Easy Sourdough Starter and Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How much sourdough starter to use in bread? ›

It varies a lot, often from ~10% to ~30%. Sourdough breads often start with a levain/sourdough where a small bit of sourdough starter is first elaborated out to more flour, which essentially becomes a big lump of sourdough starter in the final dough.

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

The most common feeding ratio is 1:1:1 (sourdough starter: flour: water). This is also known as a 100% hydration starter. For example, let's say you have 40 g of sourdough starter in a jar. To feed it, you'll add 40 g of flour + 40 g of water.

Tips For Making Sourdough Starter

Use all-purpose flour to keep a healthy starter. Place the starter in a container with a consistent room temperature of 70°F to 75°F.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

All you need to do is take 20g of the starter you already have and then feed it with 20g of flour and 20g of water (so 1:1:1). Then you'll have a 60g starter, which is considered a smaller amount. You can of course reduce these amounts even further if you wish, but this is a reasonable size to keep waste to a minimum.

A 100% hydration sourdough starter is a culture which is kept and fed with water and flour at equal weights. Like for instance 5 oz water to 5 oz flour. A 166% hydration starter is fed with equal volume of flour and water, which most typically is one cup of water (8.3 oz) and one cup of flour (5 oz).

How long does it take for a sourdough starter to be ready? In general, I've found it takes about 7 days from when you first mix flour and water to when a sourdough starter is ready to be used to bake bread.

It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

You can keep a “peaked” starter in the refrigerator for about 12 hours (sometimes more), and still use it directly in your mix. You do not need to let it come up to room temperature. If your starter is well past peak (a few hours) and visibly falling, you can give it a “refresh” feeding to reactivate it.

Can I use tap water for sourdough starter? ›

*If making sourdough is new for you, do not be discouraged if you starter takes longer to get active than mine – stick with it, it will happen! *Tap water is usually fine, if you are not sure, use boiled and cooled water, you can use it at room temperature or cool; do not use distilled water.

Unbleached All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose flour is admittedly a broad category, but it's a popular option for sourdough starters due to its wide availability.

NOTE: Use regular, unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour for best results- skip organic. The enzymes are different which can hinder the rising process the first time around. I use either KAF, Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Filtered water or tap water is fine.

In this article, we are going for a basic, pleasantly sour sourdough bread. For that kind of bread, using a starter at 100% hydration such as the one created in the previous article, I like to go with 20 to 25 percent (bakers' percentage) or sourdough starter.

Generally, you can substitute a packet of yeast for 100g of sourdough starter. If your recipe uses less than a packet of yeast, you can use less sourdough starter, however it won't make too much difference because of the way wild yeast works.

The more starter you use, the faster your dough will ferment - resulting in a less sour loaf.