Foolproof Sourdough Starter Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good sourdough starter? ›

Over the years, I've found keeping the mixture warm at around 80°F (26°C), and high hydration (100% water to flour in baker's percentages) helps get things started. In addition, while not mandatory, using certain flour also helps increase the chances a starter will take hold quickly (see below).

A 100% hydration sourdough starter is a culture which is kept and fed with water and flour at equal weights. Like for instance 5 oz water to 5 oz flour. A 166% hydration starter is fed with equal volume of flour and water, which most typically is one cup of water (8.3 oz) and one cup of flour (5 oz).

Leaving it out on the counter, it will need to be fed equal parts water and flour every 12-24 hours. Warmer homes or frequent baking will require more frequent feeding (around every 12 hours), while colder homes every 24 hours. Storing your sourdough starter in the fridge will require feeding around once a week.

After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, depending on what you want to bake with it.

Temperature matters

Not an ideal environment for a starter - they like it above the 68 degree range. If you don't have a warm house, I would suggest using warmer water when feeding and also being creative on something to keep it warmer.

Most commonly, the issue here has to do with temperature (which is very important). If your sourdough starter is kept at a low temp, even 70°F (21°C), it will slow fermentation activity and appear to be sluggish, taking longer to rise and progress through the typical signs of fermentation. The solution: keep it warm.

All-purpose Flour

It strikes a perfect balance of softness and structure, making it an ideal choice for various recipes. Due to its wide availability and affordability, all-purpose flour is often my top recommendation for creating and maintaining a sourdough starter.

Typical feeding ratios are 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 (old sourdough: fresh flour: water). However, even extreme ratios like 1:50:50 would still work. In that case, the freshly fed sourdough would just require more or much more time to grow and reach its peak, as judged by the maximum volume increase in the jar (at least doubled).

Never allow any form of metal such as a spoon or lid to come into direct contact with the stored, un-used sourdough starter as it will cause a chemical reaction that will contaminate and blacken the implement and eventually in time will kill (loose all activity) the starter and a blackish blue or pink liquid will ...

Yes, you can bake with sourdough starter straight from the fridge | King Arthur Baking.

Can you leave sourdough starter on the counter all the time? ›

Yes you can, but this means regular daily feeds. If you bake daily, keeping the starter on the counter makes sense, however please remember that it requires 2 feeds a day, morning and evening.

It's usually pretty obvious when your starter has gone bad. You will either see mold or discoloration (generally pink or orange). If you see either of these things, you will need to toss your starter. The smell is usually a big give away.

Why You Must Discard Some of Your Sourdough Starter Before You Feed It. If you don't discard your sourdough starter, it will grow too big and be unmanageable. Not to mention you will go through an unmentionable amount of flour. Let's say you start with 50g of flour & water on day 1.

No, it shouldn't; it's simply organic matter and yeast.

By feeding the discard with fresh flour and water over a few consecutive feedings, the microbial activity can be restored, eventually turning it into a viable and active sourdough starter.

The longer you go in between feedings, the more acetic acid your starter will develop. This acid creates a more sour flavor.

While the age of your starter won't make your bread any better — turns out, only good sourdough practices can do that — it's a link in the long legacy of sourdough, one of the oldest forms of baking that exists. Whether your starter is a week or a decade old, you can become part of that lineage as well.

Place your starter in a warm spot to rise and activate, ideally 75-80 F. Temperature is really important. The warmer it is, the faster it will rise. Your starter is active when it shows the following signs: doubles in size, small and large bubbles appear, has a spongey or fluffy texture and exhibits a pleasant aroma.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour. Why do you need to use these two types of flour?