Sourdough Starter Recipe

How do you make a soughdough starter that’s guaranteed to work… hard work and patience? absolutely not… you cheat! This sourdough starter recipe is super easy to make and (whilst ‘true’ sourdough aficionados will frown upon this next part) it works every time because it has a secret weapon; dried yeast. Note: sourdough aficionados say that starters can be made with just flour and water - I don’t love this approach though as it doesn’t work every time, takes weeks to make, and uses a small country’s supply of flour to get the starter usable. This recipe’s a quick way to get to the same result.

Prep Time: 4 days

Cook Time: N.a.

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 1 sourdough starter

Ingredients

  • White bread flour - 400g

  • Filtered / Bottled Water - 400g

  • Dried Yeast - 1 tsp

Method

Sourdough Starter Step One - Mixed Dough

Place 200g of flour and the dried yeast in a bowl.

In a pan, very gently heat 200g of the water until it is slightly warmer than body temperature i.e. warm to touch.

Pour the warm water in the bowl with the flour / yeast mixture and stir together to combine.

 

Sourdough Starter Step Two - Early Riser

Ensure you have a clean saleable container (for Kilner jars, follow Kilner’s sterilising advice of boiling the jars, otherwise make sure you wash and fully dry the container first).

Pour the sourdough mix in the container so that it’s no more than one third full (the starter can over double in size and you don’t want it getting out - nightmare to clean up, trust me…)

Seal the jar and leave it somewhere at room temperature for 24-48 hours. You might need to open and reseal the lid a couple of times during this period just to release the pressure (the yeast produces carbon dioxide as it grows). If you hear the jar hissing, that’s when to release the pressure.

 

Sourdough Starter STEP Three - First Bubbles

After a day or so you should start see bubbles forming (if not, just leave it another day or so).

If you do see lots of bubbles then it’s time for the first feed.

 

Sourdough Starter STEP Four - First & Second Feeds

Whenever you need to feed your sourdough starter you combine equal parts flour with warm water.

For the first feed we’ll mix 100g of the flour with 100g of warm water (same as before, slightly warmer than body temperature).

Then discard half of your sourdough mix that’s been rising for the last few days, to make some room in the jar. You’ll then replace it by pouring the new flour / water feeding mix into your saleable container.

Reseal the container and leave for another 24-48 hours until the starter gets bubbly again.

Once that happens, repeat this process again; pouring half of the starter away and replacing it with a mix of 100g flour and 100g warm water.

Reseal the container and leave for another 24-48 hours.

 

Sourdough Starter STEP Five - Sourdough Starter

Once the starter bubbles up again, you should have a fully functioning sourdough.

Feed it one more time (same process as in step four), but this time put the starter in the fridge, this will slow the reaction and you’ll only need to feed the starter about once a week.

When you want to use it, just use as much as the recipe needs and replace the dough in the jar with the same quantity of the feeding mix (equal parts flour and water).

And that’s it, hope you enjoy!