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.
I have several questions. I like the jar you use but am wondering why we need a 1 gal jar for Starter when the amount is approx 2 C. Also, i am in my 3rd week. My starter rises about 1-2” but hasn’t doubled yet. It is bubbling and very foamy. When should I expect that to happen? I have made 3 of your amazing NO Knead Sourdough breads and the initial rise happens within 1-1-1/2 hours? The resting rise happens in 40 min. Does that mean my Starter is close to being an Active Starter?
I believe they have a 1/2 gallon jar as well. I use a lot of starter, so I like to have a larger jar. Have you tried the float test? That is the best way to know if your starter is ready to use.
I’m starting my very first sourdough starter thanks to you! I’m so excited! Her name is Flour Child. If you need 1 1/2 cup of starter for a recipe do you add 1 1/2 cup of flour and 1 1/2 cup water to feed it?
If you need that much starter for a recipe you would still feed it equal parts flour and water. So if you have 1 cup of starter you would feed it 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour. Then just take out what you need. As long as you have a little bit of the starter left you are good. After your starter is mature, you can feed your starter larger amounts of flour and water without issues. If that makes sense.
Okay. How much starter do you keep in your fridge?
Hi Lisa, I’m so excited about making my own starter. Question- I’m on Day 6 and I’m not getting many bubbles. Should I stick with 24hr feeding for a few more days til I get more bubbles THEN start 12hr feedings? I’m in Colorado and my home is at 68 degrees, so not particularly warm. Thank you! Cami
I would go ahead and feed it every 12 hours.
Hi! I have been following your blog about the sour dough starter. I am on day 6 so I will start feeding every 12 hours. It doubled in size and was bubbling on day 2. Now it is small little popped bubbles or larger bubbles on the surface. Should it be getting more bubbly by now? Should I discard and just start over?
Thank you in advance for any advice!
Keep going! The bubbles will vary.
After day 7, how do you maintain it? Do you still have to discard half before adding flour and water? And if not, do you still add one cup of each?
I go over all of that here: https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/how-to-care-for-sourdough-starter
I am going to start my sourdough starter today. During the maintenance process if I use the starter right from the fridge for a recipe is that considered “discard”? Or is discard only what you use in the beginning 7 days?
Yes. Discard is any use of the starter when it is not active (recently fed/bubbly and has doubled in size).
I am on day 3! I used discard for banana bread yesterday and it was super good! This is my first time attempting sourdough and I’m so excited! I’ll admit it is a bit needy but I found if I put an alarm on my phone it is way easier to remember!
Can you keep adding the discard to the same jar/bowl in the refrigerator?
Yes, you can keep adding it to the same jar and just use as needed. Glad your banana bread worked out! Yum.
I was given a sourdough starter and then was told I could leave it on the counter for about a week by someone who clearly didn’t know what they were talking about. How do I know if it’s dead. I fed it last night and am planning to keep feeding and discarding until I am certain it’s dead or until it starts to look alive again. This is all very very new and even more confusing. Lol
I would discard most of the starter and use that to start over with. It will give you a head start, and you’ll probably just need to feed it daily for a few days before it activates again.
So, here I am. I never imagined that I would be troubling you with this. and even though I know my answer will probably be keep going, I still wanted to ask. It is day seven today.
Day 1: Bubbles. Shocked me.
Day 2: Started out with a lot of action and rose some. Hooch noticed.
Day 3: Rose quite a bit, lots of activity, and quite a bit of smell.
Day 4: Smell is fading some, the bubbles are still there, but the rise is more minimal.
Days 5: Scent is much less, but there are still bubbles; however, not much rise at all.
Day 6: Hardly no rise but still bubbles.
Day 7: Beginning to lose hope. No rise at all. pancake like batter. No hooch. Still Bubbling.
It is seventy degrees in my residence.
Any advice would be great Thank you.
Sometimes it will rise and then will go through a period of not rising. You are right — my advice is to keep going! I also know some people have starter that doesn’t quite double in size but is still active. So you can always try the float test to see.
I did the starter but it is not doubling in size. It did get bubbly though. Is it ok?
Have you done the float test?