How to Make Sourdough Starter post includes tips for collecting wild yeast and bacteria from your kitchen environment to make delicious sourdough bread.
Sourdough bread are delicious and beautiful with its holey interiors. If you think it is possible to make that bread at home? Yes, it possible. If you see my sourdough bread recipes, then you can see I am fan of it. Now with the non-availability of instant yeast, lots of people are trying to make sourdough starter at home. Trust me it is easy. In this post I can walk you through how to make sourdough starter at home.
One thing you need in plenty is patience, yes you may see the recipes that says about baking bread with in 3 days. But I don’t think it will work. The first few days after you begin the work of making sourdough starter, actually you are capturing the wild yeast and bacteria in the flour and as well as in your kitchen environment.
What are microorganisms in Sourdough Starter
Sourdough starter mainly contains lactobacillus cultures, a kind of lactic acid bacteria, which lend the bread its notable sour flavor. They can thrive in acidic environments, producing lactic acid in response to the conversion of available carbohydrates (i.e. flour) into the sugars they need to survive. Carbon dioxide, a biproduct of the fermentation process in these and other sourdough microbes, helps the dough to rise and give it its structure.
Sourdough starters can also comprise a range of other natural microbes such as airborne yeasts and microfungi. Together these microbes form communities who convert grains and water into a highly digestible, nutritious dough. Saccharomyces_cerevisiae (baker's yeast) was in abundance in people's homemade starters along with natural yeasts including: Saccharomyces servazzii (carbon dioxide producing), Saccharomyces unisporus (found in more liquid and warm starters), Pichia anomala, Saccharomyces castellii, Candida humilis, Saccharomyces bulderi, Saccharomyces exiguus, Kazachstania barnettii, Saccharomyces naganishii and Saccharomyces uvarum.
How to make sourdough starter?
The method given below will walk you through all the key steps and core concepts a first-time sourdough baker needs to bake naturally leavened bread at home with good or even great results.
Instruments and ingredients
You’ll need to invest in a few clean mason jars bottles with caps, and a kitchen scale.
Ingredients include unbleached flours or whole meal flour and water. In this post I will show how to make starter from, rye flour, whole wheat flour or Atta (Indian whole wheat flour) and unbleached all-purpose flour. You can use either rye flour alone or whole wheat flour alone. If planning to use all purpose flour go for a 50:50 all-purpose and whole wheat flour.
For water use bottled water or whatever you use to drink. If your tap water has high chlorine don’t use that as microorganisms may not grow in it.
You can use cold or warm water. Few of my friends found that lukewarm water gives better result. I used cold water that is fine for me.
You need to find warm place in your house as they require 27 to 32 °C (81 to 89.6 °F).
You need to feed for at least 10- 14 days to get a strong starter. I prefer 14 days rather than earlier time.
You can start with any flour and change later if you want.
Points to Remember
Second day you may see little or good activity: That is okay you got some bacteria and yeast from your kitchen environment.
Third and 4th day you will see a peak of activity, it is good means something is growing on. Don’t be excited that you can make the bread that day. No, it is not ready.
5th and 6th day the activity may seem to be less that is okay too. Means those who are in batch want to run first took the step and left. The ones that are there now are the guys who will make good bread.
Don’t ever try to smell your starter up to 5th day, sure you are going to get a stinky one.
Continue to feed and discard until 10-14 day. You got best bacteria and fungi in batch if they are doubling nicely.
When your starter is ready you should see plenty of bubbles, both large and small.
At this point, the texture will now be spongy, fluffy, also fruity smell pleasant, and not stinky.
If these conditions are met, your starter is now active.
If you see water in the top of the starter that is fine, it is called Hooch, stir back in and feed the starter.
If you see any black, green orange or any other color than the normal color of flour, you got a bad batch throw it and start once again.
Last Step
Once you made an active sourdough starter transfer to nice clean jar and start baking bread. Make sure to feed regularly. I find that if you feed everyday you get less sour bread.
