How to make sourdough starter for the first time. Everything you need to know - ABC Everyday (2024)

Everything I know about sourdough I've learnt through a combination of social media and my own baking experiments.

There's so much to learn but, luckily, I've discovered it's not as complicated as it can sometimes seem.

After sharing my process for making a sourdough starter, there were lots of great questions about building your own and baking with it.

I answer some of the most common ones below, along withmy process for making a sourdough starter.

Loading

How to make a sourdough starter

Day 1:
Take a large glass jar. Mix together 50g of flour and 50g of filtered water and ¼ of a teaspoon of honey (optional) and leave it out at room temperature.

Day 2:
Give the flour and water mixture a stir.

Day 3:
Add another 50g of flour, 50g of water and ¼ teaspoon of honey (optional) to your jar.

Day 4:
Discard about half of the starter. Add 50g of flour, 50g of water and ¼ teaspoon of honey (optional).

Day 5-10:
On about day five you can stop adding the honey. Keep discarding about half of the mixture and then add 50g of flour and 50g of water each day. By day 10 your starter should be bubbly 4 to 6 hours after you feed it and ready for you to use to make bread!

Your sourdough starter questions, answered

Why do you add honey to the starter? Can I skip it?

When you're making a starter, you are creating a nice home for wild yeast to live and grow in. Yeast is found in both flour and honey. The combination of honey and flour creates an excellent place for wild yeast to develop. You can use any kind of honey or you can just leave it out.

Can you make a starter using gluten-free flour?

Yes! You'll need a little extra water, so add 60g of water instead of 50g to 50g of finely ground gluten-free flour.

Do I really need to discard part of the starter before feeding it again?

Yes, you do! So, your starter is like your pet and when you give it flour and water each day [in its development phase] you are feeding it. You need to feed it at least its own weight in flour and water.

Your starter will increase in size each day and if you don't discard any and continue to feed it its own weight in flour and water, you will end up with much more starter than you need for baking.

What can I do with the discard?

Even though you do have to discard part of the starter while you're in the process of getting it strong enough to bake with, you don't have to throw it in the bin. You can use it in any recipe that contains flour and water, such as pancakes or sourdough crackers.

Can I make numerous starters instead of discarding the starter?

Yes, but it's most practical to manage just one jar of starter. Plus, you only need to discard part of the starter during the initial process of making it. More on maintaining your starter and reducing waste below.

When can I stop feeding my starter daily?

After 10 days your starter should be strong enough that you can stop feeding it daily. At that point, it can go and live in the fridge.

The cooler temperature slows down the fermentation process, so you don't need to keep feeding the starter each day while it's in there. You can keep a small amount in the fridge (for example about 100g). Then if you want to make multiple loaves of bread or give some starter away, you can simply feed that smaller amount with more flour and water.

My starter never bubbled – can I do anything to fix this?

Keep feeding it and discarding part each day. Sometimes it takes a little longer than 10 days to develop, especially if it's cold where you are. The ideal temperature is about 22 degrees Celsius.

If it's quite warm where you are, try feeding twice a day and discarding more, such as two-thirds instead of half the starter before you feed it. If it's cooler where you are, try keeping it somewhere warmer, like an oven that's switched off.

When baking with sourdough starter, do you use it immediately after its fed? Or after it's doubled in size and volume?

You use the starter after it's become big and bubbly, usually about 4 to 6 hours after you've fed it.

How much starter do you use to bake bread? Is it all of it? 

Most recipes call for between 80g to 100g per loaf. Ideally, you use most of the contents in your jar of starter to make bread dough and leave about a teaspoon-sized amount in the jar. Then you feed that little bit left in the jar and let it rise, ready for when you want to bake again.

Do you still need yeast and starter when baking sourdough?

The sourdough starter contains wild yeast so you don't need to add any additional yeast.