For several years – including in my first few years of writing this blog – I was an adherent of the Paleo diet, which entailed abstaining from wheat flour, among a number of other things. This is why I never added a sourdough starter recipe section, which otherwise would fit very naturally into a fermentation and natural-foods blog like this.
Although I really like the Paleo diet and it worked well for me personally (healthy level of energy & weight loss, increased muscle and reduced inflammation, etc.), I grew up eating (and enjoying) plenty of bread and baked goods and at some point in the last few years I just decided to go back to eating those… in moderation, and avoiding what I consider the supermarkets’ typical “non-food” version of bread, which is laden with all kinds of unnecessary additives, some of which are even banned in other countries because of their potential dangers.
Because I am ever a lover of kitchen adventures, very focused on eating “real” foods, using all-natural (usually organic) ingredients, and because – let’s face it – I’m “insane” about fermentation, it only made sense for me to pursue sourdough baking. The fact that my family LOVES bread and that we were at home during the COVID lockdown for a couple years when the national baking obsessions started probably all influenced me to go in this direction as well.
If you’re here and still reading, I can only assume you enjoy bread too. But probably also like me, you want to make this a nutritious product you can feel good about. And / or you might reason that home-baked bread is just superior, even generally when the loaf isn’t perfect. Which conventional supermarket has fresh out of the oven bread, let alone sourdough, especially without unhealthy added dough conditioners, preservatives, and the like?
There’s tons of great baking and sourdough blogs and resources out there which may be more comprehensive than mine. There’s so many great recipes out there to guide you. What I hope to share over time is some of my tried and true recipes that I just love. As I always try to do, these recipes will be written in the clearest language possible and with an attention to the little details that make things easier and result in the best outcome. Like listing what equipment you really need and avoiding that which is just hoopla.
This new blog section will start off with the basics – making your own sourdough starter. It is this jar of goo teeming with life that will have the capacity to leaven your bread for the rest of your life… with just a little (and we’re talking LITTLE!) bit of care and effort. That’s right, buying commercial yeast may never be needed again. And yes, perhaps to your amazement, sourdough starter can be made at home within a week or so, with no special knowledge or equipment. It will work better over time, but my first ever loaf of bread was really good and I made it within a couple weeks of establishing my starter.
So let’s do this!
Equipment
- Gram scale (I will also offer cup measurements below, which will also work, but use of a gram scale in the baking stage is the best way to get reliable and consistent results) — at the time of writing, this gram scale which I’ve used for years is under $10!!
- Quart mason jar (or liter), or larger, such as half gallon for more room to stir
- Measuring cups if not using gram scale
- Long spoon or sturdy chopstick
- Paper towels and rubber band or jar ring
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (120g)
- Large bag organic white flour
- 1/2 cup water (120g) per feeding
Directions
1.) Day 1: Combine the whole wheat flour (1 cup or 120g) with the water in the mason jar or other non-reactive container. (Using the whole wheat flour initially provides some needed nutrients, but moving forward, only the all-purpose flour will be needed.)
2.) Stir everything together evenly; make sure all dry flour is incorporated. Cover the container with paper towel and metal ring (or rubber band). Let the mixture sit at warm room temperature (about 70°F) for 24 hours. If the house runs considerably cooler, place it on a warm spot if available (like an off oven with the light turned on), or even place the jar in a bowl of very warm water (don’t fully submerge the jar), changing the warm water every so often.
3.) Day 2: There may be no activity at all in the first 24 hours, or there may be some limited bubbling. Either way, discard half the starter (~120 grams, or 1/2 cup), and add to the remaining starter a cup (120 grams) of organic all-purpose flour, and 1/2 cup (120 grams) cool water (if the house is warm); or lukewarm water (if the house is cold).
4.) Mix well, cover again with the paper towel, and let the mixture rest at room temperature for 24 hours.
5.) Day 3: At this point it is likely to see some activity — bubbling; a fresh, yeasty aroma, and some expansion. At this stage there should be two daily feedings, as evenly spaced as possible. Per each feeding, there should be a generous 1/2 cup of the starter used (120-130g). Any excess starter beyond this can be discarded. Feeding details:
6.) Add a cup (120 grams) organic all-purpose flour, and 1/2 cup (120 grams) water to the generous half cup (120-130g) starter. Mix the starter, flour, and water thoroughly. Cover and let the mixture rest at room temperature for about 12 hours, then repeat.