If you are baking occasionally then store your starter in refrigerator and then bring the starter to room temperature and feed two times at least before you make bread. Feed your starter everyday if it’s stored at room temperature. If you keep it in the fridge, feed it once a week.
Feeding Routine
Begin by removing and discarding about half of your starter and feed 1 :1 ratio of flour and water.
If you miss a feeding, don’t worry- your starter is not going to die. It might look ugly (and smell horrible) but it usually just needs a few feedings to perk back up.
With continuous feeding you will be able to get good strong wild yeast and bacteria that make delicious bread every time. They are like your pets; show some love they will give you love in the form of good delicious bread.
It is possible that your first loaves are not perfect, but any sourdough bread made by your hand will still be delicious. It is fruit of your hard work so enjoy it with passion. I will be sharing the Beginners sourdough bread recipe in next post.
How to Make Sourdough Starter
Equipment
- Mason Jars with lid
Materials
- 5 lb unbleached all-purpose flour / Rye flour/ Whole wheat atta
- Bottled water / tap water with less chlorine
Instructions
Day 1
- In a clean bottle add 60g flour (rye/ whole wheat/ all purpose-whole wheat mixture) (½ cup) and 90g (⅓ cup) water and loosely cover with kitchen towel or cloth and keep aside for 24 hours.
Day 2- 4
- Stir the mixture first and then take out 55 g from your yesterday’s mixture (discard the rest) into a new bottle and add 60g flour (½ cup) and 90 (⅓ cup) water) and keep aside for 24 hours. Every time use new bottle
Day 5- Day 10
- Now you are going to feed twice. 15 g yesterday starter mix + 20g flour+ 20g of water and after 12 hours add 20 g flour + 20 g water. Do the change of bottle only once means when you are adding the starter mix. First feeding always use new bottle
Day 11 – Day 14
- You can start feeding thrice means 6-hour intervals, if you see good activity. 15 g yesterday starter mix + 20g flour+ 20g of water and after 6 hours add 20 g flour + 20 g water. Make sure to use larger container as you see the up and down activity.
- When your starter is ready you should see plenty of bubbles, both large and small.
- You can start baking bread.
Video
Notes
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
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This worked exactly as written, thanks!
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Amy Liu Dong says
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
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Nora says
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
Anonymous says
Swathi says
I made sourdough starter with this recipe.
Amy Liu Dong says
This is very timely as I'm thinking of doing some sourdough bread! This will make my process easy and fast! Thanks and loved it!
kunjan says
can I use aashirwad atta for starter ?
Swathi says
yes you can
Linda says
What a great starter idea! And it's so much easier than what I've been doing.
Andrea says
This sourdough recipe is awesome! Will be referring back to this often!
Rob says
You make it look so easy! Great step by step instructions.
Alexandra says
I had always wanted to learn how to make my own sourdough starter, so I was really excited to come across your recipe. Thanks for all of the detailed information and tips - I am excited to get started!
Helen at the Lazy Gastronome says
This is a beautiful starter!! Making sourdough bread at home is not that hard when you have a great starter recipe like this!
Andrea says
thanks for this starter recipe! it was so simple to put together! love it!
Mansi M says
Hi Swathi,
You have made a wonderful blog. One question, if I keep starter at room temperature only once its ready after 14 days, do I need to keep feeding it daily once or every 4-6 hrs.?
Swathi says
No just one time is enough.
Yolen says
If I want to revive my starter from the fridge what is the process how much should I feed and how often. Thank you
Swathi says
First feed, 1: 1: 1 ratio. Continue to feed 2-3 feeding before making bread. If it doubles in volume then you can bake the bread.
Navita Singh says
I have been wanting to make a sourdough bread for long ,came across your blog and impressed by the detailed steps.I have the following doubts and your clarification will be very helpful
1.I live in north India where summer temp go upto 45 degree C.
Can starter be raised in this weather or we have to wait for season with temp between 27-32.
