Welcome to my “mini series” on Fermented Foods! Sourdough Starter is my first installment, because that is where my own enjoyment for home fermenting began. I’ve listed a few other fermentation methods below if you’re looking for additional inspiration:
If you are looking for recipes to use your sourdough starter with, here are some of my favorites!
Now, let’s get into sourdough starter! I am going to spend the first section of this article talking about the WHAT and WHY of a sourdough starter. If you want to jump straight to the HOW of starting and maintaining your own sourdough starter, click this link.
What is Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is basically a mixture of flour and water that has accumulated the “wild” yeasts and lactobacilli (lactic acid) bacteria from the environment around it. These guys work in a symbiotic relationship. Enzymes in the flour break the starches into sugars, and the yeast and bacteria feed on these sugars. The lactobacilli break the sugars down into lactic and acetic acid (giving the sour flavor). At this point the pH drops and most microorganisms can’t survive… But this is where the wild yeasts thrive. They continue converting the sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol. This in turn generates the bubbling fermentation (releasing CO2) that makes the dough rise.
A sourdough starter typically needs to be refreshed every 12 hours or so with more flour and water, so the fermentation process can continue. Left too long “unfed” the yeast and bacteria will convert all of the sugars, the bubbling will stop, and you will be left with a layer of ethanol on top of a goopey flour and water sludge. The alcohol smell coming from an old starter is easy to recognize. The good news is that the yeast and bacteria are still present, and with a little care they will come bubbling back to the forefront.
The OTHER fact that I find super interesting about sourdough is that the flavor profile will differ depending on region. Much of that is due to what wild yeasts are present where the starter is “living”!
If you want to dig into the science more, there are a lot of great articles out there. Here are a few for you to start with:
- The Biology of Sourdough from Discover Magazine
- Food Science: What is Sourdough from The Kitchn
- Sourdough article on Wikipedia, jump to the “biology and chemistry” subsection
- Baking with Sourdough from King Arthur
Starting and Maintaining My Own Sourdough Starter
The summer after Hubby and I first got married, we initiated a sourdough starter. Well, I should really say that Hubby initiated it. This was something he had dabbled with before, but with limited success. So he decided to try again. And, I am pleased to say, that same starter is still going strong today, more than 7 years later! In fact, it is more active and flavorful than ever! We hope to have it in the family for many years to come 🙂
Did you know there are some bakeries that have been using the same sourdough starter for over 100 years?
Our starter lives in the fridge most of the time. This way, it doesn’t need to be continually refreshed. Instead, it stays dormant for a few weeks, then when we need to use it we pull it out and “wake it up”. I would go through quite a lot of flour if I tried to keep the starter out on the counter and fed. Not to mention the waste accumulating at every split. (There is no way I am industrious enough to use up every bit of left-over starter from a twice-daily split. Although I do intend to share some ideas with you on how to use those leftovers efficiently!)
By today, our sourdough starter is so healthy, that I can pull it out of the fridge after it has been sitting dormant for up to a month, refresh it 3-4 times, and it is VERY active and ready to make bread.
In fact, recently I was making a few loaves and after just about 4 hours they had over-risen and were spilling over the sides! A quick re-shaping and they had re-risen and were ready to bake in under an hour. When we first began using our starter we could sometimes let the loaves rise all day and they would still be barely large enough to bake! So it definitely gains efficiency over time. Don’t be discourage if you’re rising is slow initially.
Why Use Sourdough?
Why sourdough, you may be asking? There are so many reasons I can think of. Some may resonate more with you than others, so I’ll lay out a few and let you decide…
-> What if you can’t find yeast?
It wasn’t until 2020 that I ever thought this would be a possibility. But with the COVID-19 pandemic that hit in early 2020, many essentials were wiped out of the grocery stores, including yeast! Thankfully for us, this wasn’t a cause for concern – we have plenty of our own yeast culturing away in our fridge.
This was a great time to share a starter with others – I read posts about people sharing fresh portions of their starter with friends and neighbors. This is something I’ve also done for friends that wanted to give sourdough a try. You can either give them a portion of your live starter after a refresh. Or, you can actually dry it for long-distance transit, or long-term storage.
To dry sourdough starter, spread a thin layer out on parchment, let it dry, and mail some dried starter chips! This is also a great way to put your starter “on hold” or simply keep some as a backup. King Arthur has a great article detailing preserving a starter by drying it down, and also how to bring it back to life. Check that out here.
-> Digestion
Did you know sourdough leavened breads are easier to digest? The fermentation process the dough goes through starts breaking down the gluten in the flours. So by the time it reaches your digestive track, part of the work has already been done!
