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 7 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
25g organic dark rye flour or wholewheat flour
250ml filtered warm room temperature water
To feed:
125g organic plain flour every day
125ml filtered warm room temperature water every day
Method
Day 1. Place all the starter ingredients together in a large clean glass jar. It’s going to triple in size so you need enough room for it to grow.
Mix everything together well so there are no dry bits.
Cover loosely with a lid (do not screw it on) or a dry breathable cloth. 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.
Day 3. Are there more bubbles yet? It should start to smell sweet and yeasty. Once it has lots of bubbles and has doubled in volume, you are ready to feed it.
Stir your starter well and remove half of it. This can be thrown away, or popped in a new jar to start another starter.
Feed your active starter with more flour and water (125g plain flour and 125ml water as above) and stir well. Cover loosely and keep in a warm place for 24 hours.
Day 4. 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 125g plain flour and 125ml water. Repeat after 12 hours.
Day 5 and 6. Repeat the feeding schedule of twice a day (remove, discard, feed). Your starter should be getting stronger and happier day by day.
Day 7. It’s almost ready! Last feed before you are ready to bake! Remove almost all of the jar leaving around 25g behind. Feed the starter with the same amount as before - 125g plain flour and 125ml water. Loosely cover and leave to bubble and rise (it should double or hopefully triple in volume). This could take 6 hours or 12 hours or even more. Keep an eye on the marked level. You know it’s ready for a feed when it starts to fall and streak down your jar.
By now you will have learnt it’s feeding schedule and you can feed it as often as it needs to keep him alive. Your starter is perfect for baking 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.
