Welcome to my journey with my wheat sourdough starter! It's a little colony you can use to make bread and other baked goods. You need to keep it alive by feeding it regularly, and if done so it can live to be centuries old! I'm excited to make my own bread out of thin air! There's a lot of words here (this is a particularly long post), expressing the science of sourdough and how it works (at the bottom of the post), and I present pictures and a recipe for a sourdough starter, which takes about 7 days to make!
Another option: Rye Sourdough starter
29 Recipes you can make with sourdough:
Beginner:
Advanced:
If you want to know more about the science behind sourdough some interesting info is located at the very bottom of this post/webpage.
Recipe:
What you'll need:
Mason Jar or other clear glass jar with a lid
Rubber Band
~ 300 g Whole Wheat Flour
~150 g Bread/All Purpose flour
Scale
Water
Spoon, bowl (optional)
An area that is 80-90°F to store your starter (this is important!)
If you do not have an area that is 80°F then I recommend placing it in on something warm, such as a wax warmer (with insulation separating the warmer and starter (see picture below)), or a warming pad.
Day 1
In a bowl combine 30 g whole grain flour with 40 grams water. Mix well.
Pour mixture into a clean jar. Loosely cap with lid and place a rubber band around the top of the mixture.
Leave at room temperature (80°F) 24 hours.
Day 2
You may see some bubbles forming, but it most likely will not have risen.
Add the starter to a clean bowl and clean out the jar.
Mix 45 g whole grain flour and 45 grams water with the starter. Mix well. Note: you can mix the flour and water in the jar with the starter, but I personally like to clean the jar to see it rise better.
Pour sourdough into a clean jar. Loosely cap with lid and position rubber band.
Leave at room temperature (80°F) 24 hours.
As the day goes on, you may notice the sourdough starter starting to rise and big air bubbles forming. This is good, it means that fermentation is starting to happen!
Day 3
Add 30 g starter to a clean bowl and clean out the jar. Discard the rest.
Add 30 g whole grain flour and 30 grams water to the starter. Mix well.
Note: you're feeding your starter in a 1:1:1 ratio of starter:flour:water (30 g starter:30 g flour:30 g water).
Pour sourdough into a clean jar. Loosely cap with lid and position rubber band.
Leave at room temperature (80°F) 24 hours.
Day 4
Add 30 g starter to a clean bowl and clean out the jar. Discard the rest.
To the starter add 30 g whole grain flour, 30 g all purpose/bread flour, and 60 grams water. Mix well.
Note: you are now feeding your starter in a 1:2:2 ratio. I do this to activate the yeast.
Pour sourdough into a clean jar. Loosely cap with lid and position rubber band.
Leave at room temperature (80°F) 24 hours.
Days 5 & 6
You will repeat this feeding every 12 hours (4 times total on days 5 & 6). We do this to boost the starter and really get it active:
Add 30 g starter to a clean bowl and clean out the jar. Discard the rest.
To the bowl add 30 g whole grain flour, 30 g bread flour, 60 g water. Mix well.
Pour sourdough into a clean jar. Loosely cap with lid and position rubber band.
Leave at room temperature (80°F) 12 hours.
By days 5 & 6 if you're getting a rise and fall then you can use the discard in various recipes "beginner" recipes listed above.
Day 7 (and so on...):
3 ways to tell if your starter is ready to bake bread:
Typically, the starter should begin rising and falling after feeding at some point during days 2-6. This is the sign of a healthy active starter. If it's bubbling and not rising, this means it's alive (lots of lacto-bacteria) but there aren't enough yeast. You may need to try a different flour, feeding often and with more flour, or try warming it up more to activate the yeast.
If on day 7 after feeding it doubles in size in 2-3 hours, it's good to go for baking!
When it rises, another way to test if it's ready is to scoop out a piece, and if it floats in water it's good to go! This is called the float test.
Future feedings, if baking bread a lot: Continue feeding your starter daily with a 1:1:1 or 1:2:2 ratio, or add more flour and water to increase the mass for bread making. You can use the "discard" in your baking.
If not baking everyday: you can feed it every day, or you can feed it and refrigerate it up to 2 weeks, take it out, let it warm to room temperature, and feed it for a few days before baking to strengthen it.
Now to the process (in pictures)!
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Then we feed again in the evening (every 12 hours):
Day 6
Day 7
Sorry I don't have a before feeding picture, but here is a day 7 feeding:
How Sourdough works:
Sourdough starters harness the power of natural yeast, lactobacilli bacteria, and other microorganisms to perform fermentation and provide the leavening (causes bread to rise and have air bubbles) for sourdough bread and other baked goods. The microorganisms are fostered by the environment provided by flour and water, meaning that no yeast is used in the process, instead the starter becomes yeast.
So how do flour and water form the perfect environment? Flour actually has its own yeast and bacterial spores. The air we breathe also contains yeast, lactobacilli bacteria, and a whole fleet of other airborne microorganisms. In a healthy sourdough starter, yeast and lactobacilli thrive in a symbiotic relationship. Each has a preferred carbohydrate fuel from the grains, and thus form a mutualistic relationship with each other. The yeast uses some kinds of carbohydrates to produce ethanol (C2H5OH) and carbon dioxide in a process called fermentation. These bubbles of carbon dioxide become trapped in the starter and bread dough you prepare, making it rise (leavening it). The lactobacilli bacteria consume other carbohydrates to produce lactic acid (C3H6O3) and acetic acid, which is also a fermentation process. The yeast can metabolize byproducts of lactic acid fermentation. So everyone really is sharing and caring! The ethanol created by the yeast are tolerable for the lactobacilli, and the acidity created by the lactobacilli is good for the yeast but inhospitable to other, potentially harmful microorganisms. Therefore, bad bacteria will quickly be killed off by the acidic environment. The acidity of the bread acts as a preservative even after baking. (Citation)
When it comes to making bread, sourdough is the OG. It it thought to be one of the first methods to make bread over 7,000 years ago! The only ingredients necessary for bread are flour & water (and salt for flavor), if you consider the flour & water in the starter as ingredients.
Some health facts about Sourdough (Citation):
The longer rising time necessary to raise sourdough breads allows more gluten to be broken down by enzymes in the flour and microbes. The acid also helps the bread to stale slower by inhibiting the growth of molds. This fermentation also breaks down many of the simple sugars in the bread, making it easier on blood sugar levels for some individuals. As if it didn't sound great enough, the fermentation can make the bread higher in nutrients, especially B vitamins.
Finally, the bacteria present in the sourdough help to activate phytase, an enzyme that breaks down phytic acid, an anti-nutrient found in all grains and seeds. This can allow your body to better hold onto minerals, as phytic acid can bind with them and take them out of your body. (Citation)
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