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5 from 1 vote

Sourdough Starter

How to make sourdough starter and how to maintain it.
Prep Time10 minutes
Development Time6 days
Course: Bread
Cuisine: American
Keyword: sourdough, sourdough starter

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 150 grams unbleached all purpose flour see notes
  • 150 grams filtered water

Instructions

  • In morning, mix flour and water together In jar large enough to allow mixture to double. Keep In warmest part of kitchen.
  • After 24 hours, discard 150 grams of starter.
  • Add 75 grams each of flour and water. Mix. Put lid back on. Keep In warmest part of the kitchen.
  • Repeat this twice a day for the next four to five days,
  • You can now assess if your starter is ready to bake. Take a tablespoon of the starter at its peak, (risen and bubbly) and drop into some warm water. If it floats, you can probably feel confident to bake. I like to build a starter for two full weeks, but you may not need to do that.

Maintaining Starter

  • If you are keeping your starter out on counter, you must feed daily. If you are keeping your starter in fridge, feed weekly.
    Remove 50 grams of starter. Add 25 grams water, 25 grams flour.
  • You want to have at least 50 grams of starter available for baking, which means you want to have at east 100 grams of starter in your jar.

When Ready to Bake

  • Make sure when you are ready to use starter, it's at the most bubbly stage, which is active fermentation.

Notes

You can use bread flour, but I  have found keeping my starter going with all-purpose flour works just fine. Feel free to change to bread flour.