Sourdough Starter

Equipment

  • large glass container (I use a 1 quart wide mouth mason jar)

Ingredients

Initial Starter

  • 15 g filtered water
  • 15 g King Arthur whole wheat flour

Day 1 and 2 Feeding

  • 15 g filtered water
  • 15 g King Arthur whole wheat flour

Discard and Feed (regular feeding)

  • 45 g starter
  • 45 g filtered water
  • 45 g 50/50 King Arthur whole wheat flour + King Arthur bread flour mix

Instructions

Day 1

On day 1 mix together 15 g filtered water and 15 g King Arthur whole wheat flour. Stir vigorously until a thick batter forms and there are no lumps of dry flour. Scrape down sides of container as best possible. Cover loosely and keep in a warm (at least room temperature) place out of direct sunlight.

Day 2 and 3

On day 2 and 3 (close to 24 hours after initial mixing or feeding), add to the container 15 g filtered water and 15 g King Arthur whole wheat flour. Stir vigorously, ensuring there is no dry flour remaining. Scrape down sides, cover loosely and store in a warm dark place just as before. The mixture may get a little smelly but shouldn't be repulsive. There wont be much happening but on day 3 you will probably get a large rise in volume, this is not from yeast but other bacteria. Don't get disheartened if you don't see much activity after this for some time. You didn't kill your starter because it isn't alive yet. This is sometimes called a false bloom or false rise.

Day 4 until Active

After day 3 you will begin the normal discard and feed cycle until your starter is active and switch from 100% whole wheat flour to a 50/50 mix of whole wheat and regular bread flour. Once a day (as close to the same time as possible), discard down to 45 g of starter and add to it 45 g of filtered water and 45 g of 50/50 King Arthur whole wheat flour + King Arthur bread flour mix. Stir vigorously, ensuring there is no dry flour remaining. Scrape down sides, cover loosely and store in a warm dark place just as before.

You should see it start to grow in volume, eventually doubling in size within 12 hours of feeding. This is how you know it is active and ready for use. You can also use the water drop test by dropping a spoonful of starter into water and seeing if it floats on top.

Long Term

You can leave your starter on the counter, continuing the daily feeding routine but if you don't want to have that much waste you can moue your starter to the fridge and feed it with 45 g of filtered tap water and 45 g of 50/50 King Arthur whole wheat flour + King Arthur bread flour mix once a week. You will need to restore your starter at room temperature for about a day before use in baking. Simply move to the counter and feed as normal until it doubles in size and passes the water drop test.

Really Long term - months to a year

This blog post has good information on really long term starter storage.

Notes

  • I start out by using 100% whole wheat because it contains more nutrients and more natural yeast for us to work with. Using an organic whole wheat should speed up the process and lower the chance of failure.
  • the yeast does not come from the air as many people claim. Some people refer to making a sourdough starter as "capturing yeast" but this is a misconception. The yeast is already present in the flour, we simply need to activate and grow it.
  • you can scale the recipe up to your needs, just maintain the ratios. Your initial starter and feeding (day 1-3) should be a ratio of 1:1 flour to water (commonly referred to as 100% hydration) and feedings after that should be 1:1:1 flour, water, starter.
  • using filtered water is somewhat important because tap water is usually chemically treated with chlorine (and probably other things) that can hamper the yeast. You can use water from a regular Britta filter or leave the water you plan to use out on the counter uncovered over night. I keep a covered jar of filtered water on the counter and refill as necessary. Room temperature or warmer is bester for growth.
  • hooch is a possible by product of your sourdough starter. It is common and ok when activating your starter but you probably shouldn't see any when you are maintaining it over long periods. Hooch during maintenance is a sign that you aren't feeding your starter enough. The 1:1 flour to water ratio in this recipe should prevent hooch during maintenance if you feed it regularly and often enough. You can also simply get separation of water and flour if you use too much water, again weighing the amount of water you add should prevent this.

Experiments

I kept more detailed notes on some of my experiments with different recipes while tuning this one. You can read there here.

Discarded starter recipe ideas

Sources

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