For some people with a gluten sensitivity (not an allergy), eating a true fermented sourdough may be enough for you to get back on the bread train. Another diet sourdough bread fits well with is the low FODMAP diet. This is a diet that I personally follow, at least in part, or else reap the painful digestive consequences. Here again, fermented sourdough breaks down those components that can be more difficult to digest, and makes the bread “gut-friendly” and low FODMAP approved!
Kate Scarlata has a fantastic site all about the low FODMAP diet. If you have any type of digestive discomfort, I highly recommend you investigate FODMAPs further to see if that is a solution that will work for you.
-> Kitchen Science
Keeping a sourdough starter, and making sourdough loaves, is a bit like a science experiment in the kitchen. So maybe it appeals to the science nerd in me… I actually feel this way about all homemade fermented foods. There’s something so fun about it!
-> Truly from Scratch
I don’t know about you, but I like knowing where my food comes from, and exactly what is in it. This is why I cook and bake from scratch as much as possible, using just the basic unprocessed ingredients. I’ve also been through a few health journeys where it was important that I track everything I eat, and know just what the ingredients were. So cooking/baking from scratch was really essential during these phases of life. They are now habits that I have learned, developed, and grown to love.
-> Beautiful Loaves
Have you ever seen a beautiful artisan sourdough loaf? If that isn’t enough to give you some sourdough inspiration, well then there’s not much more convincing I can do :). Take a look at some of these beauties we have made over the years.
How to Start and Maintain Your Own Sourdough Starter
OK, finally after all that rambling of explaining science and trying to inspire you to get into the world of sourdough starter, we can get to the good stuff. The sourdough starter itself – how to get started, how to keep it, and how to use it.
Our favorite reference for sourdough recipes and instruction is Peter Reinhart. He’s written some great bread books that we base many of our recipes on. Here are two of our favorites:
The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
Crust and Crumb
One thing to point out is that for starting and feeding a starter, as well as related bread baking, all measurements are by weight. Gone are the cups and teaspoons of baking. Bread making is a science, and requires the correct proportion of ingredients to get the rise and crumb you are after. Weighing out those ingredients is a much more accurate way to achieve your goals.
How to Start a Sourdough Starter
Getting started with a sourdough starter is a two step process. The first step is to make the seed culture. From that seed culture you make the barm, which is the “starter” that you will keep, refresh, and use in your baking.
Seed Culture
For the seed culture, mix flour and water, and let it sit out partially exposed to the air. A covering to keep anything from falling in, but that lets the air in is good. Yep, that’s basically it! Some people recommend adding fruit juice to help get the process started, but it’s not really necessary. The key is in the process – feeding regularly every 24 hours, and letting the bacteria and yeast get to work!
Barm Culture
You can start the barm – which is the starter you will keep and maintain hereafter, once the seed culture has doubled after the day 4 refreshment. You are still just adding more flour and water, and fermenting, just at a different rate! See – this sourdough starter thing is super simple. The biggest requirement is a little patience :).
The barm culture that I reference in this article is called a “100% hydration” starter. Which means that it is equal parts flour and water. You may also run across “50% hydration” starters. Those have 1/2 the amount by weight of water to flour. So 100g of flour would have 50g of water. These are more stiff, and some people find them easier to maintain.
At the end of this article is a basic recipe with all the specifics for starting a seed culture, transferring that to a barm, and maintaining that barm.
Jump to RecipeFor more details and step-by-step instructions, as well as many more tips on sourdough and bread-baking in general, I recommend taking a look at Mr. Reinhart’s book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (start on page 229).
Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter
Once established, maintenance of the starter, or barm, is pretty easy. As I mentioned earlier, we keep ours in the fridge, and I pull it out every couple of weeks to refresh it. Since I am only doing this every couple of weeks, I will typically feed it 3-4 times before either using it or putting it back in the fridge, to be sure I’ve re-activated my good yeast and bacteria.
Each time I refresh it is the same – take a portion of the starter, and add half its total weight in both water and bread flour, so you have doubled the weight of the starter after feeding. If it has been a while since refreshing the starter, it will have a strong alcohol smell. I use this smell as a gauge while feeding. When that alcohol smell is gone, and the yeasty smell is more predominant, the starter is refreshed and all those little yeast and bacteria guys are happy again :).
I keep 400g of starter, so to refresh I typically transfer 200g to a new container, add 100g water and 100g bread flour, and mix. 12 hours later I will either split and repeat, or double. To double – weigh again, and just add to the starter 1/2 the total weight in flour, and the other 1/2 in water, doubling the total final weight.
