Ok my friend, it’s time: today’s the day that you learn how to make a sourdough starter of your very own. I’ve done this now many, many times – and always with this method I find consistent, easy, and great success!

In this post, learn all about what a starter is, troubleshooting sourdough starter, and how to make one from start to finish!

What is sourdough starter?

Sourdough starter is an active culture created by mixing flour and water together and allowing them to ferment over time. The live culture that develops in a sourdough starter is sometimes called “wild yeast,” and it from this culture that sourdough bread is able to ferment, produce gas/air bubbles, and rise into beautiful loaves of bread.

What is sourdough bread?

Sourdough bread is an ancient process of making bread that involves using wild yeast (sourdough starter) instead of traditional or instant yeast. The starter culture in the bread allows the rest of the dough to become leavened over time, creating those beautiful artisan loaves of crusty, slightly tangy (or “sour”) homemade bread.

Sourdough bread has a depth of flavour that is unmatched by almost every other type of bread out there, and the process of making it is extremely rewarding.

How to make a successful sourdough starter

Having done this process many times at this point, here are some tips (and reasons!) that I’ve found help to make this process work out the best. Check out the tutorial at the bottom of this post for the details of how it’s done, but otherwise here are some helpful tips!

1. Use whole wheat or rye flour

I recommend using whole wheat flour because I have found that these two types of flour, for whatever reason, seem to yield consistently good results. You can apparently use white flour as well, but since I have yet to make a really good starter that began that way, I recommend sticking with these more hardy flours.

Once you have created an established starter, you can easily switch to feeding it with white flour to create a white starter (I do this all the time).

2. Use a clean jar every time you feed it

During the initial process of catching a good starter, you want to keep it in a clean jar every time so that mould doesn’t have the opportunity to form, especially around the mouth of the jar.

3. Use filtered water

This part may or may not be necessary, but clean water from our taps can sometimes have a higher concentration of chlorine, which can kill live cultures in fermented foods. I have known some people to create great homemade starters with tap water, but just to be safe, I recommend going with clean filtered water (such as distilled water). Personally, I just use water from my Brita filter pitcher.

4. Use a loose fitting lid, or a mason jar lid ring with cheesecloth (as pictured in this post)

Using cheesecloth is also optional for this process, but a key part of catching a good starter is allowing some access to the air. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. The starter culture is actually caught (in part) from the air, so letting the starter breathe is a good way to get it going.
2. As the starter begins to ferment and gases begin to expand inside of it (creating those beautiful air pockets), you will want to allow the gases to escape from the jar without building up inside of it.

How long does it take to make a sourdough starter?

You can usually make a sourdough starter from scratch for a few minutes a day for 7-14 days, depending on your environment and the type of flour you use. I find that my starters usually take off around days 9-10 of the starter making process.

What to do with sourdough discard

Sourdough discard is the name that describes sourdough starter that is dormant or extra starter that you’ve built up through the process of creating a sourdough starter. Some people will tell you to “Throw it away,” but there are so many great ways to use it! Use your sourdough discard to make sourdough crêpes, mock sourdough bread, waffles, pancakes, muffins… You name it. Go ahead and Google or look up “sourdough discard recipes” on Pinterest, and you’ll find plenty of great options!

How to get a sourdough starter to rise in cold temperatures

The first time I made sourdough starter was in an old, drafty apartment in the middle of a freezing Canadian winter. No matter how hard I tried, I could not seem to get the thing to rise!

After a little sleuthing, I learned that putting your starter on top of an appliance that produces a steady amount of warmth would help. My starter, after that, lived on top of my fridge all winter long – and there, I’m happy to report, it thrived!

When is a sourdough starter reading to use?

A healthy starter should double or triple in volume 8-12 hours after you feed it. The time it takes to expand will vary depending on the age/health of your starter, temperature conditions, and humidity.

A great way to know for sure that your starter is ready to use is to use “The float test” (see below).

What is the float test?

The float test is when you drop a little bit of fed, bubbly, active starter into a glass of water. If the starter floats to the top, it is ready to use! If it sinks to the bottom, it is not active enough to make a loaf of bread rise.*

*If your starter has risen quickly and fallen back down a little bit (ie, you can see the evidence of a risen and fallen starter in your bowl or jar), and it does not pass the float test but still looks healthy and bubbly, it may still be ok to use for making bread. I have done this with great success in the past, when I’ve known that my starter is active and healthy, and I performed the float test maybe an hour or two after the starter had begun to collapse.

There is a grey or brown liquid on top of my starter; is this normal?

After using your starter, you should either feed it again or keep it in the fridge to prevent bad bacteria/mould from forming. While the starter remains unused in the fridge, it will begin to separate, and often the liquid that forms on top will become grey or brown in colour.

