This Basic Sourdough Starter Is Simple Enough for Beginners (2024)

FAQs

What is sourdough starter for dummies? ›

A sourdough starter is really just another name for any fermented grain. It's a grain that starts to predigest during the fermentation process, which ultimately makes the flavor more sour. Here are just a few great reasons to make your very own sourdough: Sourdough is delicious.

Feed starter with flour and water: If using a scale to measure ingredients, combine equal amounts by weight of starter, water, and flour. For instance, 50 grams starter, 50 grams water, 50 grams flour. If using measuring cups, combine 1 part starter, 1 part water, and a little less than 2 parts flour.

Over the past decade-plus of baking, I've tested all manner of flour from whole grain wheat to spelt to einkorn, and while they all do work, my preferred flour to use when creating a sourdough starter is whole grain rye flour and white flour (this can be all-purpose or high-protein bread flour).

Example of How To Increase Your Sourdough Starter

If you have 50g of starter in your jar, but you would like to have 200g of starter because you want to bake a few different things then you would need to add 100g of each flour and water to that starter to make 200g (because 200g divided by 2 is 100g).

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.

If you do not have whole wheat flour, just use all purpose flour instead. The starter will be fine. I switch to all purpose flour for the feedings because it's reliable, inexpensive and practical for everyday baking (remember, a portion of your starter is removed, discarded, or used for something else).

stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.

No, milk should not be added to a sourdough starter. Sourdough starter needs only flour and water to colonise wild yeast.

Compared to whole wheat flour, rye flour is said to be the most nutrient- and amylase-dense option for a sourdough starter.

Is distilled water good for sourdough? ›

Distilled water is a bad choice because the minerals that the bacteria need to do their thing have been removed. Just stick to filtered spring or purified water for your starter and bread baking.

Ideally, you should choose a jar that will comfortably hold between 100g and 200g of sourdough starter (I like to keep between 50 to 100g on hand). A jar with a capacity of 16oz to 32oz is perfect. A jar with a wide mouth and no shoulders is best.

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).

One of the amazing benefits of sourdough discard is that you can use it to create new starters, which are known as levains. These off-shoots from the mother starter can be used to experiment with different types of flour or given as a gift – there's nothing quite like sharing an entire ecosystem with your loved ones.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

The science behind sourdough

As the microbes begin to reproduce in the starter, the bread-friendly ones take over and crowd out any unfriendly ones. Lactobacilli bacteria convert sugars in the flour to lactic acid and acetic acid. These acids give sourdough its distinctive sour flavor.

The main differences between yeast and sourdough starter are the time in which they take to leaven bread. Because of the way commercial yeast has been honed, it rises bread very quickly. In comparison, the wild yeast contained in sourdough starter can take many hours, even days, to rise bread.

A Herman starter or Amish Friendship Bread Starter is typically made with milk, flour, sugar and commercial yeast. A sourdough starter is generally made only of flour and water.

Baker's yeast turns the sugar into alcohol (a very low volume which evaporates away as the dough is baked) and into carbonated gas. Sourdough starters turn the sugar into carbonated gas and lactic (and acetic) acid, which give this bread its sour flavor.