How To Make Sourdough Starter From Scratch Recipe: Beginner Friendly

Every great loaf of sourdough begins with a strong, active sourdough starter. The starter is basically the yeast. It is a combination of wild yeast and healthy bacteria, creating the foundation of which you need in order to make sourdough bread. Without sourdough starter, you cannot make sourdough bread. It is what gives the bread it’s leaven, fluffiness, and sour taste. This is done by combining flour and water together and allowing it to long-ferment, creating probiotics and bacteria that feed off of one another. This fermentation process creates a form of leavening and wild yeast for the sourdough bread to rise from.

Every great loaf of sourdough, must first have a strong starter. Once you have homemade sourdough bread, you will never go back. So let’s dive in!

Health Benefits of Sourdough Bread:

Now you may be thinking, “Whoa, healthy bread? I thought all bread was bad for you”. While this can be true for many breads, as the are laden with preservatives, additives, and seed oils, homemade sourdough bread is a bit different. Sourdough bread is packed with good bacteria, probiotics that help build up the gut microbiome and in turn break down the harsh glutens in the flour. Because of the fermented nature of the sourdough starter and bread, the breakdown of the glutens in the flour, have been proven to be easier on digestion, and can even be consumed by those sensitive to gluten.

Every great loaf of sourdough bread, starts with a strong, active and bubbly starter. The starter is what gives the bread it’s “fluffiness” as well as the sour taste. In this blog post, I will teach you how to make a sourdough starter from scratch.

Tips For Making Sourdough Starter:

1. Dechlorinate Water: Before starting your sourdough starter, allow the filtered water to sit for two days. This allows the water to dechlorinate, which is essential to making a sourdough starter.
2. Warmth: Keeping your starter in a warmer area, such as on a towel or a wooden cutting board, is helpful for building up the bacteria in the starter.
3. Room Temperature Water: Make sure that you are using room temperature dechlorinated water as well. This is really important to facilitating bacterial and wild yeast growth.

How to Make Sourdough Starter:

First, things first you want to set aside some filtered water and allow it to sit on the counter top for a couple of days prior to creating your starter. This allows the water time to dechlorinate, which is essential to building a strong starter. We do not want the water to have any chlorine in it, as this will affect the fermenting process.

Day 1: Capture Stage

Using a kitchen scale, measure out 100g. of whole grain rye flour and 150g. of dechlorinated, room temperature water, about 65-75° F. It is important to use whole grain rye flour as opposed to all-purpose flour as this has a thicker bran, and therefore more gluten.

Add the measured ingredients into a medium size glass jar and mix until it forms a thick, paste-like consistency. You want to be using room temperature water in order to give warmth to the flour to facilitate bacteria growth.

Leave the jar at room temperature (around 65-75°F) for 24 hours. If your house is a bit chilly, I recommend setting it on a wooden cutting board and wrapping it in a towel to keep in the warmth. This will help promote bacterial and yeast growth, which we want.

Day 2: Feeding the Starter (24 hours later)

By this stage there is not a whole ton of growth going on. It will probably look pretty similar to the day before. This is okay. Starter takes time.

Discard half of the starter. You do not have to be super precise at this stage, just eyeball it.

Then take the remaining half of the previous day’s starter mixture, 100g. of whole grain rye flour, and 150g. of room temperature water (dechlorinated).

Mix all together again until it forms a thick paste.

Cover the jar loosely and let it rest at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Days 3-5: Daily Feeding and Cultivating Stage

Keep 75g. of the previous day’s starter and discard the rest.

Add 35g. all-purpose flour, 35g. rye flour, and 75g. room temperature, dechlorinated water to the starter and mix together until it resembles a thick paste.

Let the starter rest for 24 hours and repeat this process over the next several days.

Your starter should begin to show signs of life, including increased bubbling, a pleasant sour aroma, and a slightly larger volume.

Day 6: Maintenance

Congrats! You now have an active and ready to use sourdough bread starter! It should be bubbly and slightly sour smelling from the bacterial growth.

In order to maintain your starter you want to keep it at room temperature and feed daily with 25g. of starter, 50g. of all-purpose flour, and 50g. filtered water, feeding once every 12-24 hours.

Q & A:

• Can you refrigerate sourdough starter? Yes! I recommend refrigerating your sourdough starter if you are not actively using it every day.
• How long can you keep sourdough starter in the refrigerator for? You can keep sourdough starter in the fridge for up to a month at a time without feeding. I do this whenever I am not baking with it. Then, once I am ready to bake again, I simply remove the starter from the fridge, weigh out 25g. of starter and discard the rest. Then add the starter back into the jar and add 50g. of all purpose flour and 50 grams or filtered water. Note, the water does not have to be dechlorinated at this point. As long as the water is filtered and at room temperature it will be okay to bake with.
• How many times do I need to feed my starter before baking with it? I recommend feeding the sourdough starter at least twice prior to making the leaven. You want the starter to be bubbly and alive prior to baking. This will create a strong leavening for your bread and also bring on that yummy sour taste that a traditional sourdough bread has.

My Favorite Sourdough Recipes:

• Best Beginner’s Sourdough Bread Recipe
• Sourdough Cinnamon Roll Star Bread
• Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins
• Healthy Sourdough Pumpkin Bread

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