Sourdough Starter Recipe
Learn how to make a sourdough starter in a week with only two ingredients: flour and water. Follow this detailed recipe guide for more visual indicators to make your own sourdough starter from home that you can use for sourdough bread and all of your baking.
Yield or Serving: 1 Sourdough Starter
Equipment
- 1 Brød and Taylor Folding Proofer, optional but helpful
Ingredients
- 200 grams Bread Flour
- 125 grams Rye Flour, optional, or whole wheat flour
- 350 grams Water
Instructions
- Day 1: Weigh and add 25g rye flour, 25g bread flour, and 50g warm water to a clean jar. Mix and stir the flours and water together with a small spatula until no dry bits remain. Place a loose fitting lid on the jar.Let rest in a warm location (70-85ºF is ideal) for 24 hours.Note: If you do not have a scale, you can combine 1/4 cup of rye flour, 1/4 cup bread flour, and 1/2 cup water and use those measurements throughout the process.If you do not have rye flour, substitute with whole wheat flour or use all bread flour.200 grams Bread Flour, 125 grams Rye Flour, 350 grams Water
- Day 2-6: Discard about ⅔ of the starter. Add another 25g rye flour, 25g bread flour, and 50g warm water to the jar. Mix and stir together. Rest again for 24 hours. Continue this process until Day 6 or until the starter begins consistenly rising and falling and has visible bubbles in it. Please refer to the guide above for a day-by-day walkthrough with images.
- Day 6: If you notice that your starter rose, fell in the jar, or has a lot of bubbles/gases in it, the feeding on this day is different as the starter is almost ready.Discard about ⅔ of the starter. Add 50g bread flour and 50g warm water to the jar. Mix and stir together. Rest for 24 hours.Note: If do not notice activity in the starter, continue the same feeding process as the previous days until you notice activity. Then continue with this step and the following steps.
- Day 7 and Beyond: At this point if your starter is active, it should have doubled in size, smell yeasty, and be full of activity (bubbles/gases). It might even pass the "float test", which I describe in the detailed guide above. Continue the feeding process from Day 6 and feed once or twice daily. Discard ⅔ or more of the starter, add 50g bread flour and 50g warm water to the jar. Mix and stir together. Rest and feed ideally just after it peaks.It should be ready for leavening bread or other yeasted baked items now! Ideally, use just after the starter peaks and before it starts falling again in its jar.Note: If your starter is not active at this point, continue the feeding process from Day 5 until you notice it rising/doubling/full of activity and gases. Once again, it can take two weeks or longer to establish an active starter longer depending on various conditions.
Video
Notes
- Creating a sourdough starter can take anywhere from a week to over two weeks. It depends on many factors including flour used, temperature, environment, etc. Following my detailed guide above and keeping your starter in a warm location should get it active in 7-10 days.
- If at any point your starter has mold growing on it, completely discard and restart the process.
- Feel free to transfer your starter to another clean jar throughout the process as many times as you'd like.
- There are many ways to maintain, store, and keep your starter depending on your preferences and baking schedule. Please refer to my detailed guide above for ways to maintain a smaller starter or how to store it in the refrigerator, freezer, or even dried.
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