Your Guide to Sourdough Starter
If you’ve even got involved or thought about diving into the world of sourdough starter, it can be a little daunting and overwhelming. For starters, (hehe) know that starter takes time and effort, but not as much as it appears at first glance. Whenever you plan to bake with starter, planning is the biggest hack I can recommend to you. Unless you are using your starter everyday, know you’ll need to plan at least 2 days in advance to get your starter ready for when you start to baking.
I often talk about “feeding” your starter. The basic science behind starter is that you are baking with active microbes that allow dough to rise without adding yeast. Your starter is a living thing that needs to be cared for from time to time. If you want to dive into the nerdy world of microbiology and what’s really going on in your starter, if you dare, this is a great article to check out. But basically if you haven’t given your starter material to “feed” on you need to in order for the microbes and bacteria to be active enough to allow for rising dough.
Admittedly, I’m not an actual sourdough starter expert. I’m sure you can find very comprehensive and detailed information elsewhere. I do a lot from with working and taking care of my kids and household. Baking with sourdough starter is a side hobby. So my purpose here is to give you the basics on how you can as well, without devoting a lot of time and energy to it. I want to guide you to a stress-free relationship with your starter.
So here are the basics I think you need to know to get started with starter:
Step 1: Make or better yet, acquire a starter
I have tried on many occasions to make my own starter. I have never been successful. It is an extremely time-intensive process and quite honestly I lose interest or forget about it and then my whole project fails. So needless to say, if you are going to make and grow your own starter don’t take my word for it. But this looks like a great recipe to get you going.
My advice is find a friend, acquaintance, or neighbor who has some and ask them to give you some. I assure you, if someone bakes with sourdough they are always discarding some, and we like to share the baking spirit. This isn’t a weird thing to ask for. I’ve moved a lot so I’ve had to find starter a lot. My most recent batch is from a friendly neighbor that not only gave me some starter but shared an excellent recipe and some great tips for hard crusted bread.
Step 2: The basics of keeping your starter alive
I often get asked if I feed my starter every day, or how often you need to feed it. I personally go through eras where I bake a lot and times where I need to take a break, so you can vary your involvement a lot. I would probably avoid forgetting about your starter for extremely long (like a year or more) periods of time, but it doesn’t need to be a stressful thing. If you are using your starter everyday, you’ll have a healthy and active starter to use often. If you go chunks of time without feeding it, just keep it in your fridge and plan some time to get it going before you use it.
I store my starter in the fridge. When I’m ready to start baking I generally plan to feed it about 12 hours before I plan to use it. If it’s been a month or longer since I’ve fed my starter I double that to 24-36 hours so I can give it multiple feedings if it doesn’t get active enough. Before you feed your starter take it out of the fridge for at least an hour to let it warm up.
Feeding basics:
You will feed your starter just use the ratio 1:1:1.
1 part starter
1 part warm
1 part rye or wheat flour (you can also use all purpose flour, but the flour choice will effect the flavor).
Use a kitchen scale when you do this to measure each part the same. For example I make a sourdough loaf that calls for 70grams of starter. I always want to have some active starter left over to put back in the fridge so I want to make sure I have a minimum of 100grams of starter after I’m done feeding it. I’ve learned that I like to start with at least 35-40grams of starter at the beginning of my feeding process. This looks like 35grams room temp starter, 35grams warm (not hot) water, and 35grams of flour. Mix it all together and let it sit in a glass jar covered with cheesecloth for 12 hours. After 12 hours it should have bubbles in it and a slightly sour smell. If you don’t have any bubbles, do it again (yes, you’ll have to wait another 12 hours).
That’s really it. If you use your starter daily or often you get into a good routine and you know what to expect. If you take some time off between using it, try to at least feed it every month, get it active with those bubbles going and then put it back in the fridge.
Happy baking momma’s (and papa’s)!
