On the journey of creating a self reliant homestead, I naturally became interested in baking bread at home. That led me down the rabbit hole of sourdough starters.
I learned early on that you can use sourdough starter for nearly any recipe that calls for flour and water. Pasta, muffins, pancakes, crackers, bread (obviously) can all be made using sourdough start or discard! So that had my mind made up to create my own sourdough start.
I read so many blog posts, watched YouTube videos, and read old timey cook books to try to find a sourdough starter that’s totally from scratch and easy to deal with. I quickly found that sourdough starters require measuring ingredients at least once a day…and if you’re anything like me, that scared me a little. I don’t measure any ingredients so why would I want to measure something once or twice A DAY?!
Well, I was still determined to have a sourdough start. After reading so many blog posts, I finally settled on one that I could somewhat handle from Farmhouse on Boone. I still wasn’t sold on measuring so much, but if all else failed I knew I could throw it out and pretend it didn’t happen!
The Farmhouse on Boone blog goes into detail on how a sourdough starter works and why you would want one, so if you want to read about it, just click the link. I’m just here to share what I found on my sourdough adventure.
Stuff I started with
1 wide mouth smooth canning jar
Small tea towel
2 large rubber bands
5 pound bag of whole wheat flour
Water
Rubber spatula
A warm storage place, 70 degrees Fahrenheit is best. I store my in the oven with the oven light turned on.
That’s it! That’s literally all you need to get your sourdough starter going! Now the hard part, mixing and measuring. I’ll go ahead and say it…I only measured my ingredients the first week. Even at that, I did not measure the sourdough amount to discard, but here’s the rules…
Day 1: mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water, be sure it is thoroughly mixed with no clumps. Place the mixture in your mason jar and add a rubber band around the jar, level with the top of the mixture. This will help you track the rise and fall of your dough later on. Place your tea towel over the top and secure with a rubber band.
Day 2: discard half of your mixture from day 1. To get “half” I move my rubber band down to the halfway mark and scoop out the mixture until it is level with the rubber band. Mix 1 cup of water and 1 cup of flour, thoroughly, and add it to your jar. Stir it well to combine day 1 and day 2 mixtures.
Day 3, 4, and 5: repeat the same steps from day 2
Day 6 and 7: your sourdough starter should be a little bubbly and alive by now. These days you will do the same process as the other days except every 12 hours instead of every 24. So you’ll be feeding your starter twice a day on day 6 and 7.
Day 8: your starter should be alive enough to make sourdough crackers or pancakes, something that doesn’t require the mix to rise (like bread).
Maintenance and storage: for the next week or two, I recommend keeping your starter out on the counter or in the oven with the light on to maintain a 70 degree temperature. This will keep the starter happy, bubbly, and HUNGRY. Pay attention to how your starter is reacting and you may be able to cut the feedings back to every other day or even twice a week. If it is rising and falling on its own and doesn’t appear runny, then it’s happy! When I notice mine hasn’t risen for more than a day, I scoop out half and feed it at a ratio of 2 part starter, 2 part flour, and 1 part water. Larger feedings help it to survive at room temp with less maintenance.
You can also store your starter in the fridge to slow the fermentation. You will just need to plan ahead if you want to bake something. Pull your starter out of the fridge and bring to room temp, discard half and feed 1-2 days before you plan on using it.
It takes patience to grow your starter, but even more patience to perfect baking bread! I failed at bread 3 times before I got an edible loaf. It seems like a major waste of flour, constantly discarding and feeding just to fail at a loaf of bread, but I PROMISE it will be worth it once you get the hang of it. If you feel bad about discarding half, there are several recipes using sourdough discard on Pinterest, plus I’ll share my favorite sourdough discard cheddar cracker recipe with you soon! Or, you can feed sourdough discard to your chickens!
I hope this answers your sourdough questions and simplifies your sourdough start adventure!
Best of luck to you!
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