Delicious homemade sourdough bread begins with this sourdough starter. After two weeks, you can use it and store it to make fresh sourdough anytime.
Baking bread at home has never been more popular than now.
This starter recipe comes from a bread cookbook for beginners that I love called Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett. Nancy’s sourdough starter made me believe that even I could produce an incredible sourdough loaf!
If you think you can’t make sourdough as sour and tasty as a San Francisco bakery loaf, think again.
I know because I have made sourdough bread using this starter for the world’s biggest sourdough critic, my father-in-law.
He took one bite and said it was as good as any loaf he had eaten in San Francisco.
Start with all purpose flour, instant yeast and room temperature spring water.
Every day for 10-14 days, feed the starter.
The consistency is like pancake batter. Stir once or twice a day to speed up the fermentation process.
Cover with a dishtowel and leave out on countertop for first 2 weeks.
The bubbles show that the starter is fermenting and getting sour.
Place a copy of the recipe alongside the bowl and check off every day that you feed the starter until day 14.
Once you’ve fed the starter for two weeks, transfer the bowl to the fridge where it should last indefinitely.
Making authentic sourdough bread has never been easier.
So what are you waiting for?
Dig in to sourdough starter.
It’s the start to a great follow up recipe for Sourdough Bread! STAY TUNED!
More simple bread ideas:
- Easy Italian Farm Bread
- Easy Italian Bread
- Simple Irish Soda Bread
- Almond Flour and Honey Sandwich Bread
- Old Fashioned Almond Cherry Scones
- Easy Sour Cream Cornbread
- Jiffy Blueberry Cornbread
- Almond Flour Crackers
- Savory Shortbread: Poppy and Sesame
- Whipped Cream Biscuits
Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (2.5 oz) unbleached all purpose white flour + more for feedings
- 1/8 teaspoon instant, fast-rising, or bread machine yeast
- about 1/3 cup room temperature ( 70 F) bottled or chlorine free water + more for feedings
Instructions
- Start the starter: In a medium glass bowl or large, wide mouth jar, stir together flour + yeast. Add 1/3 cup room temp water to make a gravy-like consistency. Place a clean tea towel loosely over the top. Once in a while, stir mixture with a clean spoon to speed up development. ( You may see bubbling when you stir.) Leave covered bowl out on counter overnight.
- Feed starter: For the next 4 days: Stir in 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 – 1/3 cup room temp spring water every day, stirring once in a while if possible. Mixture will become more sour tasting/smelling and may smell like alcohol, which means it’s maturing. On day 5, pour off and throw out 1/3 of the mixture before feeding starter again with usual amount of flour + water. Continue to feed same way for another 4 -5 days, to build up the starter. By now, there will be enough starter to bake with as well as to store and maintain.
- Liven/refresh starter for baking: Pour off a third of the mixture, then stir in 1 cup flour + 1/2 – 1/3 cup water. Leave out starter for at least 4 hours until very bubbly before you use it. Next, stir well and measure out amount you need for baking.
- Maintain starter: Don’t forget to take good care of the remaining starter! (Think of it like watering one of your beloved plants.) Replenish starter with 1/2 cup flour + 1/4 cup water, to achieve a consistency like pancake batter. Transfer the mixture to a large, clean container and cover with a LOOSE lid. Once it is bubbly, transfer mixture to your refrigerator. ( Set a note on top of container to feed starter in 7 days.) After 7 days, stir, pour off 1/3 of mixture, then feed remainder by stirring in 1/3 cup flour + 1/4 cup water. Return mixture to fridge and repeat this maintenance feeding one time each week. NOTE: At this point, I put the starter in a glass bowl with a lid. It’s important for me to see the starter when I open the fridge each week so that I remember to feed it. Pick a day and stick to it- I feed mine on Sundays.
- To revive a refrigerated starter: If you don’t feed the starter for a long time, it can sour and separate into layers; it can even make your bread too sour. Pour off liquid on top , give it the usual feeding, stir well and set out at room temperature. If it doesn’t bubble at all, add in a pinch of commercial yeast. Repeat feedings daily, pouring off build-up until bubbly and less sour again. Once revived, place starter back in fridge and feed weekly. Pour off some of old amount every time you feed it. Rarely will a starter spoil. However, if your starter smells bad, moldy or turns orange in color, throw it out and make a fresh starter.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Kneadlessly Simple, Easy Cultured Sourdough Starter (with commercial yeast) by Nancy Baggett
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