Sourdough Starter

Ok guys. Let’s talk sourdough starter.

Before a month or so ago, I knew absolute jack shit when it came to making homemade sourdough bread. All I did know was that it seemed extremely complicated, and that alone kept me in sourdough-making paralysis with an unused dutch oven sitting in my garage for two years. After finally grabbing the proverbial sourdough bull by the horns, with much trial and error, I’ve finally been baking some really beautiful and tasty loaves (both regular and gluten free). My hard work has been paying off! However - I am still no expert, and am still very much in the learning phase of this. Many people have reached out wanting to know recipes and how to make this, so I figured it’d be easier to just write this blog as a resource for anyone who is interested in embarking on this journey. But here’s the thing- I’m not going to sit here and try to be all formal about this. I’m going to write here as if I am talking to idiots (no offense, I know you’re not an idiot) simply because that’s what I needed when I first started learning. I had to sift through a lotttt of information on the internet using terminology and techniques I didn’t understand, which ultimately confused me more. So consider this a “sourdough for dummies”, and allow me to cut right to the chase so you can start making your own delicious sourdough loaves!

In this blog (a part 1, so to speak) I’ll be discussing the first and most necessary step to making sourdough:

THE STARTER!

Wtf is the starter? Good question, I had no idea before getting into this process. The sourdough starter is the ingredient that is what makes a sourdough, well… sourdough! It is a fermented mixture of flour and water that, over time (weeks, months, even years!) grows the right amount of bacteria, microbes, and yeast, to not only help the bread to form and rise, but to also acquire that signature sourdough tang. The starter (and the general fermentation process of the bread) is why sourdough is a much more nutritious, healthier, and easily digestible bread option.

There are truly lots of ways to make sourdough starters, with lots of different flours and ratios you can use. I spent a couple years avoiding this process due to my perceived overwhelm by it all, but at this point, I must say, it’s not that difficult. The idea of it is way more intense than the process itself. The hardest part is weeding through all of the various and sometimes conflicting information out there. It does also require dedication, time, and patience. I’ve been working with both a gluten free and a regular starter. Here are two simple ways to get started yourself making your own starter, both regular and/ or gluten free.

What you’ll need:

-A kitchen scale (this is a must! Digital is fine. Trust me, just order one on Amazon, it’s worth it)

-Non reactive bowls, spatulas, and means of storage (aka no metal, and I suggest avoiding plastic. I have been using glass for the most part for storage and baking, and rubber or silicone spatulas for mixing and handling).

-flour (I’ll specify which ones in the recipes)

-filtered or bottled water

Let’s start with gluten free.

I started with using kind Arthur all purpose measure for measure gluten free flour (the one with xanthan gum). You can also use this recipe for the bobs red mill measure for measure all purpose flour too. These are not my preferred flours for this process for long term, but for the sake of learning how to make GF sourdough bread in the least complex and overwhelming way as possible, this is what we’re starting with. I followed the recipe on the King Arthur website for starter, yet I had to make some modifications along the way. The original recipe states:

Day 1: Mix 120g flour with 128g water (in a large mason jar would be perfect). Cover the container, but don’t seal it. Leave it lightly covered so that air can still circulate. Let it sit overnight on your kitchen counter.

Day 2 and beyond: discard half of the mixture you now have in the container (this will be referred to as your discard), and then “feed” the remaining mixture with another 120g flour and 128g water. Lightly cover, and let it sit 24h.

You repeat the day 2 steps daily until somewhere around day 5 or so, you’ll start to notice that the mixture doubled in size within several hours, and that there are lots of bubbles in the starter.

This recipe is all good, however, in the beginning of this process it was wayyyyyy too dry. The starter looked like a dried out piece of playdoh, which it shouldn’t. So what I did and what I suggest is this:

Day 1: Mix 120g flour with 133g water. Cover the container, but don’t seal it. Leave it lightly covered so that air can still circulate. Let it sit overnight our on your kitchen countertop.

Day 2 and beyond: discard half of the mixture you have, and then feed the remaining mixture with another 120g flour and 133g water. Lightly cover, and let it sit 24h on the counter.

AS SOON AS you notice the starter getting more wet looking, and it starts to resemble pancake batter and the starter begins to mature (mature = rises within hours of “feeding it”, and with lots of bubbles) you can then switch back to the 120g of flour and 128g water ratio. In fact, once it’s mature, I feel that this ratio is more appropriate. But in the beginning it absolutely needs some more hydration.