7.) Day 4: Weigh out 120-130 grams starter (generous 1/2 cup), and discard the remaining starter. Repeat step #6.
8.) Day 5: Weigh out 120-130 grams starter (generous 1/2 cup), and discard the remaining starter. Repeat step #6. By the end of this day, the starter should have doubled in volume (or more). There should be ample or at least visible bubbling. The starter will have a tangy aroma (and flavor, if you care to put some on your tongue). If your starter hasn’t risen much and isn’t showing lots of bubbles, repeat discarding and feeding every 12 hours for two more days.
9.) Once the starter is ready, give it one last feeding. Discard all but 120-130 grams (a generous 1/2 cup). Feed as per the above. Let the starter rest for 6 to 8 hours; it should be active, appearing doughy and with bubbles coming through the surface.
10.) At this point, the starter can be used to make bread (or other recipes involving active starter). My bread recipes (forthcoming) usually rely on 200g of starter (or levain, which I’ll explain below). In my experience, recipes rarely go over this much, and certainly not much more if they do. It is important to remember that, rather than discarding the excess, as we’ve been doing in creating the starter, you will need to keep it at this stage as your permanent source, and add more water and flour to it in order to keep your starter going indefinitely. However, you may periodically find yourself discarding part of the starter moving forward if you’re just giving it maintenance feedings but haven’t actually been using it to make bread; this is because, without discarding some, you may just start to run out of space in your jar or container.
Further Tips & Info:
- If the amount of starter required for a recipe is similar to or more than what you have, be sure to add an extra helping of flour and water to create a larger supply of starter that you’ll hang on to. This depends on your needs and could be, for example, a 1/2 cup flour and a 1/4 cup water. It doesn’t always have to be the 1 cup flour (120g) / 1/2 cup water (120g) formula used thus far, now that the starter is established. Whenever you use from the starter, you want to at least replace that much by adding fresh water and flour to the starter. If you use up 150g starter in a recipe, for example, you can replace it by adding 75g water and 75g flour to your permanent starter.
- When replacing lost volume to starter after some of it is used in baking, you may always add equal amounts water and flour by weight. This could be approximated as 1/2 cup water and 1 cup flour, but, as stated before, a more accurate way to measure this is to use a gram scale and use 120g of each.
- You may store your starter in the fridge for long periods. When placing it back in the fridge after using some for baking, give it a routine feeding. At that point, it can last in the fridge potentially for months. After long periods without use in the fridge, there will typically be a dark liquid that forms, known as the “hooch.” I try to avoid this but it does not signify that the starter has gone bad, but rather that it is out of food. It is common practice and safe to stir the hooch back into the starter, but it is also important at this point to add a fresh feeding of water and flour.
- If you haven’t been using the starter for baking and you need more room in the jar to add the feeding, simply discard half of the starter you have first and then add the feeding. You can put the starter right back in the fridge once you’ve evenly mixed everything; it will ferment all the same, just much more slowly. If I haven’t been baking and thus haven’t been re-feeding my starter, I will just routinely pull it out to feed it like this about once a month.
- Some recipes refer to levain in addition to or instead of starter. This is really just the French word for starter (or leavening) and it just refers to the starter that is pulled from the main starter source, including once it is given extra flour and water to feed it at room temperature (and get it active) before being used in a recipe. In other words, the part of the starter you use for baking is the levain.
- The levain can potentially differ from your main starter because you could change up the flour type (or the hydration level). For example, sometimes when I make rye bread, I may add rye flour and water to the starter offshoot, whereas I feed my main starter bread flour (or all-purpose flour) as part of routine feeding. Typically, I make my levain from 50g of my starter, mixed with 100g water and 100g new flour. Although this equals 250g, you’ll usually only be able to harvest around 200g of it as some will stick to the sides of the jar. (Note when a mix of equal parts water and flour is used like this, it is considered a “100% hydration” starter or levain; the percentage is based on how much water is used relative to the flour). It takes me at least 6 hours at room temp for this levain to be ready to mix into a dough.
- When making your levain (i.e. whatever part of your starter you’re pulling off your main starter), you can do so in another jar (e.g. quart jar), or other suitable upright container. I have a hard time throwing out my leftover tupperware-style soup containers from to-go orders now, because they work so well as a levain container. I seal the lid and everything works great.
- An easy way to confirm that your levain is ready for use in preparing your dough, is after it has roughly doubled in size, to pour it into the amount of water needed for the recipe. A ready levain will be airy and will float on the surface of the water.
