How To Make A Sourdough Starter
Used to make sourdough bread. Here's how to make it.
Servings: 1 Starter
Equipment
- Glass Jar With A Loose Fitting Lid
- Digital Food Probe
- Digital Scales
Ingredients
- 1 kg Strong White Bread Flour
- 1 kg Strong Wholemeal Flour
- 1 Litre Water 78°F/26°C
Instructions
- Day 1In a mixing bowl, combine 30g white flour, 30g wholemeal flour & 60g water (78°F/26°c). Transfer to the glass jar, loosely fit the lid & leave at room temperature (roughly 26°C) for 24 hours.
- Day 2 Add 30g white flour, 30g wholemeal flour & 60g water to your starter & stir to combine. Leave at room temperature for another 24 hours.
- Day 3Take 60g of starter from the jar & place into a mixing bowl. Discard the remaining starter from the jar. To the mixing bowl, add 30g white flour, 30g wholemeal flour & 60g water. Place back into the jar & leave at room temperature for a further 24 hours.
- Day 4 - 7Your starter should now be showing signs of activity so will now need feeding twice a day (feedings 12 hours apart). Each time you feed your starter save 60g starter (discard the rest) & mix in 30g white flour, 30g wholemeal flour & 60g water.You starter should now be doubling in size after every feed (this should take between 8-12 hours after feeding). If so, it is now ready to bake with. If it isn’t, keep feeding it twice daily until it does. This could take anywhere from 2 more days or up to another week.
- Storing, Feeding, Baking…At this point, you can carry on feeding the starter twice a day until you want to use it or you can store it in the fridge. Storing in the fridge means that your starter can survive for several weeks without being fed. The low temperature of a fridge slows the starter down, basically putting it to sleep.
Notes
Before storing your starter in the fridge, it should be fed first then left at room temperature for 1 hour. If you don’t plan on using your starter for a while, it’s best to store it in the fridge but take it out every couple of weeks for a feed.
It’s a good idea to put your starter into a clean jar before storing in the fridge. If your storing it at room temperature (feeding daily) then it’s best to transfer to a clean jar once a week.
If your starter has been in the fridge for a long time & you want to bake with it, take it out of the fridge & start feeding it at least 5 days before you want to use it.
If you want to make several loaves but don’t have enough starter, feed your starter as usual (equal parts starter, flour & water) but increase the amount of starter used in your feed (e.g use 150g starter instead of 100g). The amount of starter can be increased over several feeds, depending on how much you need.
If you want to maintain a smaller starter (to reduce waste), use less starter when feeding. I’d go with 25g starter per feed then increase when necessary.
For best results when making bread with your starter, wait for it to double in size & use just before it starts to fall. Keep an eye on how long this takes during regular feedings to help with recipe timings.