How to Make a Sourdough Starter From Scratch
Easy to follow steps on how to make a homemade sourdough starter
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Equipment
- Clean jar and cover
Ingredients
- 1½ cups whole wheat flour
- all-purpose flour, unbleached
- filtered water
Instructions
Day 1
- Add ½ cup whole wheat flour and ½ filtered water to the clean glass jar. Stir until smooth—like pancake batter—and mark the starter level with a rubber band or marker. Cover jar loosely to allow air to expand and place the jar in a warm place out of direct sunlight, ideally around 75°F. **You will cover and store the jar this way throughout the entire process.
Day 2
- Discard ½ of the starter and add ½ cup whole wheat flour and ½ cup filtered water,(or a little less). You don't want it to be too thin, you want a texture similar to batter. Mix until smooth. **You might need to adjust the water and add a little less water than ½ cup as you don't want it to be too thin, you want a texture similar to batter. If you need to add a bit more flour because it is too thin than that is OK. Note: this will be true throughout the entire process. Cover jar loosely to allow air to expand and place the jar in a warm place out of direct sunlight, ideally around 75°F.You might see bubbles starting to form which is indicative of the fermentation process which is what you want. But if not, don't worry it can take a couple days for bubbles to form.
Day 3
- Discard ½ of the starter and add ½ cup whole wheat flour and ½ cup filtered water. Stir until smooth. Cover jar loosely and place the jar in a warm place out of direct sunlight, ideally around 75°F.Again, you might start to see some bubbles forming and possibly a little lift to the starter, meaning it might have risen about where you marked the jar.
Day 4
- Switch to feeding with unbleached all-purpose flour: Discard ½ of the starter and add ½ cup all-purpose flour and ½ cup filtered water. Stir until smooth. Cover jar loosely and place the jar in a warm place out of direct sunlight, ideally around 75°F.
Day 5- 7
- Start feeding your starter twice a day (about every 12 hours): Discard ½ of the starter and add ½ cup all-purpose flour and ½ cup filtered water. Stir until smooth. Cover jar loosely and place the jar in a warm place out of direct sunlight, ideally around 75°F.
- If your starter is not ready by day 7, then continue same process as day 5-7 until your starter becomes active.
- Your starter is ready when there are lots of bubbles in the starter and it doubles in size, and has a bubbly, foamy texture. See note below for Float Test.
- Your starter is now ready!! Happy Sourdough Baking!!
Notes
Another way to know that your starter is ready is do what is called the Float Test. This is done by filling a cup or bowl with water and taking a small scoop of starter and adding it to the water. If it floats it's active and ready to use. If it falls to the bottom or only partially floats, then it is not quite ready and give it another feeding or two.