Sourdough Starter for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know
In this sourdough starter for beginners guide, you will learn everything you need to know about starting and maintaining a healthy starter. With a little bit of time and patience you will be on your sourdough baking journey in no time!
- Prep Time: 5
- Total Time: 8 Days
- Category: Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Filtered or Spring Water
Instructions
Day 1
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Start by setting a bowl on your scale and measure out 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water.
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Stir the two ingredients well, then transfer to your jar.
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Cover your jar with a cheesecloth or sourdough starter cover cloth (whatever you have will work).
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Place in a warm spot in your kitchen, I typically keep mine near the oven.
Day 2
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Day 2, you will do nothing, but observe. You may see bubbles already, but if not, that’s okay too. Just be patient!
Days 3-5
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** You’ll start your Day 3 process around the same time you started it on Day 1 **
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So if you started Day 1 at 9am, try to start Day 3-5 around 9am as well.
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From the jar that you started in Day 1, measure out 50 grams (approximately half) of the starter. You will actually discard (throw in the trash) because it is not yet beneficial for discard recipes. For the following days 4 + 5, you will keep about 50 grams of starter in the jar each day, then feed.
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Set a bowl on your scale, zero it and measure out 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. Mix together well.
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Next, you will add in the fresh flour and water mixture to the remaining starter that was left in the jar. Give it a good stir, so that your starter and new mixture are well combined. (This is called feeding your starter)
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Scrape down the sides of your jar, cover, and place back into its warm spot.
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You will do this same exact process for days 3-5
Days 6 + 7
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You will be doing the exact same process of discarding and adding in the fresh flour and water mixture, except for these two days you will be doing it twice a day.
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For example: If you discard and feed at 9am, you will also discard and feed at 9pm before bed. Just do this for two days.
Day 8
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By day 8, you should have a sourdough starter that is ready to use! If not, you can just keep feeding like you would in the Days 3-5 section, just once a day around the same time.
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You can will know if your starter is ready by how it looks, it should be nice and bubbly, and doubled in size! You can also test it by the float test that was mentioned earlier in the post!
Notes
Using a rubber band helps you easily see how much your sourdough starter has grown. Here’s how:
- After you feed your starter, place a rubber band around the jar at the level where the starter reaches.
- As the starter ferments and rises, you can watch how far it grows above the rubber band.
- This makes it easy to tell when your starter has doubled (or even tripled), which is a sign it’s strong and ready to use!
The rubber band gives you a clear visual guide without having to guess or remember where it started.