Believe me when I tell you, you can do this. About two days into the project, you’ll doubt yourself. You’ll think, is this working? What should I be looking for? Then, around day three, you’ll start to see the change, and baby let me tell you, it will stink…literally. This funky turn of events is the first sign that things are going well. Your starter has residents, and those residents are hungry!

Making a sourdough starter is a low-effort, high-payoff kind of project. You’re creating a living organism that will not talk back, borrow your clothes, or ask for money. No, this lovable creature is designed for one purpose only: to feed you. Now don’t go thinking that this is a one-sided relationship. You have to nurture your starter but not so much that you will feel burdened or emotionally bankrupt. Once you have an active starter, all it takes is a weekly feeding to keep it around for many years. Feeding it takes less than 5 minutes and only requires a little flour and water. Don’t worry if your first attempt goes awry, just try it again until it works. I found that the best time of year for me to make a new starter was in the hottest months of the year. Yeast likes to be warm, and since you are trying to attract the wild ones, why not make it a party they want to come to!

ingredients

ingredients

Reserve Flour Mixture

• 700 g all-purpose flour
• 695 g whole wheat flour

Starter

• 140 g reserve flour mixture
• 150 g lukewarm water

For Feeding

• 56 g of starter
• 56 g reserve flour mixture
• 56 g of lukewarm water

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instructions

DAY 1: MAKE THE RESERVE MIXTURE AND BEGIN THE STARTER

1. Combine the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour in a large container with a lid, whisk thoroughly. This is your reserve mixture; you will use it for all the feedings you do over the 14-day period.
2. Remove 140 g of the reserve flour mixture and place it into a small bowl. Add 150 g of lukewarm water and stir to combine.
3. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and let it sit on the counter overnight.

DAY 2: STIR

1. Remove the cover and stir the mixture, one time.
2. Replace the cover and let it sit for another 24 hours, undisturbed.

DAY 3: STIR AND FEED

1. Remove the lid and stir the mixture, one time. If the mixture smells terrible, like a bad batch of beer and you see active bubbling on the surface, you are on track to begin the feeding.

FEEDING:

1. Remove 56 g of your newly active starter (see day 3, above) and discard the rest into the trash or sink. You will do this every time you feed because if you kept all of the starter, by the time you reached the 2-week mark, you would have way too much starter to be useful.
2. In a small bowl, combine your 56 g of starter with equal amounts of reserve flour mixture and lukewarm water. Stir to combine then cover and leave out on the counter.

DAYS 4 – 10: FEEDING

Repeat the feeding process from day 3, every 24 hours, for a minimum of 7 days. This basically gets you to the 10-day mark. If your starter is very bubbly and has the aroma of fresh bread, you are good to start using it. If it is not highly active or still has no smell or it has a slightly off smell, continue feeding every 24 hours for another 4 days.

The key factor when making a sourdough starter from scratch is time. You are capturing wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria from your environment and trapping them in a cozy little feeding den where they can eat and lay around and be gassy. Like any party, the vibe needs to be right to have a good time, be patient. If you aren’t seeing any activity in the first three days, toss the mixture and start over.

STORING YOUR STARTER:

Once you have an active starter, you need to decide how often you plan to use it. If you are the kind of person with lots of time on your hands and you plan to use your starter every day or two, you can keep it on the counter in a covered container, but you will need to feed it every 24 hours to keep it happy. If you forget and the starter is allowed to sit on the counter, unfed, it may begin to rot and there is no bringing it back. There are certainly different schools of thought on this, my experience has been that I am not able to sustain a healthy starter on the counter without feeding it daily. I encourage you to experiment, if you are curious, you may find you are able to keep that starter happy with minimal interaction.

I bake sourdough once per week, so I keep my starter in a wide-mouthed mason jar in the fridge. I like to flip the disc from the lid upside down so that it doesn’t make a perfect seal. This allows the slightest bit of airflow into my starter, which means I am always introducing new friends to the residents inside the jar. Keeping the starter chilled slows down fermentation so the yeast is far less active. This allows it to go longer periods in between feedings. Even if you don’t plan to use your starter often, it’s a good habit to feed it once a week. If you’ve got a strong starter, you can probably go as long as two weeks between feedings. When this happens to me, either because I have been traveling or plain forget, I feed it with whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, the yeast really digs that.

STARTER MAINTANENCE:

For weekly or daily feedings, use this simple equation, 1:1:1. That means, equal parts starter, flour, and water. For example, if I have 120 g of starter in the fridge and I want to keep that same amount on hand at all times, I’ll take 40 g out (discard the rest) and add 40 g of fresh flour and 40 g of lukewarm water. If you have a lot of projects coming up and you need more, you can take the entire 120 g and add equal portions of flour and water. This is the best part about maintaining a starter, it doesn’t take a lot of thought.

One last note on using your starter to bake. I highly recommend feeding your starter one day before you make your levain, think of it as priming the pump. And now that you are ready, give my Sunday Morning Sourdough a whirl!