Sourdough Starter
Takes: Time and love
A sourdough starter is simply flour and water that is full of beneficial bacteria found naturally in the air around us. With good old time and a little love, it will ferment and you can use it as the yeast in bread baking.
You will need to feed it regularly (with more flour and water) to keep him happy and alive.
Making Sourdough is an art and creating an active starter is the hardest part so please don’t be disheartened if your starter doesn’t work first time around. If he isn’t bubbling in the first few days, simply throw it out and start another batch.
This is a recipe to get you started and it’ll take around 10 days to get a strong starter. Once he’s alive and kicking have a go at making your own Sourdough Boule.
Ingredients
The starter:
225g organic plain flour or bread flour
25g organic dark rye flour or wholewheat flour
250ml filtered warm room temperature water
To feed:
125g flour mix (blend of the same flours as above), every time
125ml filtered warm room temperature water every time
Method
Day 1 Place the flours in a large clean glass jar (this will be your flour mix). Add the water and mix well. Make sure your jar is large enough as the starter will triple in size so you need enough room for it to grow.
Mix everything together well until there are no dry bits. Cover loosely with a lid (do not screw it on) or a dry breathable cloth as you want the natural bacteria in the air to reach the starter.
Mark the level of the starter with a pen and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.
Day 2 You might see some bubbles forming. Don’t worry if you don’t! Sometimes it takes a little longer. You can call this a quiet day.
Day 3 Are there more bubbles yet? It should have tripled in volume and it might start to smell unpleasant as the bad bacteria is burning off. This rise is known as a ‘false rise’.
Day 4 Once the bubbles subside, stir your starter and remove half of it. This should be thrown away. Now it’s time to feed it. Add the flour mix and water and mix well. Mark the level, cover loosely and keep in a warm place.
Day 5 and 6. You should see bubbles again but maybe not as many as on Day 3. As long as you can see some change, you know it’s working. Now you are ready to start feeding it twice a day to get the wild yeast really active and ready for baking. Remove half the starter, discard, and feed it again with flour mix and water. Repeat after 12 hours.
Day 7 Now the quiet days are over, you should start to see more bubbles as your starter gets stronger and happier day by day. It should also smell sweet and yeasty. Continue feeding every 12 hours (remove half, discard, and feed with flour mix and water).
Day 8 Your starter should double in size faster and higher than before. It should peak in volume in 8 - 10 hours. Continue feeding every 12 hours (remove half, discard, and feed with flour mix and water).
Day 9 It’s almost ready! Your starter should continue growing and will peak in volume in 6 - 8 hours. Feed once in 24 hrs (remove half, discard, and feed with flour mix and water).
Day 10 Last day of feeding before you are ready to bake! Now your starter has doubled in size for 3 continuous days. Remove almost all of the jar leaving around 25g behind. Feed the starter with 50g flour mix and 50ml water. It should double and peak in volume in 4 - 6 hours. Feed once in 24 hrs (remove half, discard, and feed with flour mix and water).
Day 11 BAKE DAY! Now your starter is active, you’re ready to start baking! Your starter is ready once it’s risen and just before it is going to fall. You can test it by dropping a teaspoon of starter into some water. It should float!
If you don’t want to bake often and so don’t want to feed everyday, simply give it a last feed and pop it in the fridge. Take him out of the fridge every week and follow the same rules as above - remove almost all but 25g of starter, feed and put back in the fridge. He should stay happy and healthy.
Time to bake? Follow my recipe for a classic Sourdough Bread Boule.
My Tip: Every starter is different and some take longer than others, but this is a good guide on how it’ll behave as it starts to activate and strengthen. Happy baking!
