How to make an easy home-made SOURDOUGH STARTER
Preparation: 5 mins
Incubation: 16 days
Difficulty: easy
Yields: 100 grams
Cost: low
If you want to go straight to the recipe click here
Introduction to Home-made Sourdough Starter
This recipe for an easy Home-made Sourdough Starter is the one you are looking for: easy to make, very low cost and surely very healthy. Anyone can do it, but not everyone can make it into a… “adult”.
In case you don’t want to start from scratch, you can buy it, or ask to your friends. But the day you succeed in creating a beautiful homemade sourdough starter colony, useful for fermentation, the satisfaction you’ll feel, will be worth trying!
A continuous inoculation made by frequent feeding by additions of new flour to the initial mother sourdough starter, allows to have a better leavening, in other words a better and better bread in time. This is why famous bakers boast of their centuries-old sourdough starters: without hesitation they carry on a gastronomic heritage. That is why you can ask a piece of a sourdough starter to your favourite baker; or you can look on the web for anyone who would like to donate and provide you with some.
Recipe of Home-made Sourdough Starter
First day: ingredients and initial directions
Ingredients
- 30 gr or 4 tbsps of stone-ground and organic wholewheat flour
- 70 gr or 9 tbsps of stone-ground and organic 00 flour
(If you don’t have these flours, also a normal all purpose flour would be fine) - 3 sun-dried raisins, soaked in water and finely chopped
- 100 ml or 2/5 cup of mineral water (use bottled water, as in some areas tap water can contain a lot of chlorine, which is lethal for the homemade sourdough starter we want to make proliferate)
Directions for easy homemade sourdough starter
Step 1. Start in the morning to ensure your future homemade sourdough starter higher temperatures in the first day of life. Mix the ingredients in a glass bowl until no more lumps remain. For this purpose use your well washed hands to transfer some of the good microorganisms that you are hosting on your skin.
If it is winter and you have the heating on, put the embryo next to the heat source, otherwise put the bowl into oven with only the lamp on. Or if it is summer put it in a calm place in simply room temperature.
Second and Third Day: Feeding Homemade Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- 30 gr or 4 tbsps of stone-ground and organic wholewheat flour
- 70 gr or 9 tbsps of stone-ground and organic 00 flour
- 100 ml or 2/5 cup of mineral water
Directions
Step 2. We must feed the creature twice a day. And our final dose must be X:X:X, in this case 100 grams of homemade sourdough starter: 100 grams of mixed flour: 100 ml of water. To do this we must discard half of homemade sourdough starter, and keep the other half to add the ingredients, mix well and leave it to grow in peace. After dinner, feed again your sourdough starter as explained before.
Day 4th: possible problems may occur
From the fourth day on, you should have viewed the characteristic bubbles you’ve been longing for, which will surely give you hope. However, we must also talk about the possibility that your experiment may not be successful. If in the meantime you notice a smell that is not very pleasant, unfortunately it means that you should try again from the beginning. Evidently your starter have been contaminated with something else in addition to lactic acid bacteria and others. On the other hand, as the good things come in threes, you may repeat some other times, when it comes to homemade sourdough starter, the numbers of experiments can be really elevated. But it’s not impossible, a little faith may make difference, come on!
Repeat the same procedure with the same ingredients. In the meantime, for the part to be fed tomorrow will be the beginning of a new era: homemade sourdough starter will receive the feeding only once a day.
NOTE: If your house is not warm enough, it may take you more days to see an activity. Be patient!
Day 5th and the next 10 days: daily maintenance
Nothing different on the menu, just feed your homemade sourdough starter once a day with the same procedure.
Final Test and Storage
Check homemade sourdough starter for readiness
If you have not been tempted before (someone, including me, already after the 5th day tries to make flatbread, pita etc., not requiring long hours of leavening), today should be the big day for the final proof.
In theory there is a test to be done: dip your homemade sourdough starter in the water; if it floats, Congrats! You’ve done it! But if it sinks unfortunately… you should start again from the first day and repeat the whole tour.
But I can tell you one thing, if you have used good flour, good water and correct remperatures and timing, do not get stuck on the tests. In case it has a sour smell but nothing disgusting or if it doesn’t have mold or yeast of different strains with interesting colors, I would always give it a try.
TECHNICAL NOTE
The acidity comes largely from the presence of lactic acid bacteria, together with yeast. These bacteria, in addition to conferring the particular, typical taste, also provide organic acids, fatty acids and substances that can be defined as bacteriocins, which inhibit the proliferation of other bacteria: this is why bread produced with this method does not mold like industrial bread
By this point you may have already realized that you have probably given birth to this easy homemade sourdough starter that may accompany you throughout your entire life. It is a responsibility, I know, but it is also a certainty. Delicious, healthy and affordable breads, pizzas and special buns are waiting for you
Storage and use of homemade sourdough starter
From now on you may transfer your homemade sourdough starter to the fridge: use a sterilized glass jar, which you will replace from time to time, and a piece of kitchen cloth which covers but does not close hermetically. And you can feed it every 5 days, but if you’re a serious bread eater, you’ll need to do it every 2-3 days.
As you may have noticed for the creation of this easy homemade sourdough starter I used mainly refined flour. But for making our bread we can finally be free: I recommend using flours with character but with a lower gluten level for which this kind of starter is particularly recommendable, such as rye or spelt or if you don’t have any of this even wholemeal wheat flour is fine, always mixed with refined flour, but in smaller quantities.
If you have any questions or suggestions or doubts I am here.
Good revolution and good work to everyone
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Summary
Recipe Name
Your home-made sourdough starter will be a family member
Author NameBaşak Bartu
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Based on 3 Review(s)
Dear Basak!!! O M G!!! After failing at others sourdough starter recipes, I finally got “Bubbles” (new family member lol) to float by following your 16 day steps! I am so thankful for your guidance. Now, I will try attempting a loaf of bread….deep breaths! ha I cannot wait to dive into so many of your recipes now :)) All Smiles, Lessley XO
Yeeeessss, Lessley I am so glad to be able to introduce you to this magic world of sourdough.
I am sure (sooner or later) you will also find your perfect sourdough bread recipe.
Wish you good luck and best of all
Have a lovely day
Basak