How to Make a Sourdough Starter

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Hello everyone! I have been totally obsessed with sourdough lately. I made a sourdough starter a few years back and used it for a couple years and then I neglected it and thought I should throw it out. Recently, I started a new one and in my research realized that I shouldn’t have been so quick to throw out my last one. It hadn’t been fed for about a month and come to find out I probably could have brought it back. 🙁

This time around I am learning a lot more about how to take care of it properly and I have been turning out some delicious baked goodies. Turns out the last time around I was underfeeding my starter and that’s why nothing tasted quite right and I wasn’t having great success with rising breads. I feel like I’ve had a hard time finding detailed info on sourdough starters so I thought, “Why not share what I’ve learned?”

Hopefully you’ll get some good information out of this post and be able to start making all sorts of yummy things for your families.

I love the taste of sourdough but I also love all the benefits behind it. I’m not an expert on the science of it all but I guess grains (beans,nuts, and seeds also) have a protective coating called phytic acid. The phytic acid gets in the way of us absorbing nutrients from those foods but when you soak your grains it eliminates this problem and makes digesting them a heck of a lot easier.

Anything that makes digestion a little easier and makes a happy gut is worth doing in my opinion. So here I am on the sourdough bandwagon! I’m going to be sharing how to make your very own sourdough starter today and then in the coming weeks I will be sharing some of my favorite recipes.

You start with flour and water. You can use whole wheat or all purpose. I use unbleached all purpose for mine and I hear you can go back and forth without issues.

On day 1 you will mix 1 cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water together in a glass bowl. Cover with a towel and let sit on the counter for 24 hours.

On day 2 through day 5 discard half of the starter and add 1 cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water. Mix into the starter, cover with a towel and let sit on the counter for 24 hours.

On day 6 and day 7 discard half of the starter and add 1 cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water. Mix into the starter, cover with a towel and let sit on the counter and repeat every 12 hours instead of 24.

Now by the end of day 7 you should have yourself a healthy collection of native yeasts to start making sourdough goodies! I have read that with a young starter you should stick to making things that don’t need a lot of leavening like pancakes, waffles, and pizza crusts for the first month or so. I dove right into making breads and rolls though and the results didn’t seem too different than the results I have now with my 2-3 month old starter.

Now on to the maintenance… You will need to feed your starter and the amounts all depend on how often you use it and where you will be storing it. I like to store mine in a 1/2 gallon mason jar in the fridge because I don’t use it every single day. I will typically get it out on Saturday morning and use it during the day/evening and then leave it out until Sunday (gotta have our Sunday morning pancakes!) and make any other baked goods. Then I feed it and put it back in fridge. If it’s stored in the fridge you’ll need to feed it once a week. If you store it on the counter you’ll feed it daily. The amount you feed it will depend on how much starter you keep on hand. I like to keep at least 2 cups on hand. So if I have 2 cups of starter I will need to feed it 2 cups of flour and 1 1/2 cups of water to keep it well fed. If you want to build your supply up you can also feed it more than equal parts. Say you have 1/2 cup of starter and you want 3 cups for a big baking day you can add 1 1/2 cups of flour and about 1 cup of water to build up your supply.

So a typical maintenance schedule for me goes like this:

Sunday evening- Place fed starter into the fridge.
Saturday morning- Get starter out of the fridge and let sit out at room temp until mid-day.
Saturday mid-day- Use some bubbly starter in a couple recipes and then feed what starter I have left to equal at least 2 cups. Leave it out on the counter for Sunday morning pancakes.
Sunday morning- Use starter and then feed it to build it back up to at least 2 cups and then pop it back in the fridge.

Phew! That was lots of flour and water talk! Hope it all makes sense and this post has helped you make a successful sourdough starter. Comment down below with any questions and let me know what you’re making with your starter!