2..Whar are the ingredients to be used in 1:1:1 ratio as mentionec
Swathi says
Use madia, atta and water
Glenda says
I love the step by step instructions! I've never made my own starter, but I feel like I could now.
Ansi says
Hi Swathi.. in the points 7 & 8. U have mentioned to discard from day 2-4.
Day 5-10 & 11-14 shud we continue the discard method and then feed the starter? Or we can feed the starter right away just by changing the bottles with 15g starter right away. Suggestion plz.
Swathi says
Yes you need to feed the starter right away, just changing bottles with 15g starter, after 4th day you are going to feed twice, that why I mentioned you don't need to change the bottle for 12 hours interval but for 24 hours you need to .
Marysa says
I have heard people complaining so much about not being able to find starter, but it is easy to just make your own! This is great to be able to do.
Ana says
I'm fond of Sourdough bread but never thought that we can make it starter at home. Earlier I found it a little complicated while reading the post but glad that you showed it through a video. It looks like something I'd love to try!
Rose Ann Sales says
It sounds complicated but I will definitely give it a try. Thanks for sharing a very nice tutorial.
Shannon Gurnee - Redhead Mom says
I've never made a sourdough starter before, but would love to try it someday. This looks like a great way to do it!
Lizzie Lau says
I love sourdough and I've been baking it for years. Lately with all of my friends and neighbors at home, I've been sharing my mature starter.
Catalina says
wow! It's so easy to make it with your tips!I will try it!
Kita Bryant says
This is such a great guide. It is so important to have a good sourdough starter.
Uma Srinivas says
wow, easy and cheap way of doing sourdough bread! I love to try this out soon. Thanks for this post looks really easy!
Kathy says
I've never made this before. What a good idea though. This is something I should make.
Jessica Formicola says
I've been dying for some fresh sourdough bread, so I can't wait to try this! Thanks so much for sharing!
Ramona says
Great comprehensive post - I love my sourdough starter that I have now for a good few years - makes such a difference and if you ask me, it makes the best bread without a doubt.
Rena says
Very interesting I always wondered how that was done. I love sourdough bread but never knew how to make it.
Paula Schuck says
Looks kind of complicated to me. I’d love to make sourdough bread though so possibly will set my mind to doing this soon.
Lynndee says
I have a sourdough starter recipe but it's different than yours. I will have to try yours. Thanks!
Chef Dennis says
This is really great! These tips on how to make Sourdough Starter and tips on how to collect wild yeast and bacteria from our kitchen environment is definitely helpful. I've always wanted to try this. Thanks for sharing.
Liz says
This looks great! Everyone's been trying to make their own sourdough lately, I might have to hop on the bandwagon.
rika says
This is awesome! I've always wanted to make my own sourdough bread. Thanks for sharing the complete instructions.
Bohemian Babushka says
Your blog is one BB goes to when she want clear, real, and detailed instructions/recipes. Gracias for always taking us step by step. BB2U
Jen says
Love the detailed directions. Anxiously awaiting the next post, hoping to have my start ready.
Heather says
We love sour dough bread! This is a great starter! We used to live in San Francisco and miss their sour dough. Thanks for the great recipe!
Rog Willis says
One of my good friends has been doing a ton of baking since he's been out of work due to the coronavirus. I'll have to share this with him and his Facebook group!
Tasheena says
Thank you for sharing this. Looking forward to giving this recipe a try. I would love to make my own sour dough bread.
TaraMetBlog says
I love sourdough bread, but have never made it. I suppose now is the time!
Jen says
My sister in law does this and I'm kind of intrigued! it seems intimidating for whatever reason. Thanks for the useful tips.
Amber Myers says
Nice. I might have to do this one day. Sourdough bread is one of my favorites. I normally buy it at the store, but I should try to make it at home one day.
Robin Rue says
Sourdough bread is my favorite! I am definitely going to try this starter, maybe this weekend!