This is called “Hooch” and it is very normal. You can stir that back into your starter or pour it off the top and resume feeding it as normal.

Do I have to use my starter every day?

No. If you want to bake with it every day, then by all means you can; however, if you’re just baking for your own family then you likely won’t need to use it more than 1 or 2 times a week.

I like to keep my starter in the fridge all the time, and then just pull it out and feed it the night before I want to make my dough.

How to feed your sourdough starter

Every time you feed your sourdough starter, you will stir together equal weights of starter, flour, and water. This means that its volume will triple every time you feed it.

I like to always have a little bit (ideally at least about 50-70 grams) leftover to feed for the next time I want to bake.

When you have too much starter: how to use it all and prevent waste

One thing that you will find quickly with making sourdough starter is that it multiplies – and quickly! While it’s true that you never want to run out of sourdough starter, you also don’t want to accumulate too much.

You can use excess starter to make sourdough discard recipes (such as sourdough crêpes or mock sourdough bread), or you can just be strategic about how you use and feed your starter so that it never gets out of hand.

Strategic feeding method for a large amount of starter

If I have a lot of starter in the fridge and want to start using it up, I only feed enough from that large amount that I can use all of my activated starter (fed starter) in one go (leaving a little bit still in the fridge for next time).

As an example, if a recipe calls for 150g of active sourdough starter, I make sure to only feed 50g of my existing starter (provided that I have at least 50g leftover for next time). This way the amount I have activated is exactly 3x50g (50g water, 50g flour, 50g starter = 150g), and I can use it all for my recipe.

Making sure you never run out

As I mentioned before, you never want to run out of starter completely. After all, it takes quite a while to make, and you want it to be able to mature over time!

To make sure I always have enough to keep, I try to make sure that there’s always a little bit more than I need for one baking day in the fridge. For example, if I only have about 70g of starter left in my jar in the fridge, I might feed it all, weigh out my 150g for my recipe, and then return the rest of the starter to the fridge for my next baking day.

Keeping some starter around for next time will ensure that your starter gets more and more mature over time (making better and better loaves of bread). Additionally, keeping some around means that you may never have to start the process of getting a new starter going over again!

To make a sourdough starter, you will need:

• Whole wheat flour or rye flour
• Filtered water
• Kitchen scale
• Mason jars (I used pint jars and quart jars for this tutorial)
• Cheesecloth (optional)
• Painter’s tape or a rubber band, to see how far your starter has risen
• Spoon or chopstick to stir the starter

Simple Sourdough Starter

Note: If you want to see photos of this process step-by-step and day-by-day, you can check out my sourdough Instagram story @naomicakesofficial.

Day 1:

In a clean mason jar (I used a pint jar to start), measure 50g whole wheat flour and 50g water into the base, and stir them together. Put the lid on, but don’t tighten the seal – leave it nice and loose.

Day 2:

“Feed” the starter with another 50g flour and 50g water, stir till combined, and replace the lid as before.

Day 3:

Spoon 50g of the mixture into a clean pint jar, and add another 50g flour and 50g water, stirring them together. Replace the loose fitting lid as before. Discard the excess starter, or save it in the fridge to make sourdough crêpes or some other delicious wonder later!

Days 4 & 5:

Repeat as on Day 3.

Day 6:

Spoon 50g of the mixture into a clean quart jar, and add another 50g flour and 50g water, and stir them together. Replace the lid as before, and discard the excess starter.

Day 7:

Again, repeat the directions as on Day 6, using a clean jar every day.

Then, every day ever after… Keep repeating this process (as on Day 6), unless you want to take a break for a while. After that you can put the starter in the fridge, and try to feed it once a week to keep it alive.

Between day 7 and day 9, you should notice that the mixture begins to double and triple in volume inside of the jar. To test if it’s ready to make bread, spoon a little bit into some water. If the mixture floats, it’s ready!

Note

You can mark the outside of your jar at the level of your freshly fed starter with painter’s tape or a rubber band so that you can easily see how much your starter has risen each day.

You can see that I used cheesecloth and a lid for each jar in these photos. This is just a way of ensuring that the gases can escape from the jars as the starter develops. If you use a clean mason jar and a tight fitting lid, this step is not necessary for catching a good starter.

Here are some great sourdough recipes to make with your new starter:

• Easy No-Knead White Sourdough Bread
• Sourdough Montreal Style Bagels
• Sourdough Dark Rye Pumpkinseed Rolls
• Simple Sourdough Crêpes

I hope this helps you! Let me know how your sourdough starter journey is going, and feel free to ask questions in the comments below! I’m happy to help if I can!

Bye for now,

Naomi

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