Sometimes, especially if the starter is older, I will transfer only 100g of starter to refresh. To this I add 50g each water and bread flour. After ~12 hours, I will add to this (i.e. doubling, as per above), 100g each water and bread flour, and let it ferment another 12 hours.
Once you have doubled once or twice, the starter should start to get nice and bubbly again. At this point, split it, double one half to put in the fridge for next time, and then move forward working with the other half. (Don’t forget this step of setting some aside to keep the starter going!) Depending on what I plan to make, and how much starter it requires, I may just use the starter that is left, or I may double it again before starting to bake with it.
The point I hope you walk away with is that as long as you are feeding your sourdough starter by doubling on a regular schedule, the method for keeping and using that starter is fairly flexible.
100g of old sourdough starter 
(1) Add water 
(2) Add flour 
(3) Mix together, let rest 
Beginning to bubble 
More activity 
Sourdough starter – bubbly and refreshed!
Using Your Sourdough Starter
Aside from loaves of bread, I have tried quick breads, crackers, brownies, pancakes, energy bars, pizza crust, english muffins, and the list goes on. Sourdough starter has many uses! So if you don’t have one bubbling away on your counter or in your fridge – today is the day to get it STARTed!
Ingredients
For the Seed Culture
- 510 g bread flour
- 510 g water (at room temperature)
For the Barm
- 450 g bread flour
- 450 g water (at room temperature)
- 200 g seed culture
Instructions
Seed Culture
Day 1: Start the Sponge
- Mix together 120g bread flour with 165g water.
- Cover with plastic wrap and and let ferment on the counter for 24 hours.
Day 2: Feed/Ferment
- Add to Day 1 sponge 130g bread flour and 115g water.
- Mix until well incorporated.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment on the counter for 24 hours.
Day 3: Feed/Ferment
- Discard half of the starter.
- Add to the remaining half, 130g bread flour and 115g water.
- Mix until well incorporated.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment on the counter for 24 hours.
Day 4: Feed/Ferment/Finish
- (See Notes)
- Discard half of the starter.
- Add to the remaining half, 130g bread flour and 115g water.
- Mix until well incorporated.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment on the counter until doubled (up to tripled) in size, 4-24 hours.
Start the Barm – a 100% Hydration Sourdough Starter
- Once the seed culture has doubled after the Day 4 feeding, you can start the barm.
- Mix together well the 450g bread flour, 450g water, and 200g seed culture. Make sure all the flour is hydrated and the seed culture is evenly incorporated.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment at room temperature until bubbly (~6 hours).
- Refrigerate at least overnight, and up to 3 days.
- Your barm is ready to use as your levening in a sourdough bread recipe!
Maintain the Barm
- The barm needs to be fed/refreshed every 12 hours if kept at room temperature. I recommend refreshing this frequently for the first couple weeks to increase activity. Eventually, you can store the barm in the fridge, and pull out to refresh 3-4 times once every month, or more often if you plan to use it.
- Discard (or save for a "used starter" recipe like my sourdough crackers) all but 200g of the barm.
- Add 100g of bread flour and 100g of water. Stir to fully combine.
- Let sit 12 hours at room temperature.
- Repeat steps 3&4 every 12 hours as long as you keep your starter out at room temperature.
- If you do not want to continually feed the starter, you can feed, and then transfer to the fridge for up to a month. (I like to store 400g.)
- At least 1x/month, pull out the starter from the fridge and let it warm to room temperature. Discard any accumulated alcohol on top, discard all but 200g, and then feed according to steps 3&4, 3-4 times, before either using or returning to the fridge.
Long Term Storage for the Barm
- If you want to put the barm to "rest" for a period of time the simplest way is to dry some.
- Give it a fresh feeding with equal parts bread flour and water.
- Then simply spread a thin layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet and leave at room temperature until dry.
- Break into pieces and store in an airtight container, in a cool dry place, indefinitely.
Return the Barm to an Active Starter
- To begin, add 2x water by weight to the dried starter. For example, if you had 25g of dried starter, you would add 50g of water. Use a container that allows you to fully cover the dried pieces with the water.
- Let sit for a few hours until the dried pieces are softened and you can stir it all together.
- Add 1x bread flour (so 25g in this example).
- Stir, and let sit for ~12-24 hours. You should start to notice some bubbling activity.
- Feed again with the same equal amounts of water and bread flour (25g each in this example). Do not discard any starter at this time.
- Repeat steps 4&5 until you have a bubbly and active starter, it should only take a couple times.
- Once the starter is activate, discard all but 100g, add 50g of bread flour and 50g of water, and resume your regular feeding schedule by following the "Maintain the Barm" instructions above.
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