Sourdough Starter Recipe

5 from 6 ratings

With this easy to follow sourdough starter recipe, you can be making fresh sourdough bread from your own starter in just five days! This is a day by day recipe that provides detailed answers to all your starter questions!

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Author: Chef Lindsey

Ingredients

300 g rye flour
700 g water
400 g all-purpose flour

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Day 1: Combine 100g of rye flour and 100g of water in a clean container, cover it, and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Make sure all the flour has been properly hydrated.
Day 2: In a clean container, combine 100g of rye flour, 100g of water, and 100g of yesterday’s starter. Throw out the remaining starter. Cover and let sit out at room temperature for 24 hours. You should start seeing bubbles and some activity.
Day 3: Repeat Day 2. You may already see some fermentation activity. Your starter should be just about double or more!
Day 4: Combine 100g all-purpose flour, 100g water, and 100g yesterday’s starter. Throw out the remaining starter. Cover and let sit out at room temperature for 24 hours. The starter will definitely double and have larger air pockets.
Day 5: Repeat Day 4. Mine had tripled by this point. You can totally use it to leaven bread!
Days 6 & 7: Repeat Day 4.
Feeding your starter for the long term: You want a controlled growth of your starter when you are going to use it for bread. This is all in the feeding. Once you have an active starter, you can switch to the following ratio for a stiff levain:
100g water
10g previous day's starter
100g all-purpose flour
OR this one for a liquid levain:
125g water
10g previous day's starter
100g all-purpose flour

Video

Notes

Yield: A sourdough starter! Makes about 300–400 g active starter.

Watch the video for a day by day guide.

Flavor Tips – Your starter will taste like the flour you use to feed it. If you want all your bread to taste like whole wheat flour, feed it with whole wheat flour. But I suggest using unbleached all-purpose flour for your feeding, making your starter very versatile.

Technique – Don’t forget that in order for the yeast to properly feast and grow, it needs to be at room temperature! Remove the starter from the fridge or freezer, let it sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours, feed it as usual, and then let it ferment at room temperature overnight.

Storage – Store your starter in a glass jar with a lid. I’ve used quart containers and ball jars. They all work as long as you keep it covered; you don’t want it to dry out.

Nutrition