Sourdough Starter

Sourdough Starter

An easy to follow plan for starting your own sourdough!

Ingredients

  • 500 grams bread flour
  • 500 warm water
  • pint mason jar
  • digital kitchen scale
Day 1
  • Take 100 grams of bread flour and 100 grams warm water and whisk together with a fork until well incorporated in the mason jar. Top jar with lid. Sit on counter top away from direct heat or sunlight
Day 2
  • First discard some of your starter: Take about half of your starter from yesterday (about 100 grams) and discard it. (Just trash the discarded starter at this point. Later on when the starter is active you can save the discard and use it in quick breads and batters!) ---Use your digital scale: place an empty bowl on the scale, zero the scale, measure 100 grams into the bowl.
  • Now feed your starter: put your jar of starter on the scale and zero the scale. Add 50 grams of bread flour and then 50 grams of warm water. Wish together with a fork and cover with lid.
Day 3
  • Repeat steps from day 2: Discard 100 grams of starter. Feed starter 500 grams of bread flour and 50 grams of warm water
Day 4
  • Repeat steps from day 2 and 3. Bubbles should begin to form in the starter several hours after "feeding".
Day 5
  • If your starter is beginning to be bubbly and expanding in the jar throughout the day you can begin feeding the starter twice a day about 12 hours apart.
  • Continue the same process of discarding 100 grams of starter and feeding it 50 grams of bread flour and 50 grams of warm water wisking it together with a fork about every 12 hours.
Day 6
  • Continue the discard and feeding schedule every 12 hours as in day 5 until you see the starter expanding and rising in the jar, doubling in volume about 6-8 hours after feeding it.
Day 7
  • Once the starter is reliably rising (doubling in size) 4-8 hours after each feeding you are ready to bake! {This can take longer than 7 days. Just be patient!}
  • Discard 100 grams of starter and feed it 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of warm water, whisk together and cover with lid .
  • If you are planning to bake today, wait until starter rises and doubles in volume and follow the bread recipe of your choice.
  • If you are not baking today, put the jar of starter in the fridge.
Maintaining your stater
  • The starter needs to be "fed" at least once a week.
  • Remove starter from fridge and discard 100 grams.
  • Feed starter 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of warm water and whisk together.
  • Return to fridge.
The Day BEFORE you bake
  • Remove starter from fridge and discard and feed as in previous step. Cover the jar and allow starter to double in volume.
  • Once starter doubles in volume, remove amount of starter needed for your recipe.
  • Feed the starter again (the same volume of what you removed for the recipe). and return the starter to the fridge.
Trouble Shooting and Handy Tips
  • Your starter may take more than seven days to reliably rise after each feeding. You can try adding a bit of whole wheat flour as part of the feeding to add some extra nutrients.
  • Your starter should begin to smell yeasty and sour but never bad. If there's a foul smell or any mold discard your whole starter and begin again.
  • You can use all-purpose flour in place of bread flour to start out but you will likely need to add in some bread flour or whole wheat flour to get a reliable rise.
  • Once your starter is rising and bubbly you can save your discard for a few days to use in banana bread, waffles, dinner rolls and more!

Notes

Sourdough starter takes time and patience! Don't get discouraged if it's taking longer than expected. You CAN do this! And it's soooo worth your time!



Sourdough Starter