Sourdough Starter

Building a sourdough starter is one of the most satisfying culinary adventures that you can embark on. Harvesting the power of wild yeast to create rustic, light, and delicious sourdough baked goods is a deeply rewarding experience. Building a sourdough starter from scratch does not have to be an intimidating process. Rather, in this basic sourdough starter guide, I will show you that all you need is 5 minutes a day for 7 days and you can create a robust, lively sourdough starter!

Total Time

35min

5.0

1 Rating

Author: Ful-Filled

Servings:

Ingredients

•

3 1/2 cups

Stone Ground Rye Flour , divided

or Whole Wheat, Whole Spelt

•

2 cups

Unbleached All Purpose Flour , divided

or Bread Flour

•

3 1/4 cups

Filtered Water , divided

Cooking Instructions

DAY 1: Before you start, record your jar’s weight without the lid.

Add Stone Ground Rye Flour (3/4 cup) and Filtered Water (2/3 cup) to your jar.

Mix until thoroughly combined. Cover jar with lid and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.

DAY 2: Reserve 70g of your starter (jar weight + 70g = what your jar should weigh when the correct amount of starter has been removed).

Add Stone Ground Rye Flour (1/2 cup) , Unbleached All Purpose Flour (10 tsp) , and Filtered Water (1/2 cup) to your jar. Mix until thoroughly combined. Cover jar with lid and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.

DAY 3: Reserve 70g of your starter.

DAY 4: Reserve 70g of your mature starter.

Add Stone Ground Rye Flour (1/3 cup) , Unbleached All Purpose Flour (1/3 cup) , and Filtered Water (1/3 cup) to your jar. Mix until thoroughly combined. Cover jar with lid and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.

10.

DAY 5: Reserve 70g of your mature starter.

11.

12.

DAY 6: Reserve 50g of your mature starter.

13.

14.

DAY 7: This your final feeding before your starter is ready to be used. This can also serve as a larger sourdough starter maintenance feeding. Reserve 25g of your mature starter.

15.

16.

DAY 8: Your starter should have tripled in size in 8-10 hours overnight. It is now ready to use!

17.

In between bakes, you will store your starter in the refrigerator. Pulling it out the night before you plan on preparing a recipe to refresh your starter before using it again.

Author's Notes

Once your sourdough starter is nice and active, there is no need to continue daily feedings. Instead, you will store your starter in the refrigerator once it has reached peak activity. Keeping your sourdough starter in the refrigerator retards the fermentation process. When your sourdough starter is newer, I recommend pulling it from the refrigerator once a week to refresh it, typically you would do this the night before you are ready to make your sourdough baked goods.

Nutrition Per Serving

CALORIES

382

FAT

1.7 g

PROTEIN

16.1 g

CARBS

82.0 g