Sourdough Starter - Emma

Meet my sourdough starter - Emma.

She is a work horse. It took me some time to get her built up and strong, but she is not only working hard for us, but she is also now helping several other families enjoy the process of making their own Sourdough Bread.

Below is my steps I have shared with friends.

There are many directions and processes available on the internet on how to feed your starter and I have discovered you just do what works for you.  The goal is a thick pancake-like consistency that has doubled in size. Below is what I do and it has worked for me. There are for sure other methods, but I like simple.

Items Needed

Kitchen scale with grams

Glass Jar with lid

Bread Flour (King Arthurs)

Warm water

I take my starter jar and put on the scale and zero out the weight on the scale.

Then I add equal parts bread flour and warm water. Using warm water helps the starter to rise faster. I typically use 60 grams bread flour and 60 grams warm water, but if I think I need more starter (say I am making multiple loaves) I will just up the amount and do 70 and 70 or 80 and 80. Amount does not really matter just make sure it is equal parts and you have thick pancake looking mixture. Mix it up good and set the lid on it loosely.

 Next thing I do is put a rubber band around the jar where the top of the starter is. I put the starter in my south facing window, so it gets some sunshine and keeps it warm.  In my kitchen it usually takes 3-4 hours to double. Once the starter has doubled in size (the rubber band helps you know this for sure) it is at its peak and ready to use. This is an active starter now.

Notes:

You have a short window to use your active starter (at peak). You will notice it will rise and then go back down.  For a good rise on your bread, only use when it is at its peak.

You can feed your starter every day if you make bread a lot or you can put a tight lid on it and put it in the frig. Leave it there and don’t feed it until you are ready to make bread. Then pull it out, discard a small amount and then feed it equal parts. A good starter will rise even after being in the frig for several days, even weeks.

Discard – discard is a term used for the amount of starter you remove before you feed it. You really don’t have to discard for any reason other than you would end up with way too much starter in your jar if you are not making bread daily (which I am not).

 I sometimes keep a jar for just discard in the frig (you don’t feed discard) because you can find many recipes that you can use it for.  I really don’t use discard much. I just throw out my discard in the trash. If I am feeding daily, I usually throw out about ¼ cup discard from my starter when I am not baking but still feeding it.