How to make a sourdough starter from scratch.
The whole process takes between 7-10 days and involves very little time. Each day you feed your flour-water mixture equal parts and watch it magically come to life as it collects the wild yeast in the air.
What do I need to get started?
- two or three small 8 oz canning jars
- a digital food scale is strongly recommended, although you could get by without one
- filtered water
- rye flour, whole wheat flour and white bread flour or all-purpose
- plastic or wooden mixing spoons
- a towel or cheesecloth and rubber bands to cover it
Day One
30 grams of filtered water
30 grams of whole wheat flour
Stir together water and flour with a plastic mixing spoon and cover loosely with a tea towel. You can secure it with a rubber band to keep out taste testers(aka fruit flies) lol they love this stuff!
Let this mixture rest in a warm spot for 24hours. Try to keep the temp around 73- 80 degrees. You might leave it in your microwave with the under-mount light on to get a nice, warm environment for your starter to grow.
Day Two
Give your smelly mixture a good stir and cover.
Hopefully, you’ll see little bubbles starting to form in your jar. It could start to smell bad but, that’s ok!
Leave this mixture to rest in a warm place for another 24 hours.
Day Three
On day three you’re going to discard most of the starter you’ve created. We are only going to keep a small amount.
In a new jar, (the reason for a new jar each day is to make sure no mold starts to grow while we are getting our starter strong and healthy)
add:
20 grams starter
20 grams WW flour
20 grams water
This ratio is considered 1:1:1 in the sourdough baking world
Mix well (place a rubber band where the starter stops around the outside of the jar this will hep you measure how much it is rising )and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours.
Day Four
You’re going to discard most of the starter again(As long as it is still bubbly, has risen in volume over the rubber band line, and is smelly). We are only going to keep a small amount.
In a new jar, add:
20 grams starter
20 grams WW flour
20 grams water
Mix well and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours. Place a rubber band where the starter stops around the outside of the jar this will hep you measure how much it is rising. It should be doubling in volume by this point.
Day Five
You’re going to discard most of the starter you’ve created again (As long as it is still bubbly, Note: It should have DOUBLED in volume today, if it did we are going to change things up a bit!) If it hasn’t double just follow the day 4 feeding schedules until it does. As always we are only going to keep a small amount of starter.
Mix together your new flour ratios for easy feedings.
Add 80 grams of WWflour, 80 grams of white bread flour and 40 grams of rye flour to a container with a lid, mix together well and use 20 grams of this flour mix for today’s feeding. This will give you 200 grams of flour for future feedings!
In a new jar, add:
20 grams starter
8 grams WW flour
8 grams white bread flour
4 grams rye flour( rye helps the process along but if you don’t have any you can just use 10g white and 10g ww.)
{Or 20 grams of premixed flours instead}
20 grams water
Mix well and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours. Your starter is getting stronger every day, and it is almost ready!
Place a rubber band where the starter stops around the outside of the jar this will hep you measure how much it is rising. It should be doubling , even tripling in volume by this point.
Day Six am
You’re going to discard most of the starter you’ve created again(As long as it is bubbly, and has doubled or even tripled in volume). We are only going to keep a small amount.
In a new jar, add:
Pay Attention here: NEW RATIOS considered 1:2:2
10 grams starter(note: new starter Ratio)
8 grams WW flour
8 grams white bread flour
4 grams rye flour
{Or 20 grams of premixed flours instead}
20 grams water
Mix well and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours.
Place a rubber band where the starter stops around the outside of the jar this will hep you measure how much it is rising. It should be doubling or even tripling in volume by this point.
Day Six pm
You’re going to discard most of the starter you’ve created again(As long as it is bubbly, and has doubled or even tripled in volume). We are only going to keep a small amount.
In a new jar, add:
NEW RATIOS (again) considered 1:2:2 This how we will feed our starter from now on.
10 grams starter
8 grams WW flour
8 grams white bread flour
4 grams rye flour
{Or 20 grams of premixed flours instead}
20 grams water
Mix well and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours.
Place a rubber band where the starter stops around the outside of the jar this will hep you measure how much it is rising. It should be doubling or even tripling in volume by this point.
Day Seven am
It’s almost ready!!
You’re going to discard most of the starter you’ve created again. We are only going to keep a small amount.
NEW SMALLER RATIOS still considered 1:2:2 This how we will feed our starter from now on.
In a new jar, add:
10 grams starter
20 grams of premixed flours
20 grams water
Mix well and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours.
Day Seven pm
It’s almost ready!!
You’re going to discard most of the starter you’ve created again. We are only going to keep a small amount.
Pay Attention here: NEW RATIOS considered 1:2:2
In a new jar, add:
10 grams starter
20 grams of premixed flours
20 grams water
Mix well and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours.
After 24 hours, your starter should be ready to use.
Day Eight and Beyond
You’re going to discard most of the starter you’ve created again(As long as it is bubbly, has doubled in volume, and is smelly). We are only going to keep a small amount.
Pay Attention here: NEW RATIOS AND FLOURS AGAIN
Mix together your new flour ratios for easy feedings.
Add 180 grams of white bread flour, and 20 grams of rye flour to a container with a lid, mix together well and use 20 grams of this flour mix for today’s feeding. This will give you 200 grams of flour for future feedings! The ratio for making up future batches is 90% bread flour to 10% rye. We will use this in all future feedings and to make the leaven for baking bread.
In a new jar, add:
10 grams starter
20 grams premixed flour mixture
20 grams water
Mix well and cover again, letting it rest in a warm place for 24 more hours.
When it is tripling within a 12 hour period your ready to get started baking bread. Try out my easy artisan sourdough bread recipe here.
The loaf in the picture below was baked with the starter I made following this formula. I was able to make this bread only ten days after creating my sourdough starter from scratch!
If you are only going to be baking once a week or you go on vacation, you can store your starter in the fridge, just feed it once a week 1:2:2 – 10 g of each and let it get bubbly( about 6-8 hours) then put it back in the fridge. If it’s been in the fridge for over two weeks, I usually get it out two days before I’m going bake and give 1:2:2 feelings every 12 hours to get it nice and strong for baking day! Just remember : A strong starter should triple in a 4-6 hour window at 1:1:1.
Note:
If you are going to be making a large batch of bread the following morning around 8 am.
Feed your starter these ratios around 8-9 pm the evening before you start the bread-making process.
Feed it the 1:3:3 ration
30g starter
90 grams flour white/rye)mix
90 grams -filtered water
Doing it this way will give you approximately 210 grams of starter. You will have the 200 grams of starter you need for the recipe and some left to keep your starter alive for the next batch.
Note:
If your starter doubles or triples(reaches peak volume) and then falls before twelve hours are up. You may want to raise the ratios of flour and water to the starter to 1:4:4. The ideal time to use your starter is just before or very soon after it has fallen. One way to tell of your starter is ready to use is called the float test. Basically you just drop a spoonful of starter into a cutoff water and see if floats.
For example :
1:2:2 would be 5g starter, 10g flour, 10g water
1:3:3 would be 5g starter, 15g flour, 15 g water
1:4:4 would be 5g starter,20g flour, 20 grams water.
On a large scale for a bread recipe
feeding at 1:4:4 would look like 30g starter 120g flour 120 grams water.
Note:
If you are not going to be baking very often or you are going on vacation. You can feed your starter and put it in the fridge. Just remember to pull it out every 7-10 days and feed it again. And pull it from the fridge 24-36 hours before you plan on baking with it, give it a 1:1:1 feeding every 12 hours to revive it a little.