Once you notice lots of bubbles and that the starter is doubling in size hours post feeding, you know it is ready to try for a loaf. However, note that as time goes on and your starter becomes even more mature and more active, the loaves it creates become better and better. Also, it’s important to mention that the starter discard that you’re removing from your starter each day before you feed it- that’s valuable stuff! You can repurpose that by making sourdough crackers, pizza dough, cookies, biscuits, scones, etc. there are TONS of recipes out there for what to do with sourdough discard. A quick google search will get you lots of options on how to make sure your starter discard isn’t going to waste.

Eventually, when you are sure that your starter is mature, robust, and strong, you can store it so that you’re not bound to having to feed it every day. To store it, you will first feed it, and then after an hour or two, transfer it into the refrigerator. Once you start keeping it in the fridge, you only have to take it out once a week to feed it. Of course you can take it out whenever you want to use it for baking, too. When taking it out of the fridge to feed, give it a little bit of time to get to room temperature before feeding, and then give the bacteria a little bit of time to begin working on the new flour and water before putting back into the fridge.

Now let’s switch to a regular starter with gluten:

Similar process! But different ingredients.

Your initial day 1 mixture will be: 113g whole wheat or rye flour, and 113g water. Mix, lightly cover, leave out on your counter overnight.

Day 2 and beyond: remove and discard half of the mixture (or use the discard for another recipe), and then feed it 113g all purpose flour OR bread flour, 113g of water, and then leave it out. Repeat every day. Eventually you’ll start to see it rise not long after feeding with all the pretty bubbles in it too. That’s when it’s ready for use, but I’d continue feeling it daily and keeping it on the counter for a little while longer to make sure it’s very mature and very active. As time goes on, you don’t have to continue feeding it the exact same amount in grams every day. As long as you are sticking with a 1:1 ratio, and are relatively around 70-115g of flour/water, the starter should be happy.

You want to make sure you’re feeding your starter at generally the same time each day, but if it’s not exact, or you forget and it’s much later, it’s totally ok.

This is a generally very forgiving process, and I realize now that it’s often over complicated for no reason. I saw websites saying to alternate between the amount of times a day you feed it, cover with cheese cloths, seal the jar vs letting air circulate, adding fruit to the mixture….

Unnecessary! Stick to the general ratios given, feed it once a day, and you’ll be ok. It needs the right amount of flour & water, air, consistency, and time. That’s it. There are definitely ways I am learning to trouble shoot issues (like If it’s very vinegary smelling that means it’s hungry and might need either more in the feed or an extra feeding), and it’s not ALWAYS so cut and dry, but part of this process is trial and error and finding what works and what doesn’t. Once you get rolling and get the hang of things, it gets a lot easier and less intimidating. It even gets fun! And very rewarding. Especially once you start pumping out glorious fresh loaves of bread! (And lots of other wonderful concoctions thanks to your discard.)

Reminder that there are lots of ways to make starter. Lots of different measurements, different flour combinations, and lots of varied information out there as far as how many times a day to feed, when to feed, how to feed, what to do each day….

What I have listed here works because I did it. Doesn’t mean it’s the best way, and it’s surely not the only way, but it is A WAY, it’s simplified, and it works.

Eventually I’d like to start using a combo of brown rice flour and buckwheat flour for my gluten free loaves. Currently in the research process of what that would mean for my starter - if I can just start feeding my starter I have now the new flours without consequence. Or maybe I don’t even need to do that, and instead maybe I just use those flours to actually bake the bread but keep feeding the starter all purpose? I’m not sure, but I do know that I don’t want to stick with this all purpose flour for my loaves. It’s working for now, and I’ll share that in my next blog about this. But its not my preferred choice for the GF loaves, so eventually I want to venture out with different flours and methods to really explore and perfect this process. And note this is referring ONLY to the gluten free version. I assume there are many combos to use for the gluten loaves as well, but I’m very satisfied with the results of what I’ve been using for that as it is.  Although I hear great things about einkorn flour, so maybe I’ll have to eventually try that.

I hope that this was helpful and that you feel confident to go out there and try to cultivate your own starter. I’ll make another post soon about how I’ve made the breads, too. Again… work in progress here and I am no expert by ANY MEANS! But I’m happy to share what’s been working, as I’ve been remixing all of these recipes I’ve found online. Hopefully I’ll be able to write that up and post it by the time your starters are bubbling and maturing!

Good luck 😋 (although you won’t need it)

Xo

Bianca