Sourdough Starter Recipe | Simple Easy Sourdough Starter Step by Step (2024)

This Sourdough Starter Recipe is just about as simple as it gets. Just water, flour, and a bit of time are all you need to get your sourdough starter going. In about a week you will have a starter of your own!

For our handmade home challenge, we have been talking all things sourdough for the month of January. I did a post and video on how to reactivate a dried sourdough starter. I also shared several recipes to get you started. However, there were a few people who didn’t want to buy a dehydrated starter, they wanted to get their own starter going from scratch! Well, I’m here for that too! Let’s see how to get a sourdough starter going from scratch!

What Do You Need to Make a Sourdough Starter?

  • A pint size and quart size glass jar
  • A cloth, coffee filter, or beeswax wrap for the top
  • Flour ( I use whole wheat, but you can use white or rye as well) we will get into the types of flour later
  • Water- filtered water is best, however you can use tap water. If your water has chlorine. you may want to use bottled or filtered water.
  • Something to stir with

Sourdough Starter Feeding Schedule

Sourdough Starter- Day 1

In your pint-sized jar mix 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water. Cover with a breathable cloth or coffee filter and secure it with a rubber band

Sourdough Starter- Day 2

Stir in another 1/2 cup flour and another 1/2 cup water. Cover again and leave until the next day.

Sourdough Starter- Day 3

Today your starter may start to have some bubbles, very exciting! There may also be a layer of liquid on the top. That is normal, just give it a stir and remove about 1/2- 3/4 cup of the starter and place it in a quart-sized jar. Now feed that with another 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour.

What remains in the original jar is called discard. You can toss it, compost it, feed it to your chickens or you can save it in your fridge for the rest of the week. Throughout the rest of the week, you will need to discard every day. You can save some of the discard in a jar and then try out some discard recipes, like this sourdough apple crisp.

Sourdough Starter- Day 4

Feed your starter 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water. Check on it again in the evening, if it has that layer of liquid on the top, you can feed it again with the same amount.

Sourdough Starter- Days 5-7

You will continue to feed your starter 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water morning and night. This means that in order for your starter to remain a reasonable size you will need to remove approximately 1/2 cup of starter each time you feed it. Again, you can discard that or you can save it for baking discard recipes.

Honestly, you may be able to get by with just feeding it once a day. I did on days 5 and 6, I just fed it a bit more. Remembering to tend to it twice a day is a bit much for some people. If you miss a feeding, just give it extra and you should be fine!

Day 7 Readiness Test

On day 7 really watch your starter to see if it is ready for baking. There is a float test, but honestly, I have never liked that test. It is said that you can drop a bit of starter in a cup of water and if it floats it is ready. I have had a portion of it float and a portion of it sink….not so sure what that meant.

I think the best way to test the readiness of the starter is to watch it and observe it. After you feed it on day seven, place a rubber band around the jar at the level of the starter. If after 4-8 hours the starter doubles in size or rises far above the rubber band, then it is active and ready to use.

Sourdough Starter FAQ’s

What Flour is Best for Sourdough?

When I was just getting into sourdough, I did a lot of research on this. I really wanted to use whole wheat flour, and I wasn’t sure if I could. I read this article and I thought it was very helpful! Turns out you can use whatever flour you want really! I use Prairie Gold Wheat Flour.

Please note that you can also change the type of flour that you are using. You can gradually add in a different type of flour as you transition to a different type of flour. Don’t switch all at once, use half of the old type of flour and half new as you switch over.

Do I Really Only Need Flour and Water?

Many recipes call for all sorts of different ingredients for sourdough starter, some call for yeast, some call for juice. I am here to tell you that it doesn’t really get more simple than flour and water and it really works!

What Container is Best for Sourdough Starter?

I think it’s easiest to start with a pint-sized jar, it is just easier to stir. However, you can start with a quart jar. Glass is really best as it doesn’t harbor bacteria like plastic can and it can be disinfected at high temperatures. Once your starter is established you will want a lid, it doesn’t need to be super tight-fitting, as in air-tight, just something to keep flies and such out.

The size of your jar will also depend on how much starter you need to keep on hand. If you have a large family like me, you will want to keep at least a quart-size jar of starter, I actually keep a two-quart size. If you only have a couple of people in your family, you won’t need a huge starter.

What is the Best Temperature for Sourdough Starter

Between 70-75 degrees is ideal for a sourdough starter. Anything cooler and you may have trouble getting the starter to ferment. Anything warmer and you will find it becoming very active and needing to be fed more often.

Why Do I Need to Discard or Throw Out Starter?

I know this is what seems annoying about sourdough. However, you won’t have to discard forever, only this first week when you are getting your starter established. If you don’t throw some out your starter will grow too big for your container. Also, the bigger the starter the more it needs to eat. If you have 2 cups of starter, to keep it healthy you will need to feed it 1 cup of water and flour. You can see that it would quickly outgrow your container.

Once it is established, you can store it in the fridge, feed it when you take it out, and only use what you need. Then you can put it back in the fridge until the next time you need it. More on this later.

What is the Black or Clear Liquid on Top?

This is an alcohol by-product called hooch. It is harmless, you can simply pour it off or stir it in. It just means that your starter is hungry…so feed it!

What if there is Mold on My Sourdough Starter?

No good. Time to toss it and start over. Don’t try to salvage moldy starter…not that you would!

What if My Starter Looks Crusty on Top?

That’s ok and normal. Just scrape it off and feed it.

