Jul 9, 20203 min read

The Indestructible Sourdough Starter

Updated: Aug 23, 2020

There are many myths and legends that go along with natural yeast starters. I want to take a moment and show you an easy way to start your own and demonstrate that starters can live forever in your fridge.

The ingredients are real simply flour, water and salt to make this beautiful sourdough.

To make a starter all you need is two ingredients.

Water- Tap water is fine. There are a lot of stories about the water for making bread. Many are wives' tales. For you to make a great starter all you need to know is:

If you can drink it, you can cook with it!

Don't waste the money on bottled water or water treatments.

Flour- This could be pandora's box . There are many things I can say about flour but the basics are to not use cake flour. Any all purpose or bread flour you can find. You may also use rye or whole wheat flour as well.

Indestructible Sourdough Starter Recipe

Equipment

Scale

Storage container with a lid (I love Cambro containers- I need to write a blog about that)

Ingredients

100 grams Flour (All Purpose or Bread Flour)

120 grams Water (Tap water around room temperature 70 degrees Fahrenheit)

Feeding Schedule

Day 1-

Using the scale weigh 120 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and combine in a 1 to 2 qt container. I use Cambro or a pyrex container. Let sit at room temperature (65-85 degrees) for 24 hrs.

Day 2-

Using your scale weigh 120 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and combine with the starter from the day before.Let sit at room temperature (65-85 degrees) for 24 hrs.

Day 3-

Using your scale weigh 120 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and combine with the starter from the day before. You should start seeing small bubbles by this point and there should be a faint yeasty smell. Let sit at room temperature (65-85 degrees) for 24 hrs.

Day 4-

Using your scale weigh 120 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and combine with the starter from the day before.Let sit at room temperature (65-85 degrees) for 24 hrs.

Day 5-

Based on your container size the container may be getting full. Go ahead and discard 25%-50% of the starter volume. I know this may be sad but trust me. The starter will be fine.

Using your scale weigh 120 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and combine with the starter from the day before. Let sit at room temperature (65-85 degrees) for 24 hrs.

Day 6-

Using your scale again weigh 120 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and combine with the starter from the day before.Let sit at room temperature (65-85 degrees) for 24 hrs.

Day 7-

Now the starter will be quiet active and you will be ready to plan your first bread.

Chose your recipe and make sure you have enough starter by weight to make your recipe and also to have around 150 grams of starter left over to keep your culture alive. Don't want all your work to go to waste.

Storage of Starter

After you use the starter it will need to be fed 1 more time. Using your scale again weigh 120 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and combine with the leftover starter. Let sit at room temperature (65-85 degrees) but this time just overnight. This time the process gets simpler from here.

In the morning just take your starter and place in the fridge.

Feel free to name it or place the date on the container.

Sourdough Life Cycle

Reviving Your Starter

Now that you have spent this time to make an amazing sourdough starter that will mature and get stronger over time. I want to show you that its simple to revive your starter after placing it in your fridge to hibernate. When you wish to bake give the starter 1 more feeding.

Based on your recipe you will have to increase your feeding volume by 1x-5x but a standard feeding for me is 1-2x the recipe below. Don't forget to have 150 grams left over to keep your starter alive.