Learn how to make a sourdough starter recipe from scratch with just flour and water. This versatile ingredient can be used to make breads, cakes, cookies, and so much more.
If you hang around the traditional foods community, chances are you have heard of making homemade sourdough starter from scratch.
I have had my homemade starter for over six years now. It is vital in my traditional food kitchen.
What Is A Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is a live active culture made of fermented flour and water that is full of beneficial bacteria and yeasts.
It is used as a way to ferment recipes and naturally rise bread.
Why You Will Love Sourdough:
If you are unfamiliar, let me fill you in on all the reasons why crazy folks, like me, go through the effort of handcrafting, and maintaining, a beneficial colony of yeasts and bacteria in their kitchens.
Before yeast was isolated and sold in little packets, sourdough starter was a valuable commodity in homes and families, passed down for generations.
Health Benefits
Have you ever heard of phytic acid? Basically, it’s an antinutrient found in grains, beans, and nuts that interferes with the absorption of certain nutrients. They are present on grains to keep them from spoiling.
There is a reason they are there, but there is also good evidence that our bodies weren’t meant to handle them. Proper preparation of grains eliminates most, if not all, of the phytic acid in offending foods.
This is the very reason traditional cultures soaked and fermented their grains, seeds, and beans. These days, we’ve lost that art. And what have we found? People can’t handle grains anymore.
Instead of using instant yeast packets, people in traditional cultures leavened their bread with a fermented starter that captured all the yeasts in the environment.
AKA Sourdough starter
How on earth do we capture native yeasts? Read on, because I explain how to make your very own starter.
Because I love good food
I already confessed my foodie tendencies with you all. I reckon it’s the same inclination that led me into the world of homemade sourdough.
Locally made sourdough starter, with the native yeasts of the area present, is certainly the thing a foodie’s dreams are made of. A jar of healthy, productive starter is teaming with life, as evidenced by all the bubbles you will see rising to the surface.
Once you’ve experienced homemade sourdough baked goods, store-bought breads and pancakes simply don’t cut it. Sourdough has a depth of flavor that just can’t be found in something made quickly with a packet of instant yeast.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
FAQ:
How long does it take to make sourdough starter?
It takes about a week to create an active sourdough starter, but sometimes it can take about two weeks to make a starter ready to bake bread.
Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it?
When you are first creating your sourdough starter, yes. If you don’t discard you will have so much starter that it will be hard to keep healthy. This is because the more starter you have the more flour and water you will need to add for the yeasts and bacteria to feed on.
After having a starter for a while rather than discarding you can just use it in discard recipes. This is a much more useful way of removing some of the starter rather than throwing it in the trash.
How do you know your sourdough starter is ready to use?
You will know your sourdough starter is read to use when you feed it and after 4-12 hours it doubles in size and is super bubbly. A good way to be able to determine this, is to place a rubber band where the top of the starter is after you feed it. Then after a few hours have passed you can see just how high it has grown.
Another way is to perform the float test. Take a small glass of room temperature water. Add a quarter sized dollop of active starter. If it floats, it is ready to bake with. If it doesn’t it is not active enough.
Sourdough Starter Recipe:
By now, you know why you want to have a bowl of sourdough starter bubbling away in your kitchen, but how the heck do you make one?
Ingredients
Flour (Whole grain wheat, unbleached all-purpose, and einkorn are all great choices.)
Filtered water (I use a Berkey water filter. We have the Royal size for our family of 7. You can find my full Berkey review HERE.)
Tools
Glass bowl (Metal can react with beneficial bacteria and yeasts.)
Tea towel
How To Make Sourdough Starter
Day 1:
On day one, mix one cup of flour and one cup filtered water. Stir vigorously, making sure to scrape down the sides and incorporate everything. Place a clean tea towel over the bowl and set aside. Allow it to sit for 24 hours.
Day 2:
On day two, discard half of the mixture and repeat the process. Add one cup flour, one cup water, stir vigorously, and cover.
Why do you have to remove half the mixture? By day four, you would have sourdough starter overflowing from your bowl. Also, removing half ensures that the right amount of flour and water is feeding the growing colony of beneficial yeast. If you weren’t discarding half, the cup of flour wouldn’t be enough to feed them on days three and four. Basically, you would end up with a lot of extra starter by the end of the process, and none of it would be mature.
Day 3-5
Repeat the day two instructions for days three, four, and five.
Day 6-7
On days six and seven, do the same but feed it every 12 hours, instead of every 24.
By day seven, there should be enough beneficial bacteria and yeast present to bake sourdough bread and other fermented sourdough goodies, like pancakes and english muffins.
You will know it’s working if it bubbles, and doubles in size.
Sourdough Starter Maintenance
Once your sourdough starter is alive and active, there will be some maintenance to keep it going for years and years.
In the refrigerator for occasional use
Storing it in the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, so one feeding per week, or every other week, is sufficient.
I usually use my starter a couple times per week. If I plan to make pancakes Saturday morning, for example, I will pull my starter out of the fridge Friday morning and add flour and water. By Saturday morning it is bubbly and ready to go.
I remove the two cups of starter needed for my pancake recipe, and put the “master starter” back in the fridge. Since it was fed the day before, it is good to go for another week, or whenever I need it next.
On the counter for daily use
Since the “little guys”, as my kids like to call the bacteria in the starter, are active at room temperature, they will have to be fed more often if keep it in this state.
