use distilled water.
Is distilled water good for sourdough? ›
Distilled water might seem like a good option, but it's actually not great for your little yeasty friends. They need some minerals and stuff that are usually filtered out in the distillation process. So go for filtered or bottled water instead, and your starter will be living its best life in no time.
Should I use plain or bread flour for sourdough starter? ›
The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour. Why do you need to use these two types of flour?
Can you use too much starter in sourdough bread? ›
If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.
How much sourdough starter to use instead of yeast? ›
If you've ever wondered how to convert a yeast recipe to sourdough, then I'm going to show you how easy it can be! As a general rule, 100g of sourdough starter is equivalent to a 5-7g packet of commercial yeast. You can use this conversion when using sourdough starter instead of yeast in a recipe.
How much sourdough starter to use instead of dry yeast? ›
ADAPTING YEAST RECIPES TO SOURDOUGH
Knowing these two factors you can approximate a substitution of one cup of sourdough starter for one packet of commercial yeast. You would then lower the flour and water according to your hydration levels, being sure to measure it again by weight.
How much dry sourdough starter to use? ›
In the video I use just 15 grams of dried starter to get a new starter active and bubbling in less than 48 hours. Here's the feeding schedule I used. Step 1: Add 15 grams of dried starter, 15 grams of flour, and 30 grams of water to a jar. Give the mixture a stir and pop the lid on loosely.
