5 Ways to Strengthen a Sourdough Starter

If your sourdough starter is a little sluggish, it might need a boost to get it consistently doubling.

Perhaps it's been a little neglected and needs a refresh, or perhaps it's just not performing as you'd like it to.

Boost your sourdough starter with oxygen: One of the easiest ways to strengthen your sourdough starter is to make sure it's getting enough oxygen. You can do this by:

• making sure you don't have the lid screwed tightly on your jar - just cover with a piece of paper towel or coffee filter secured with an elastic band.

• stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix.

This will give your starter a boost with very minimal effort.

Feed your sourdough starter super-food: if you've created your starter from white flour, it can benefit by having a boost from rye or whole wheat flour. You can do this by substituting half your normal flour with rye or whole wheat flour.

Keep your sourdough starter warm: temperature is SO important when establishing a sourdough starter, and also when trying to strengthen a weak one. A starter being kept in cooler temperatures (below 70F) will not colonize and thrive as well as a starter that is kept above 75F.

• Feeding starter with warm water

• Using a seed raising mat

• Using an instant pot

• Keeping your starter in the oven or microwave with the light on (just don't forget it's in there!)

Feed your starter more often: It's as simple as it sounds. If your starter is sluggish and not behaving as you'd like, feed it more often - even up to 3 times a day.

Just don't forget. you need to discard half each time you feed your starter - but there are so many wonderful recipes you can use with your discard!

Keep your sourdough starter at a lower hydration: if your starter seems thin, I recommend feeding it just flour for 1-2 feedings - this will make the mixture stiffer.

If your starter is quite runny, it should be easy to stir the extra flour into the mixture. If it seems stiff, it will loosen up as it eats and ferments the flour. MAGIC!

Once you've done this for 1 or 2 feedings, your starter should be thick enough to go back to normal feedings.

Totally Refresh Your Starter

If you are really seeing no consistent activity from your starter, you can give it a complete refresh. This will generally get your starter going again after a period of neglect or even overfeeding.

1. Put 10g of your starter into a clean jar.

2. Feed the 10g of starter with 25g of bread flour and 25g of water and stir it really well, remembering you want as much oxygen in the mix as possible.

3. Cover loosely and leave for about 6 hours. You should start to see some bubbling beginning to happen.

4. After 6 hours, add another 25g bread flour and 25g of water, stirring really well again. Cover loosely again and leave for another 6 hours.

5. After 6 hours, discard around half of your mix so there's 50g left in the jar and feed normally - recommend 50g of flour and 50g of water. At this point, you should be able to feed normally from now on, discarding half each time.