Sourdough Starter
Sourdough Starter
Yield 1
Ingredients
- Flour, whole grain wheat, unbleached all purpose, and einkorn are all great choices
- Filtered water
Instructions
- Day 1: Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of filtered water into a quart-sized mason jar. Stir vigorously, making sure to scrape down the sides and incorporate everything. Place a clean tea towel with a rubber band over the top. Allow it to sit on the counter for 24 hours.
- Day 2: Discard half of the mixture and repeat the process. Add 1 cup flour, and 1 cup water, stir vigorously, and cover. Discarding is the way to ensure a healthy bacteria growth ratio.
- Repeat the Day 2 instructions for Days 3-5.
- On Days 6 + 7, do the same but feed it every 12 hours, instead of every 24.
- By Day 7, there should be enough beneficial bacteria and yeast present to bake sourdough bread and other fermented sourdough goodies, like pancakes and crepes.
- You will know it’s working if it bubbles, and doubles in size.
- MAINTENANCE
- Once your sourdough starter is alive and active, there will be some maintenance to keep it going for years and years.
- IN THE REFRIGERATOR FOR OCCASIONAL USE
- Storing it in the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, so one feeding every 7-10 days is sufficient.
- If you plan to make pancakes Saturday morning, for example, pull your starter out of the fridge Friday morning and add flour and water. By Saturday morning it is bubbly and ready to go. Remove the 2 cups of starter needed for the pancake recipe and put the “master starter” back in the fridge. Since it was fed the day before, it is good to go for another week.
- ON THE COUNTER FOR DAILY USE
- If you leave your starter out on the counter, you will need to discard 1/2 and add flour and water every day. You will also have to be baking daily to use up all that starter.
- Most people probably won’t use the starter quite so much, unless they own and operate a bakery. I would recommend storing it in the refrigerator between uses.
