How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter

What is it?

Sourdough starters are the real MVPs of sourdough baking because without them, the bread simply won’t rise. It’s made by a simple mixture of water and flour that is left for a week or longer to ferment; patience is key here. Over time, the mixture is transformed into a live, fermented culture that becomes a playground for wild yeasts and lactic bacteria pulled from the flour and its environment.

Only a small portion of the sourdough starter is needed when added to the fresh dough, so feel free to save the rest for next time or share it with your baking buddies. When left in the fridge unfed, it can stay active for about two weeks. However, if you feed it weekly with equal parts flour and water, it can last indefinitely!

What You’ll Need:

• A container that is NOT airtight, preferably a jar (let the mixture breathe so it can properly ferment)
• A paper towel or cloth to cover the container
• A small silicone spatula (helpful when feeding your sourdough starter)
• A kitchen scale (it’s important to measure weight rather than volume)
• Whole wheat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
• Filtered or dechlorinated water (chlorine will stunt the microbial growth in your mixture)

Day-by-Day Guide to Making Your Sourdough Starter

Day 1

• Start by using your scale to measure 60 g of flour and 60 g of water.
• Add the flour and water to your container.
• Stir the mixture until it is smooth, resulting in a thick paste.
• Loosely cover with the lid and let rest at room temperature (~ 70-75 °F) for 24 hours.

Day 2

• Inspect your mixture: See any bubbles on the surface? These bubbles signify some early signs of fermentation. Don’t panic if you can’t find any bubbles! They could have dissolved overnight (that’s totally normal).
• Clean it up: To prevent mold from growing up the sides of the jar, use your spatula to scrape the residue on the inside of the jar. Combine the scraped-off residue with your mixture. Continue to do this whenever you see residue on the sides of the jar.
• Feeding Time: Discard half of the mixture with your spatula, then add another 60g of flour and 60g of water, stir, and loosely cover. Ideally, the ratio should be 1:1:1 (sourdough starter: water: flour) by weight. Repeat this process each day until the sourdough starter has matured.
• Continue to leave your mixture at room temperature.

Days 3–5

• Continue to inspect your mixture: You should see an increase in bubbling and notice a tangy or acidic aroma coming from the mixture. This indicates the rise of Lactobacillus (a probiotic that aids in digestion).
• Continue to feed the mixture as you had on Day 2. Repeat this process every 24 hours.

Days 5–7+

• The final inspection: Now, the starter should double its size within 4-6 hours of feeding—and it should look like there has been a bubble party in the jar. Try giving it a whiff. Does it smell pleasantly tangy, not gross or stinky? These signs indicate that the sourdough starter is mature and ready to use for baking. Congratulations, you just made your very own sourdough starter!
• If your jar is looking a little messy, feel free to transfer the mixture into a clean jar.

Keeping It Alive

Don’t let all that hard work go to waste! Feeding your sourdough starter after it has matured is an absolute must. If you fail to do so, the mixture will become inactive and will not be an effective agent in making your sourdough rise.

If you choose to store your mature sourdough starter in the fridge, it is recommended to feed once a week. It could also be kept out at room temperature, which is recommended for frequent bakers, but it’s advised that you feed it at least once each day.

Keeping a steady routine when feeding will help you out in the long run. If a designated feeding time is scheduled around the same time each day, it’ll be easier to predict when the mixture will rise and fall. To ensure peak activity, let your sourdough starter sit at room temperature for a day or two prior to baking with it. Don’t forget to feed it each day while it’s out at room temperature!

Remember, your patience will pay off when you’re making delicious sourdough from scratch!

Looking to Enhance the Tang? Try This:

The process of making a sourdough starter from scratch takes a lot of time and patience. So, what if there was a way to get that iconic tangy flavor in your dough without having to wait forever? Well, here at Ingredi, our mission is to offer ingredients that make your life easier. That’s why we offer the ultimate flavor cheat-code to any sourdough recipe—lactic acid powder.

When using lactic acid powder, try adding about 0.5-1% of the flour weight into the dry ingredient mixture when making the dough (not the starter).

Lactic acid is created naturally during the fermentation process, but sometimes it can take days after the initial fermentation period to develop. By mixing in a little lactic acid powder to your dough, you won’t have to wait any additional time to get that same tangy flavor.

While the sourdough starter is the engine that keeps the sourdough-making process moving forward, lactic acid powder can be the turbo boost towards a more flavorful loaf of sourdough bread!

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