Sooooo. You want to start making sourdough goodies, huh? Are you sure you’re ready for this? You’re ready to commit your life to sourdough? The answer is YASS QUEEN! Get ready, because once you start, you cant stop. The bread is too good. The waffles are TOO. GOOD. And eating them makes you feel too good.
Sourdough becomes an obsession for many that give in to its tangy goodness. Once you start delving deeper into sourdough and all of its health benefits, you will love it even more! I believe with all of my heart that sourdough bread is health food. Not only is it food for your soul, but it actually has some surprising health benefits. The long fermentation process that sourdough goes through naturally breaks down some of the gluten and sugars in the bread and makes the micronutrients in the flour more available for your body to absorb. That makes it easier to digest for people with diabetes, gluten sensitivities, and people with metabolic issues. Sourdough is the true wonder bread!
To get started you will need a sourdough starter, or mother.
What is a sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter is a mixture of flour and water that contain natural, wild yeasts from the air. This is the way gold miners would make bread in California during the gold rush, and it’s one of the oldest forms of making bread. The starter is a living, breathing thing that contains millions of prebiotic and probiotic bacterias and yeasts. These bacteria and yeasts are what give your bread the tangy flavor, as well as what leavens your bread and makes it rise in the oven! You can either make your own starter, ask a friend who has one for some of theirs, or often bakeries are willing to either give or sell you a little bit of their starter. If properly cared for, a sourdough starter can live for literally hundreds of years and can be passed down in the family!
To make your own starter you simply mix equal parts bread flour and filtered or distilled water. You don’t want to use unfiltered tap water because it can contain chlorine and other chemicals that can kill the good bacteria you are trying so hard to grow.
How to begin
If you get a starter from a friend or bakery, you’re ready to go! Go make some bread! If you are wanting to make a starter from scratch, you will need to be a bit more patient. The process of creating your own starter takes about 7 days.
- Mix 1/4 Cup of each distilled or filtered water and bread flour in a glass jar. Cover gently with the lid and leave out on the counter.
- The next day: AM – Throw away half of the flour mixture. Feed your starter by mixing in 1/4 Cup each water and bread flour cover gently and leave out on the counter. PM– Throw away half of the flour mixture. Mix in 1/4 Cup each of water and bread flour cover gently and leave out on the counter.
- Repeat an AM and PM “feeding” each day for the remaining 5 days. You will begin to see bubbles form in the mixture, that is the yeast doing its job!
- By day 7 you should have a happy starter that just about doubles in size between feedings.
- At this point you have a starter that is active and ready to use! When you do your feedings now, don’t throw away half! Save it in a separate larger jar, this is your sourdough discard.
How to Maintain Your Starter
To maintain a healthy starter you will need to have regular feedings. When you are not using your starter, you can store it in the refrigerator and feed about once a week. To be honest, I store my starter in the refrigerator and sometimes don’t feed it for up to 3 weeks, but my starter is quite established and healthy so I wouldn’t suggest doing that right away. Try to keep on a feeding schedule to make sure you don’t kill it.
If you are planning on making bread, you will want to have it out of the refrigerator and at room temperature. When you have your starter out at room temp you will need to feed it at least once a day, sometimes twice if it is super active and “hungry”. When the starter is super bubbly, thats when you’re ready to use it!
When feeding so often, you will have a lot of “discard”. When you feed your starter you discard half, or more, but don’t throw it away! Save it in a larger jar and store it in the refrigerator. This discard can be used in other recipes like this one (https://thepetitewhisk.com/?p=435) AND can be used to save your starter if you leave it out and forget to feed it.
Be prepared to make mistakes
When you are first starting your sourdough journey, you will make mistakes. I have accidentally killed so many starters and had to begin again. Luckily, I am always able to revive it by taking a bit of my discard and feeding it back up so it is healthy. You will make bread that doesn’t rise, you will forget to add salt, you will overproof your dough, but every time you do, you will learn a little more. Don’t give up! It is so rewarding to make fresh bread and other goodies and you will never go back.
It may sound like a lot, but once you get going, it really isn’t difficult you just need to devote a little time to it. I promise you can do it!!
I suggest you do some searching on Pinterest for a basic sourdough recipe until I have my own to share, there are so many fantastic recipes and tutorials from people that devote their entire blogs to sourdough. This is one that I like to use, they explain everything very clearly and give great directions. https://bakeclub.com.au/products/basic-sourdough-bread
Great easy to follow, can’t wait to get started