Sourdough Starters: A Beginners Guide on How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter

With this new chapter in life, it felt only fitting to create a new sour-dough starter.  Weirdly like starting a clean slate from our life down South somehow! This was much to my husbands dismay as I have diligently carried my original sour-dough starter around with us whenever we moved and it is living in a cold store currently as I couldn't bring myself to throw it out!

If you've never made a sour-dough starter the concept can seem pretty daunting but rest assured the whole business is pretty simple. 

What Is A Sourdough Starter?

On its most simple level sourdough starter is a mix of flour and water that has been allowed to naturally ferment with beneficial bacteria and wild yeasts from the environment. Taking these two simple ingredients and allowing time you will be amazed to see how they go from a simple gloopy mess to a bubbly and living creature on your counter-top! The fermentation process relies on sugars from starch, provided by the flour, to feed the healthy microbes that take up residence in your starter. This is why sourdough starters need regular feeding to keep them happy and healthy. 

What Is A Starter Used For?

So the next question. Why do you even need a starter? In most other breads or baking processes you need to add a leavening agent (to save you googling this like I had to initially, this is something you add to dough to make it rise, so yeast or baking powder for example). When making a sourdough loaf, your starter is used as leavening. 

How To Make A Sourdough Stater?

Creating a sour dough starter is pretty straight forward, you only need a few things to get you going. 

What You Need (if you purchase through these links I do earn a small commission, but at no cost to you): 

  • Flour (50g each daily) - I use strong white flour for my starters, purely because that is what I tend to have around the house but you can use any starch containing flour (such as rye, spelt etc). 
  • Tepid Water (50g daily) 
  • A large jar (this should be clear so you can see whats going on) - my preference is a Kilner style jar due to the in built lid! 
  • Scales that measure in grams
  • A mixing tool
  • A rubber band (this is optional and I rarely remember to do it but allows you to track how much your starter as grown!) 
  • Something to loosely cover your jar (unsealed lid, kitchen cloth, paper towel etc)

How To Do It: 

day 1

  •  start by placing on jar on the scales and taring to read zero. 
  •  Into your jar add 50g of your chosen flour and 50g of tepid water and thoroughly mix together to ensure no dry flour remains. 
  • Loosely cover your mix. I half close the Kilner jar at this stage leaving a small gap open to the air but you can cover with a tea towel or paper towel.
  • Leave your jar somewhere warm (this process is very temperature dependent and a quick google suggests around 26'c is optimal. Most houses I know are not this warm so I leave mine close to the Aga as its the warmest point in my house. Before Aga life I had a warm room with our airing cupboard that was perfect. 
  • Its a good idea to ensure your jar has plenty of space remaining, this mixture will expand and I have learnt the hard way it is next to impossible to clean out of carpet if the mixture goes a little feral and erupts out of a too small container!! Be warned! 

day 2

  • 24 hours later its time to feed your starter. Depending on the recipe or blog you use some will suggest discarding a portion of your original starter and some don't. I am lazy and have found it doesn't affect the outcome so I do not discard any starter at this point. (Please don't come for me bread purists)
  • To your starter add 50g of your chosen flour and 50g tepid water.
  • Mix this thoroughly, recover and leave to day 3. 

day 3

  •  Hopefully by now your should be starting to see some activity in your starter (it should have some signs of bubbles!) 
  • Repeat the process of adding and mixing 50g flour and 50g tepid water.

day 4

  • Today, ideally you should feed your starter twice daily. Follow the same 50g flour, 50g water additions. It is at this point I start to remove some of the starter from the jar (otherwise you risk over filling your jar and there is argument you will be providing less nutrients overall (given you will have more bugs in the larger amount of starter you have in the jar if that makes sense). I tend to remove about 100g each time I feed - I have some ideas for what you can do with left over starter which I will publish to a separate blog shortly. 
  • For the sake of transparency, I am rubbish at remembering to do it twice daily. That is my aim, sometimes my starter only gets fed once a day - I have still found I get decent bread with it so don't panic if the chaos of life gets in the way. 

day 5-7

  • Continue to feed your starter twice daily(ish), removing around 100g each time. 
  • You should start to notice a consistent rise a few hours after each time you feed to show your starter had good activity. 
  • In some cases this might come about really suddenly, in others you may find a much more gradual ramp up of activity. 

Day 7+ & How To Tell If Sourdour Starter Is Ready To Bake With:

Your starter is ready to use to bake with when it consistently rises to 2-3 times is volume around 4-8 hours after feeding it. In some cases this might be within 7 days of starting your starter, sometimes this can take as long as a fortnight (14 days) to achieve. Don't be disheartened if it takes some time. It'll be worth the effort. Factors that apparently contribute to longer times to consistent activity include colder temperatures and using purely all purpose flours. Your starter should smell a bit like yoghurt when it's ready. 

 

How To Care For Your Sourdough Starter 

So you've create a beautiful, happy and very active sourdough starter. What next? This is the point you need to realistic with yourself. Just like any pet, your strter needs feeding to keep it happy and healthy.

If you are making a fresh loaf of bread nearly daily then it will probably be wise to have your starter living on your kitchen counter and if you choose to do this you should aim (as best you can) to feed it twice daily. You may even benefit from having two starters on the go or making a larger batch. If however you are only likely to make one or two loaves a week, or even less frequently than this, or can't commit to twice daily feeding then your starter may be better living in the fridge. If you choose to keep your starter in the fridge remember to feed it once a week. 

 

When You Are Ready To Use Your Starter

 If you starter lives in the fridge you will need to take it out of the fridge 24 hours before you wish to use it. Discard a portion of the starter (around half) and feed it (this time use around 100g flour to 100g tepid water) so it is re-activated and ready to go when baking time comes around. If it is ready to use then a small spoonful should float in water. 

 

For a fool-proof easy bake sour dough loaf then follow this link

Anyway, I hope you find this helpful. This is what works for me as a very forgetful beginner. There is an absolute wealth of information out there, and lots of it from professional bakers so feel free to take or leave my methods as you see fit :-) 

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