Sourdough Starter: Printable Recipe

Below is a quick-start recipe card with instructions to make your own sourdough starter from scratch. This post is a companion to my full-length guide, Sourdough Starter: Everything You Need to Know.

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Sourdough Starter Recipe

Author

Julia Estrada

This is the quick-start, printable version of my sourdough starter recipe. Be sure to check out my full guide, Everything You Need to Know About Sourdough Starter, for detailed information and visual help.

Ingredients

Ingredients

• Whole Wheat and/or rye flour (at least 5 pounds to get started) and/or
• All purpose flour (at least 5 pounds to get started) *
• Water (tap is often fine, but if you have highly metallic or low-quality tap water, use bottled)

Instructions

1. Day 1 - Place a clean container on your scale and make a note of how much your container weighs. Then, tare so the scale reads “0”. Add 100 grams (g) whole wheat or rye flour (or all purpose if that is all you have) and 100g water. Stir thoroughly until no dry spots remain. Cover the container loosely with a lid or clean kitchen towel/paper towel and rubber band and set in a warm (70°F - 80°F) place for 24 hours.
2. Day 2 - You may see some bubbles and activity in your starter, or you may not see anything happening yet. Either way, discard 100g (about 1/2 cup) so that you are left with 100g in the container (100g starter plus the weight of your specific container). Add 100g water and stir to break up the starter. Add 100g flour (whole wheat/rye preferred again) and stir thoroughly until no dry spots remain. Cover the container loosely again and set in your warm place for 24 hours.
3. Day 3 -Today you will start feeding your starter twice a day. If you saw an initial surge of activity in the first couple of days, this may die down, or may continue to ramp up slowly. Regardless, discard 200g (about 1 cup) so that you are left with 100g in the container**. Add 100g water, stir to break up the starter, then and 100g flour (whole wheat/rye preferred again) and stir thoroughly until no dry spots remain. Cover the container loosely again and set in your warm place for 12 hours.
4. Day 3 - 12 hours later - Repeat the feeding process described above.
5. Days 4 through 6 - Repeat the Day 3 feeding process every 12 hours. You may see no activity for a few days, and then be surprised to find your starter showing lots of activity, or it may slowly ramp up day-to-day. At this point, if you have been using whole wheat or rye flour, you may switch to feeding your starter a blend of whole wheat/rye and all purpose, such as 50g of whole wheat/rye and 50g of all purpose flour instead of 100g whole wheat/rye if you wish. If you are only using all purpose, keep doing what you are already doing.
6. Day 7 - By this point, you should hopefully see some reliable activity in your starter. If your starter consistently rises to double or triple its height within 4-8 hours of feeding it, it is ready to bake with. 
7. If not, continue to feed on the 12-hour schedule until it does. This could take up to 14 days in some cases, especially if you are using only all-purpose flour or your starter is in a colder environment. To tell if your starter is doubling/tripling, use a rubber band on the outside of the container to mark where the top of the starter is after feeding. 
8. Over the next 4-8 hours, check in periodically to monitor the growth. The starter will rise, creating a slight doming at the top, and you will see bubbles throughout, which will be different sizes/shapes depending on what flour you are feeding and your environment. After the starter reaches its peak, it will fall back down, leaving streaks on the side of the container. 
9. Once your starter behaves as described above, you can successfully bake with it!

Notes:

*You can use either all whole wheat, all rye, all all purpose, or a blend of those flours to create a sourdough starter. Because you will feed and discard the starter daily, it's a safe bet to start with a 5lb bag of whatever flour (or flours) you are using.

My recommended method is to start with 100% whole wheat flour until day 4. At that point, feel free to switch to a blend of 50% whole wheat and 50% all purpose if you want to save money on whole wheat flour or prefer a less wheat-y starter.

Starters that use entirely 100% all purpose flour are completely possible to make and yield great breads. They may take longer to get started, and will appear to be more liquid as white flour does not absorb as much water as whole wheat or rye.

Starters that use entirely 100% rye flour are also great, and have a stiffer texture than whole wheat or all purpose flour starters. Rye has excellent "boosting" properties and can speed up the growth of your starter, so feel free to add a bit every time you feed the starter--just keep the overall quantity of flour (by weight) the same.

**You don't have to use a clean container every time you feed your starter, but if it starts to get crusty, feel free to start a new one. Make sure to tare the weight of the container before beginning your measurements.

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Beginner's Sourdough Recipe and Guide — Bread & Basil

Everything You Need to Know About Sourdough Starter — Bread & Basil

Recipes and Photos Copyright Julia Estrada, 2020

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