How to Make a Sourdough Starter | Baking Basics #4

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links and if you go via these links to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. I have linked these products because I have tried and would thoroughly recommend them, not because of any commission I may receive. Whether you act on this recommendation or not is completely up to you. Check out my Disclaimer for more information.

Making sourdough bread at home is becoming an increasingly popular trend. When I told my friends, I had made my own sourdough starter, one turned to me and said she had also just made one, and another immediately asked if she could have some of it. So even among students, there are some keen beans that want to give homemade sourdough bread a try!

I absolutely love the smell of freshly baked bread – and you simply cannot beat a fresh sourdough!

To make a sourdough loaf, you need to use a “starter”. In this baking basics post, I will explain to you what a sourdough starter is, how to make it, how to use it and how to keep it going (perhaps forever and ever!)

What is a sourdough starter?

Usually, when bread baking, you use dried or fresh yeast. However, you can also use naturally occurring wild yeast (a fungus that is contained in the air around you, as well as in flour), as a natural leavening agent for making bread.
If you leave a mixture of water and flour at room temperature, the wild yeast will naturally get trapped in it. It then “feeds” off the sugars in the flour and water and starts to multiply. This process is known as fermentation and people have been using this to make bread rise for thousands of years.

A sourdough starter is technically a living thing, so in order to survive and continue to expand it requires attention and feeding. It´s a bit like a pet if you want to think of it that way – just a lot less work. If kept in the fridge, you only need to feed the starter about once per week.

How do you make a sourdough starter?

All you need to make a sourdough starter are a few simple, household ingredients. You can just use water and flour to make a starter, but I also used a little milk and yoghurt at the start to introduce a few more bacteria and help the fermentation process along a little (the exact recipe can be found below).

You will also need a large jar (about 1.5 litres capacity) with a rubber ring around the lid, so that it can be sealed tightly. This is the one I used for my Dad´s Christmas Present.

When first making the sourdough starter, it requires daily attention, but only for a few minutes each day. But once it is done, you can keep it going forever and never have to make another one! All you need to do is feed it!

Your sourdough starter is ready to use after about a week. It should look very active and bubbly. If not, give it another day or two before you use it.

Feeding Instructions – How to Keep your Sourdough Starter Alive

To maintain your sourdough starter, you must “feed” it. This just means that you need to give it a little flour and water every now and again as food so that it can continue growing.

If you bake daily, keep your starter at room temperature and feed daily. If like me, you are very much a home baker and only want to make bread about once a week, keep the sourdough starter in the fridge. This will retard its growth meaning you only need to feed in once per week, just before baking.

Feeding your starter is very easy!

First, if it has been in the fridge, take it out and leave it for a few hours to come to room temperature.

Your sourdough mix will grow exponentially if you never use or remove any starter. Therefore, most recipes usually tell you to discard about half of the starter, before feeding it. I, however, have found that for me, it is easiest to weigh out the exact amount of starter I wish to retain and then discard enough to maintain that weight (this then might be more or less than half of the starter). Keeping back and feeding 200g of starter has proven the perfect amount for my recipes and needs. If you need more starter, you can just keep more. It´s a very flexible process. Read my recipe instructions below for more information.

Once the starter has reached room temperature, all you need to do is feed it with the same amounts of flour and water as the remaining starter. For example, if you have 200g of starter, you add 200g flour and 200g of water to the jar. Then mix thoroughly.

If not using, return the jar to the fridge. If you are wanting to use the starter, leave it at room temperature for about four hours until it has grown and has bubbled up. Remove the amount of starter you need for the recipe, then return the remaining sourdough starter to the fridge.

It is important you always keep back some of your starter so that you never run out!

How do I know when to feed my starter?

As mentioned above, if keeping at room temperature, the starter needs to be fed every single day. In the fridge, once a week, for me, is sufficient. Depending on your starter and fridge temperature this may differ slightly. So other indications that your starter may need fed, is if you start to see a brownish liquid forming on top of the starter. This is known as hooch (a naturally-occuring alcohol produced by the fermentation process). It´s nothing bad, it just means the starter is hungry and needs feeding. Simply make sure you discard that liquid and then feed it following the instructions below.

Adding a Twist… Rye Sourdough Starter

Once your white flour sourdough starter is well established, why not try adding a little twist? Remove some of the sourdough starter, put it into another jar and start feeding it with rye flour to make a rye sourdough starter! And then you can use it to make this delicious Rye Sourdough Bread.

Sourdough Bread Recipes

If you are looking for some sourdough bread recipes that you could make with your newly-established starter, why not check out some of these:

• Seeded Sourdough Loaf
• Crusty White Sourdough Loaf
• Rye Sourdough Bread
• Wholemeal Sourdough Baton
• Sourdough Pizza Base Recipe (Freezer-Friendly)

How to Make a Sourdough Starter

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 450g strong white bread flour
• Water
• 215ml milk
• 5 tbsp full-fat natural yoghurt

Method:

Day 1

Place the jar you are using on the scales and make a note of the weight. This will be important to know for later.

Gently warm 175ml semi-skimmed milk in a pot over a low heat. Add 5 tbsp of full-fat natural yoghurt and the warmed milk to the jar and mix well. Close the lid tightly and leave at room temperature for 24 hours until thickened.

Day 2

Add 120g strong white flour, mix well, cover and leave for two days at room temperature. The mix should then be quite bubbly and smell pleasantly sour.

Day 4

Add another 180g of strong flour, 100ml of water and 40ml of milk to the starter and stir until everything is thoroughly combined. Cover again and leave for 12-24 hours.

Day 5

On the fifth day, the starter should be quite active already. You should be seeing a lot of air bubbles at this stage. Discard roughly half the starter before adding another 150g of strong white flour and 150ml water.

Day 6

By day 6 your sourdough starter should be ready to use.

If you wish to bake sourdough bread almost every day, you might want to keep your starter at room temperature. You will then need to feed it daily. If, like me, you only make your bread once per week, it´s best to keep the starter in the fridge. This retards its growth and means you only have to feed it on a weekly basis.

Feeding Instructions

1. Remove the starter from the fridge and leave to come to room temperature.
2. Discard roughly half of the starter or weigh out the desired amount.
3. “Feed” with equal amounts as the sourdough starter of strong flour and lukewarm water.
4. Mix until well combined.
5. Leave for 4 hours until bubbly before use, or return to the fridge.

More Baking Basic Posts:
#1 How To Make Shortcrust Pastry
#2 How To Master Chocolate
#3 How To Make Puff Pastry
#4 How To Make Buttercream (Normal, Vegan, Dairy-free)
#5 How To Make Hot Water Crust Pastry