If you leave your starter out on the counter, you will need to add flour and water every day. You will also have to be baking every day to use up all that starter.
Most people probably won’t use the starter quite so much, unless you own and operate a bakery. I would recommend storing it in the refrigerator between uses.
Helpful Resources
Every day I get loads of questions about sourdough starter, so I devoted a whole post called, How to Care for Sourdough Starter filled with your questions and my answers. You can use this post a reference guide.
Thank you so much for stopping by the farmhouse! I hope this is just the beginning of our sourdough journey.
Check out my other sourdough recipes and posts
- Sourdough English Muffins
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Healthy One Pot Meal- Sourdough Skillet
- Sourdough Tortillas
- Easy Sourdough Focaccia
- Dry Sourdough Starter
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Also, tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- Flour, Whole grain wheat, unbleached all purpose, and einkorn are all great choices.
- Filtered water
Instructions
- On day one, mix one cup of flour and one cup filtered water. Stir vigorously, making sure to scrape down the sides and incorporate everything. Place a clean tea towel over the bowl and set aside. Allow it to sit for 24 hours.
- On day two, discard half of the mixture and repeat the process. Add one cup flour, one cup water, stir vigorously, and cover.
- Repeat the day two instructions for days three, four, and five.
- On days six and seven, do the same but feed it every 12 hours, instead of every 24.
- By day seven, there should be enough beneficial bacteria and yeast present to bake sourdough bread and other fermented sourdough goodies, like pancakes and english muffins. You will know it’s working if it bubbles, and doubles in size.
Notes
Sourdough Starter Maintenance
- Once your sourdough starter is alive and active, there will be some maintenance to keep it going for years and years.
In The Refrigerator For Occasional Use
- Storing it in the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, so one feeding every week, or every other week, is sufficient.
- I usually use my starter a couple times per week. If I plan to make pancakes Saturday morning, for example, I pull my starter out of the fridge Friday morning and add flour and water. By Saturday morning it is bubbly and ready to go. I remove the two cups of starter needed for my pancake recipe and put the “master starter” back in the fridge. Since it was fed the day before, it is good to go for another week, or whenever I need it next.
On The Counter For Daily Use
- Since the “little guys”, as my kids like to call the bacteria in the starter, are active at room temperature, they will have to be fed more often if kept in this state.
- If you leave your starter out on the counter, you will need to add flour and water every day. You will also have to be baking daily to use up all that starter.
- Most people probably won’t use the starter quite so much, unless you own and operate a bakery. I would recommend storing it in the refrigerator between uses.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can you transfer your starter into a bigger container
Yes
On day one a clear/yellowish liquid formed on the top of my starter. Is this normal? Do I need to start over? What do I do?
Yes, that’s a variety of normal. You can just mix it back into the starter and feed it again.
What about if it forms at the bottom?
After day 5 (which I fed at 7pm)
Do I have to wait the 24hrs (7pm)for day 6 to start feeding every 12 hrs or will it be twice on day 6?
Twice a day on day 6. If you feed it at 7pm, you could feed it at 7am on day 6.
My starter is all einkorn, I’m giving some to a friend and she plans on using all purpose. Should I change the amount I give her or how I feed it before I give it to her?
Nope! You shouldn’t need to do anything differently.
Recommendations on flour brands for starter?:) I saw in one of your videos you used King Arthur bread flour. Is this a good brand to make starter with? Is bread flour different from all-purpose? Thanks so much!!!
Yes, bread flour and AP flour are different. Whole grain wheat, unbleached all-purpose, and einkorn flour are all great choices for your starter. I do use king arthur, and I also buy from some local places.
Hi I’m on day 14 and my starter still hasn’t doubled in size or seems ready to be used. I did the water method to test if it was ready to use but the starter only dropped. Maybe it has something to do with different brands of unbleached all purpose flour I’m using? It has bubbles but not enough. I feed it at this point every 24 hours, should I do it every 12 hours? I was feeding it every 12 hours on days 6 and 7 but then forgot to feed it for 24 hours on days 9-10 so since then I’ve been feeding it every 24 hours.
I would suggest going back to every 12 hours. Sometimes it just takes time! It could be it needs to be set in a bit of a warmer spot. What is the consistency like when you feed it — pancake batter?
a friend gave me a dab of starter. I added only 25 grams each of flour and water. I left it on the counter for 24 hours but it didn’t appear to double in size. I have well water not city water but I didn’t use filtered water. Any suggestions on why it didn’t double in size?
Did it appear bubbly? What was the consistency of the starter once you fed it? I typically look for a pancake batter consistency.
What do you do with the discard on days 2-6? Especially if you don’t want to throw it away.
You can store it in the fridge to use in various discard recipes. If you search discard on my blog, you’ll find a lot of recipes to choose from.
Do you feed it as well and treat it like the starter or something else?
I just read that some starters can develop mold. I would t say I’m an experienced kitchen baker with the best kitchen hygiene but I’m also not the worst. How can I ensure a safe starter and sourdough for my family?
I am planning to do a blog post on this very soon — keep your eyes peeled!
The starter needs to be sitting out of the refrigerator for a day before using it?
What are you making? If you are making something that uses discard, you should be able to use it directly out of the fridge. However, if you need active starter, you’ll need to take it out and feed it until it is nice and active again.
Do you start with the whole wheat flour, then you feed it all purpose?
You can! I tend to use a variety of flours, depending on what I have on hand.