Homemade Sourdough Starter for Dummies (not really)
Did your friend or co-worker just give you a jar of sourdough starter? Are you freaked out? It’s sitting on your counter bubbling and moving around. It can be a little intimidating at first. Here’s what you absolutely NEED to KNOW NOW! Bonus: I’m throwing in my favorite sourdough starter recipes and tips!
Sourdough Starter for Beginners – A Cautionary Tale
My sister, Casie, is the quintessential suburban stay at home mom. Recently, her friend gave her a mason jar of sourdough starter. She’s heard me raving about my sourdough bread and biscuits and she was excited to try it out.
The first day, she fed her starter and split it into two jars. The next morning, things went south!
The jars of starter both had sealed metal lids on them with no venting of any kind. The jar she put in her fridge was fine, but the jar she left on her countertop overnight had exploded! The lid had bent and actually popped off and starter was spread around on her counter next to the jar. She called me to find out what she did wrong and I’m here to save you from her mistakes.
My sister’s second loaf of sourdough bread turned out great!
Tips for Sourdough Starter Success:
Tip #1: Sourdough needs to breathe! It’s a living thing! When you feed it, it will expand and then rest. I use a plastic bag under a ring lid for my mason jar (no metal airtight lid to explode). You can also poke a hole in the metal lid and use that instead. Our affiliate ReCap Mason Jars has some very nice lids to make fermenting easier. They even have a gallon size Kombacha kit with expanding rubber lid! Check them out here…
Casie’s first loaf of bread rose pretty well and had a good texture, but didn’t taste like sourdough. She again called me to ask what she did wrong!
Tip #2: Wait until your starter is “hungry” and active before using in bread recipes – it will rise better and have more sourdough flavor!
If you’re not sure if it’s ready to bake with, you can do a float test.
Float Test: Drop about 1 tsp into a glass of water. Do this when the starter is at peak height before it collapses. If it floats to the top it’s ready to use. If it sinks, your starter should be fed again.
Casie googled a sourdough recipe and read the instructions to knead the bread every 2 hours (3-4 times throughout the day). She called me again…
Tip #3: You can’t follow the recipe exactly… Bread making is something that has to be adjusted each time you bake! Most basic sourdough starter recipes use only 3-4 ingredients: flour, starter, salt, sugar and water. I love how simplistic they are.
REAL sourdough bread rises slowly over the course of the whole day until it doubles in size.
Temperature variations, elevation, humidity, etc… all play a part in how long bread will need to rise and the overall texture of the dough. I start my dough in a large bowl, cover it with clear plastic wrap after kneading. Or you can put it straight into bread pans to rise.
I started with a No-Knead recipe but I decided I liked the texture of the kneaded bread better for traditional loaves.
Knead your dough and add a little flour until you reach the desired texture (not too sticky, not too dry). Then, keep kneading until you can stretch a small pinch of dough without having it tear easily. Then leave to rise for the day or until it has doubled in size.
Tip #4: If you’re too busy to feed your sourdough starter every day, just put it in the fridge. Feed it once per week. I feed mine 1/3 cup of all purpose flour and warm water as needed to keep the “pancake batter” consistency.
Tip #5: If you are worried that you won’t have enough starter if bake almost everyday, split your starter into two mason jars. Feed each one and you’ll have double the amount of starter readily available!
