If you’re thinking of baking your own sourdough bread at home, the first thing you’ll need is a starter.
A starter is a simple mixture of flour and water, naturally inoculated by wild yeast in the environment. Think of it as the life force for your bread. It’s what makes the bread rise and gives you that signature tangy, sour flavour. You can purchase a starter, ask a bakery for a bit of theirs (they might give it to you for free if you’re nice since they are discarding some each day anyway), get some from a friend, or make your own. Starters have historically been passed down through generations, the longer it’s alive, the more flavour it will have.
When you have a sourdough starter, it’s sort of like having a little (very low maintenance) pet. Like, very low maintenance. Like feed her once a week, low maintenance. What does she eat you ask? Flour and water, the proportions of which are determined by the type of bread you’re wanting to make. This is a guide for a 100% hydration starter. All that means is that you are feeding your starter equal portions of water and flour. I’ve found that not only is this the easiest math, but also most recipes you’ll find online are for 100% hydration starters.
If you are making your own starter, you are going to want to give your new starter a week or so to mature before you can actually bake with it. Here is a great guide on getting your starter baby up and running by Attainable Sustainable.
Feeding:
Actual feeding is super simple. All it means is that you are giving the little yeasty bois in your starter some flour and water as “food” so they can get/stay healthy and active. As mentioned above, this guide is for a 100% hydration starter, so equal parts flour and water feedings. First, measure out your ingredients. This is best done in weight (100 grams water to 100 grams flour) but listen, volume is totally fine too. Simply converted, 100 grams of water is roughly ⅓ cup and 100 grams of flour is a little under a cup. So if you don’t have a scale, go with that.Start by discarding a bit of your starter, remember it will approximately double, so, make room. Then add your water and stir until smooth and fully combined. Make sure your water is lukewarm – too cold and your yeast will stay sluggish for longer, too hot and you could kill it. Then, add your flour and once again stir until smooth. Now, let it sit for 10-12ish hours at room temperature. Again, you’re looking for your starter to roughly double in size and become bubbly and very active. One of the very cool things (to me) about sourdough is that environment plays a huge role. So if your kitchen is vey warm, this may only take 5 hours, but if your climate is cooler, or maybe it’s winter, this step could take 15 hours or more.
Once your starter is alive and thriving, you can think of it in two modes: The first mode will be (unless you’re baking bread every day) the bulk of your starter’s life: Dormant Mode in the fridge. The second is Baking Mode. This is when you are feeding it often because you’re about to bake with it. So if you are not baking everyday, much less week to week, you can keep your starter in the fridge, no problem. I’ve actually gone stretches of close to a year with my starter in the fridge. Just once a week, try to pull it out, discard a bit and feed. Again, you’ll want to stick with equal parts flour and water and you only really need to replace what you’ve discarded. If you miss a week, honestly don’t panic. Your starter is hardy. If you bring it out of the fridge to prepare for a bake and it seems a bit sluggish in getting going, firstly, be patient, it’ll need some time to come back to life, but secondly, leave the lid slightly ajar (or cover with cheesecloth and an elastic) to allow some of that wild yeast in the air to give her a little boost.
Secondly, you’ve got Baking Mode, this is obviously when you are preparing for a bake (duh). If you’re baking a couple of times per week, you will probably just keep it out of the fridge altogether. If that’s the case, great, one feeding per day should work for you. If you are just baking once per week, you’ll keep it in the fridge and pull it out three days before you want to serve your masterpiece (4-7 days if she’s been in there for a WHILE). More on this in the actual bread making method.
Sourdough starters are traditionally used for bread baking, but can also be used in a variety of other types of recipes as a leavening agent or just to add a little extra flavour. Remember, you’re going to be discarding (read: straight up throwing away) starter weekly. It is a necessary evil BUT I absolutely hate waste, so I try to use that discard in recipes whenever I can. My top favourite, dumb-simple sourdough discard recipe is Rosemary Discard Crackers by Butter for All- SO GOOD. Starter can also be used to make crepes, pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, you name it. It’s a handy little pet to have around.
Now go forth and bake!