How to Maintain and Keep a Sourdough Starter

This is one of the areas where people feel overwhelmed with their starter. You begin to feel like it’s a child that needs tending to each day. It really doesn’t have to be that way. Here are a couple of different ways to keep your starter alive without feeling burdened by it.

Keep it on the Counter and Feed Daily

If you keep your starter on the counter, then you need to feed it regularly to keep it alive and healthy. Feeding it once a day should work fine, however, if the starter is large, like more than a couple of cups worth, you may need to feed it twice a day. The rule of thumb is you need to feed it the same amount as is in the jar. So if you have 1 cup of starter in your jar then you need to feed it at least a cup that day. If you don’t use it, then the next day you will need to feed it more, and it will just continue to grow if you are not using it.

This is the most common way to keep a starter here in America. However, this is also what makes people want to quit. Seeing that starter sitting there and knowing you need to feed it and then bake something so that it doesn’t get large and out of hand is kind of annoying. Or knowing that you need to either make a discard recipe or throw out some of the starter feels wasteful. It’s like putting pressure on yourself for no good reason. The starter should be a blessing to you, not a burden.

If you do bake a lot of bread or if you are regularly making items with sourdough, then this method will work just fine for you.

Keeping Your Starter in the Refrigerator

This is a great method for the weekly or bi-weekly baker. You simply feed the starter after you bake and then store it in your refrigerator for a week or more. Some people say you should still tend to it every week and feed it, however, you really don’t have to. I have left mine in there for up to six weeks.

Keeping Your Starter in the Refrigerator Method 2

I just recently learned about this method from my friend Anja at Our Gabled Home. She is from Germany, and this is the way they keep their starter. She simply bakes with her starter and then she adds some flour to whatever is left, she doesn’t add any water. Then she puts a lid on it and puts it in the fridge. When she knows she is going to bake, she takes the starter out, feeds it some water stirs it up, and lets it get active. Then she uses the starter.

Printable Instructions

That’s It!

It may seem like a lot of steps, but really there isn’t much hands-on time. If you can be patient, you can have a healthy active sourdough starter in about a week!

Sourdough Starter Recipe | Simple Easy Sourdough Starter Step by Step (2024)

FAQs

How do you make enough sourdough starter? ›

If you do not have enough starter, just feed it some more.

Just add some flour and water to your starter the day before and presto, you have more starter. This isn't even usually necessary though, as you can add a greatly varying amount of starter to your bread as it will leaven your dough over time.

How do I start a sourdough starter? ›

Despite all the mysticism and lore about creating the concoction, a sourdough starter is merely a naturally fermenting mixture of flour and water. Add water to dry flour, let it sit on the counter for a few days, and you'll see nature weave life into a once lifeless lump: bubbles will appear and the mixture will rise.

How to make 100% sourdough starter? ›

A "100% hydration sourdough starter" means it's 1 part water and 1 part flour. In other words, for every gram of flour there's a corresponding gram of water, hence 100% of the flour is hydrated. This is the easiest starter to maintain since most recipes are written with a 1:1 ratio in mind.

What is the best flour for sourdough starter? ›

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?

What to do if I don't have enough starter? ›

If you need more starter than you currently have, just keep building it up by not removing any starter prior to feeding and feed the starter an equal 1:1:1 ratio until you have the amount you need.

How much sourdough starter do you need to start? ›

How much of my starter should I use for a sourdough loaf? As a general rule, I like to use a 20% innoculation of active sourdough, at 100% hydration. This means that my sourdough has equal weights of flour and water, and for a dough containung 1000 grams of flour for two loaves, I will use 200 grams of starter.

How long should sourdough starter sit before using? ›

If you're starting a brand new starter from scratch, it will need 7 to 10 days before it's ready for bread baking. The first four to five days will be spent getting your starter active and bulking it up.

What is sourdough starter for dummies? ›

What we call sourdough “starter” is a mixture of flour and water that naturally collects yeast and bacteria. It's part of the bread making process known as a preferment. (To read that word correctly, think of it as pre-ferment, as in, what happens before fermenting.) Any preferment can leaven (raise) and flavor bread.

What is the difference between starter and sourdough starter? ›

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.

Why is sourdough starter so difficult? ›

Essentially making a sourdough starter is not an overly difficult process, but it does require a commitment of time and patience, as well as some dedicated equipment. Sometimes there are factors which mean making sourdough starter could be difficult. Perhaps you're working long hours or go out of town regularly.

What happens if you use too much sourdough starter in a recipe? ›

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.

Can I use tap water for sourdough starter? ›

*If making sourdough is new for you, do not be discouraged if you starter takes longer to get active than mine – stick with it, it will happen! *Tap water is usually fine, if you are not sure, use boiled and cooled water, you can use it at room temperature or cool; do not use distilled water.

Is distilled water good for sourdough? ›

Distilled water might seem like a good option, but it's actually not great for your little yeasty friends. They need some minerals and stuff that are usually filtered out in the distillation process. So go for filtered or bottled water instead, and your starter will be living its best life in no time.

What flour makes the most sour sourdough starter? ›

For more tang: Incorporate some rye flour and/or whole wheat flour early in the bread-making process, such as when feeding the mother culture and the preferment. Rye flour in particular will help your culture produce some acetic acid.

Can you use too much starter in sourdough bread? ›

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.

Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it? ›

It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

What is the 1/2/2 ratio for sourdough starter? ›

A 1:2:2 feeding ratio would consist of one part existing starter, two parts flour and two parts water. For example, if you have 30g of existing starter, you would feed it 60g of flour and 60g of flour. The most common feeding ratios for daily maintenance are 1:1:1 or 1:2:2.

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