Sourdough Starter
An easy to understand, day-by-day guide to making your own sourdough starter.
Equipment
- 2 wide mouth, quart mason jars (or another type of vessel- see blog post above)
Ingredients
- 1 bag unbleached King Arthur all-purpose flour
- Water
Instructions
- DAY ONEIn a wide mouth glass jar mix 1 cup flour and just under 1 cup water. Texture should be like a thick pancake batter, not too runny but not too firm. Adjust water or flour according to the texture described above. Allow to sit on the countertop uncovered or loosely covered (with a napkin or coffee filter) for about 24 hours. (If you need to feed a few hours earlier or later this is completely fine.)
- DAY TWODiscard (remove) half the starter and store in a separate mason jar in the refrigerator. Feed the remaining starter 1/2 cup flour and just under 1/2 cup of water. (Review the section about hydration and adjusting the needs of your starter in the blog post.)Allow to rest around 24 hours on the countertop.
- DAY THREE-DAY SIXFollow the steps from day two. Discard, feed, allow to sit 24 hours. By day three or four there should be bubbles forming. Around day four-five your starter should begin rising when fed. If you forget to discard, just discard the next day.
- DAY SEVENDiscard and feed starter in the morning. Allow to rise 5-6 hours. Feed starter again (do not discard). You may need to place starter in a larger jar or bowl for the second feed because of the amount of rise. Allow to rise 3-4 hours or until peak rise. You are ready to make bread!
Notes
Choosing an easy recipe to start with is very important.
A simple sandwich loaf or bagels would be my top recommendations!
You can see my recipe for an easy sandwich loaf here- https://littlewifeinthewoods.com/?p=346
For bagels go check out Lisa at farmhouseonboone.com!