Easy Sourdough Starter and Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to use your sourdough starter to make bread? ›

Feed a sourdough starter 4-12 hours before starting the dough, ensuring it is active and bubbly. Add warm water, active starter, salt, and flour to a large mixing bowl. A kitchen scale will give the most accurate results. Mix together with wooden spoon or even just your hands.

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

As with any sourdough recipe, before you start baking bread, you want to make sure that your sourdough starter is as strong as possible. My basic sourdough recipe uses just 50g of starter for 500g of flour (so just 10% of starter).

Typical feeding ratios are 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 (old sourdough: fresh flour: water). However, even extreme ratios like 1:50:50 would still work. In that case, the freshly fed sourdough would just require more or much more time to grow and reach its peak, as judged by the maximum volume increase in the jar (at least doubled).

Once your starter is 14 days old, you can look out for some of the signs of readiness. Your starter may show these signs from 14 days, but it might take 4 or even 6 weeks before your sourdough starter is really ready to bake with.

Yes, you can bake with sourdough starter straight from the fridge | King Arthur Baking.

To keep a smaller starter, you will save just 20 grams (about 1 heaping tablespoon) of active starter, feeding it with 20 grams of water and 20 grams of flour. This will yield 60 grams of starter which is just enough to maintain.

Compared to whole wheat flour, rye flour is said to be the most nutrient- and amylase-dense option for a sourdough starter. Overall, it has a lower gluten protein content than wheat flour, which means it produces slack, sticky, and dense doughs.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it? ›

With each sourdough starter feeding, you'll be discarding some to avoid it from becoming overly acidic. Most will compost or trash this discard, but you can save it and use it in other recipes!

No you do not have to stir sourdough starter before you use it. You measure the sourdough starter by weight, not volume, so stirring it or not makes absolutely no difference. What does "fed" sourdough starter mean? Fed sourdough starter refers to a starter that has been fed flour and water (preferably by weight).

If you do not have whole wheat flour, just use all purpose flour instead. The starter will be fine. I switch to all purpose flour for the feedings because it's reliable, inexpensive and practical for everyday baking (remember, a portion of your starter is removed, discarded, or used for something else).

For more tang: Incorporate some rye flour and/or whole wheat flour early in the bread-making process, such as when feeding the mother culture and the preferment. Rye flour in particular will help your culture produce some acetic acid.

Experts recommend feeding a starter twice daily. And at each feeding, you hold onto 1/2 cup of your original starter, discard the rest, and then add its same weight in water and flour. With this schedule, you'd discard almost a cup of sourdough starter every day.

If you're an experienced baker and are familiar with working with a cold sourdough starter that has been kept in the refrigerator for a long time and you've had success, then it's totally OK to use your starter straight from the refrigerator. You can utilize a cold starter in any sourdough discard recipe.

In a small bowl or jar, mix 5 grams of dehydrated sourdough starter with 15 grams of 80 °F water. Allow the starter and water to sit for about 2 hours, or until the dried starter dissolves. Stir in 15 grams of flour. Cover and put in the Sourdough Home or Proofer at 78 °F overnight, or for 12 - 14 hours.

You should feed the starter equal or greater than its weight after discarding a portion. You should wait at least 2-4 hours or until the starter is at its peak before you use it in your baking. Can you use sourdough starter after it falls? Yes you can use sourdough starter after it falls.

If you're like me and have neglected your starter for a little too long — perhaps you've been out of town or simply forgot it in the back of the fridge — you can use a little whole grain flour (such as pumpernickel or whole wheat flour) to feed your starter and give it a boost.