Starting Your Starter

I was initially very intimidated by sourdough, even though I had been making bread for years. Then, a coworker was on his adventures in sourdough and gave me some of his starter that was a few months old. I will say, sourdough is less scary when you have an already mature starter! That being said, I wanted to start one of my own, and it’s now maturing and ready to use.

I can’t stand when blogs have a long background story, so here we go…

Equipment:

While not required, I HIGHLY recommend having a kitchen scale in grams. All my recipes are in grams, because bread truly is a science, and measuring by weight is the most accurate. Here’s everything I use:

  • Digital kitchen scale
  • Glass jar (wide mouth recommended) with lid
  • Nitrile gloves (keeps your hands clean, but I also have OCD)
  • Spatulas

Truly, none of these are required, but my recipe will read as if you have these items (except the gloves. Again, that’s just a “me” thing”).

Initial process

It’s super important to remember that while your starter will probably be active enough to use after 10 days, it will still take about a month or so to fully mature. What this means is that you can bake with it, but it will take a longer amount of time to activate and won’t have the classic sourdough tang. You’ll still have a tasty loaf of bread, so don’t be afraid to bake!

Day 1 – Creating your starter

Ingredients:

  • 100g water
  • 50g all purpose unbleached white flour
  • 50g whole wheat flour

Steps:

  1. Add water to your starter jar
  2. Add the whole wheat flour first and give it a good mix.
    • Whole wheat flour will hydrate faster than the white flour; I mix it in first because it is easier to stir
  3. Add white flour and stir. Consistency should be like paste
  4. Cover and place on the counter. This is it for day one

Day 2-10 – Feeding your starter

Ingredients:

  • 50g water
  • 25g all-purpose unbleached white flour
  • 25g whole wheat flour
  1. Remove about half of your starter from your jar
    • I’d recommend throwing the discard away the first 10 days while you’re waiting to active your starter. Do NOT run it down the sink; it will harden and you will end up calling a plumber. I usually place some aluminum foil in a bowl and shape it to the bowl. Discard into the bowl, then close edges of aluminum foil and throw away
  2. Mix water and whole wheat flour, then mix in white flour
  3. Cover and place on counter
  4. Repeat each day (preferably the same time each day) for at least 10 days