My sourdough journey has been so much fun. I have fallen in love with making homemade sourdough bread, and I firmly believe that you will too.
You don't need to have years of baking experience, or an abundance of tools and a special oven, all you need is flour, water, salt and a little patience - they do all the work for you.
Here are my Top Sourdough Starter Tips for Beginners that I wish I had known when I started my baking journey:
HOW DO YOU MAKE A SOURDOUGH STARTER?
You can certainly create your own starter from just flour and water - this is what I did and it took me about 7 days to grow an active starter. Trust me, it was worth it! Now I have endless amounts of delicious, homemade bread!
If that feels too daunting to you, you can find a mature starter from someone else - this will eliminate a lot of variables that often result in starter fails.
If you need additional help with how to make a starter, I have a Sourdough Starter Guide available for purchase! And if you are local to south Florida, sign up for one of my Beginner's Sourdough classes - you'll go home with some of my very active sourdough starter! Her name is Doughlores. :)
WHAT FLOUR DO I FEED MY STARTER WITH?
I find the best way to keep a healthy starter is by using unbleached bread flour. Because bread flour has a high protein percentage - flours with a high protein content typically produce a more active and vigorous starter. My favorite brand is King Arthur - you can find it at most local grocery stores. I have found it cheapest at Target. :) I typically get about 3 loaves out of one bag.
If you get a starter from someone else that has been fed with a different flour, you should continue feeding it that way. So if that’s rye, you should feed it rye. If it’s all-purpose, you should feed it all-purpose.
HOW OFTEN & HOW MUCH SHOULD I FEED MY STARTER?
There are multiple thoughts on this. My answer is: it depends on how often you’re baking bread. Personally, I usually bake once a day if the starter is sitting on the counter, and if I am storing it in the fridge, it's usually a few times a week.
When I feed it once a day, it’s usually a 1:2:2 ratio - 1 part starter, to 2 parts flour and water. If I have some in the fridge and I want to make it active again, I'll add 25g starter, 50g water and 50g flour and leave it on the counter - it usually peaks within 4-5 hours. I know it sounds complex, but take it from someone who is terrible at math (ME!), it will all start making sense the more and more you do it.
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN MY STARTER IS AT PEAK AND READY TO BAKE WITH?
Your starter is ready when you take a teaspoon of it, place it in a glass of water, and it floats - this is called the "float test."
Other signs include when it has doubled in size, it will also be puffy on top, with aerated bubbles on top and through the sides. It should also stick to the jar when tilted.
I TRAVEL A LOT. WILL MY STARTER DIE? HOW DO I KEEP IT ALIVE WITHOUT FEEDING IT DAILY?
I used to worry about this too. When I first got my starter going, I left for 10 days, and every day I was panicking that I'd come home and it would be dead. When I came home, it was perfectly fine. I just had to remove the top layer off and feed it.
Have no fear, it's not a houseplant (or a dog) - it won’t die! It’s a myth that it needs to be fed every single day.
Your sourdough starter is resilient. If and when you’re traveling: Discard as normal and then feed your starter extra, like 100 grams flour and 100 grams water. Place it in refrigerator. It will keep fermenting, but at a much slower pace because of the cold temp. When you return, take it out of the refrigerator and let it warm up on counter for an hour. Then discard half and feed 2x per day leaving it on the counter, for a few days. It will get back to thriving!
NOW IT'S TIME FOR SOME ADDITIONAL FAQ's:
Why do you discard?
~Discarding will help to remove much of an exhausted starter and balance the acids, but still keep the culture in the jar to continue growing with the new feedings.
What tools do I need for sourdough baking?
~Bare Minimum I'd recommend these tools: (I plan to go into this further in a future post)
a dutch oven (I use this one) or a cast iron skillet with cover (this one is perfect, and costs less than $50)
a food scale (all recipes are calculated by grams to ensure consistent results)
a bread lame: you need to be able to score your dough properly so that the gases can escape while it is baking, resulting in a good rise.
8.5 inch banneton (a fancy name for the proofing basket you set the dough it during it’s second rise. this helps it keep it’s perfectly round shape.)
Weck jars or mason jars for storing your starter.
What can I do with the discard so I don't waste it?
~SO MANY THINGS! I have made crackers, cookies, sandwich bread, pancakes - you can really make almost anything!
I will continue to share more topics here and also on Instagram, so be sure to FOLLOW ME there! And if there is something specific you want to know and I didn’t get to in this post, leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to answer as soon as I can. Happy Baking!
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