How To Make A Sourdough Starter

Follow these easy instructions on how to make a sourdough starter in as little as 1 week with minimal effort. Use this starter to leaven all of your favorite sourdough recipes!

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Prep Time 7

Equipment

kitchen scale
glass bowl with a lid (or use a clean tea towel or loosely cover with plastic wrap)
wooden spoon or rubber spatula (something non-metallic)
glass mason jar with a plastic lid for storage (or these glass gallon jars with lid if you plan to maintain a large amount of starter)

Ingredients

unbleached all-purpose flour (whole wheat, rye, or einkorn are all great options too if you prefer)
filtered water (do not use tap water! I use and love my Berkey water filtration system)

Instructions

Day 1- Weigh out 100g (grams) of flour and 100g of water into a clean bowl and mix thoroughly together. Cover and let sit on your countertop for 24 hours.
Day 2- Discard about half of your mixture (it's okay to estimate this). Then, weigh out another 100g of flour and 100g of water into the same bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover and let sit on your countertop for 24 hours.
Day 3- Day 6- Repeat steps for day 2. Around day 5 you may start to notice a strong yeasty smell. This is a good sign, but keep going it is not finished yet.
Day 7 and beyond- Repeat steps for day 2, except this time feed every 12 hours instead of every 24 hours. Your starter can be ready in as little as 7 days or take up to 12 days depending on some other factors in your environment. You will know your starter is ready when you notice lots of bubbles and when it doubles in size 4-12 hours after you feed it. See notes below for more info on how to know your starter is active.
Congratulations!- You made your own sourdough starter from scratch! You are ready to bake bread with it or store it in your refrigerator until you are ready. This is a 100% hydration starter. This just is a fancy way of saying it is made up of equal parts of flour and water by weight. See notes below for instruction on storing, feeding and other tips for your new starter!

Notes

Cover Suggestions

Many people suggest using a tea towel to cover your mixture. While this way does work, I found I would get a dry layer on top which I personally didn't like. You can just mix it in and it will rehydrate into the mixture if you use this type of cover. I prefer to use a glass casserole dish with a lid instead. This same dish can be used for the rising phases when you make sourdough bread. They are a multiple use item which is something I love since I am somewhat limited on space! You can find these usually for a couple dollars at thrift stores.

Discarding Starter

I know that discarding half of the mixture each time may seem wasteful, but it is necessary. Doing this will insure that the yeast and beneficial bacteria present have enough "food" to feast on and gain strength. Also if you don't discard you will end up with WAY too much starter and an overflowing bowl.

How to Know Your Starter is Active

You will know your starter is ready when you see notice lots of bubbles and when it doubles in size 4-12 hours after you feed it. You can also do the "float test", where you plop a small blob of starter into a glass of water. If it floats you know it is active and ready to use. Don't be discouraged if you don't have an active starter by day 7. Mine was ready at day 9 and it can take even up to 12 days, so be patient and stick with it. It will work I promise!

Storing Your Starter

You will want to store your starter in your refrigerator in between uses. This slows down the rate at which the yeast eats it's "food" and therefore gives you a longer stretch in between feedings. A good rule of thumb to keep it healthy is feeding your starter every 1-2 weeks. Alternatively, you can keep your starter on your countertop at room temperature. However you MUST feed it every 12-24 hours so only do this if you are planning on doing a lot of baking that week. The warmer your house the faster it will eat it's food and the sooner you will need to feed it and vice versa.

Feeding Your Starter

You want to feed your starter equal amounts of flour and water by weight. This will maintain your starter at "100% hydration" which is what is used in most recipes your will find. I like to measure in grams because it is the most precise.

A good rule of thumb for the amount to feed your starter is as follows:

Weigh your sourdough starter. Then, feed it the same amount of both flour and water by weight. For example: If your sourdough starter mixture weighs 50 grams, then feed it 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water and mix thoroughly.

This will ensure it gets enough "food" to get a good rise. You can actually get away with feeding it a little bit less, but I would suggest starting this way until you get the hang of things.

Using Your Starter

Take the starter out of the refrigerator the night before you want to get your dough started. Give it a feeding and let it sit out on the countertop overnight. By morning it should be bubbly and doubled in size. This means it's active and you are ready to start using it in any sourdough recipes you like! Take out the amount needed for your recipe and put the rest back in the refrigerator until the next feeding.