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Are you interested in making your own sourdough but unsure how to make your starter? If you don’t have a way to get an already established starter from someone, it’s easy to make your own. It took me about 2 months of research and watching videos of people making their own sourdough bread to finally get the courage to make my own. I watched a lot of videos on how to make my own starter because I didn’t know anyone from whom I could get a starter.
Creating your own Sourdough Starter
You only need 2 ingredients when you make your own starter. Flour and water! That’s it! A couple of things to keep in mind when making a starter.
Keep the flour the same throughout. If you only have all-purpose flour, then use that. Bread flour is recommended because it has a higher protein content, which works better with hydration and baking. You can also try using gluten-free bread flour to make a starter, but I haven’t tried that. It would follow the same process, though.
Try not to use tap water or distilled water. Tap has too many added chemicals that it won’t produce good yeast, and distilled water pulls too many minerals out of the water. Spring or filtered water is best to use. It has the minerals needed to help yeast grow and make an established starter.
While I do have an established starter that I made in 2023, I wanted to make a separate starter again for this post to show how easy it is!
Let’s Make Our Starter
You’ll need a jar with a lid that closes, like this or this. This is what I use currently, and since I bake 1-2x a month, I am able to bulk feed and have plenty of room for it to rise.
Grab your bread flour, water, wooden spoon, measuring cup and jar. That’s all you’ll need.
Start by mixing 1/2 cup of flour with 1/4 cup of water. Mix together until it is incorporated, but a shaggy-looking dough. Place the lid on top, don’t seal it. Let it sit on the counter under a light. The best is on top of a stove with the light on. This helps the mixture start to create yeast. This is day 1. Let it sit for 24 hours. Try to feed your starter at the same time each day.
On Day 2, you will remove or discard half of the mixture and throw it away. NEVER put discard or starter down the drain. It will dry and be like cement in the pipes. You will feed it 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup water and mix to a shaggy dough. Make on your jar where the dough is resting so you can track if it will rise. Let rest. I got a rise on the second day, but it typically takes a couple of days to produce enough yeast to rise.
Continue this process for 14 days total. You can bake a loaf after day 7, but I would recommend waiting for day 14. When I was first making my starter, I tried baking at day 7, and it did not rise and tasted like only flour. While it was rising after each feed, it wasn’t established enough to have a full sourdough flavor.
Once you have a consistent rise for 7-14 days, then you can try baking. Follow along with my recipe for a Simple and Delicious Sourdough Bread Recipe.
Troubleshooting
Around day 4, my starter wasn’t established yet, but it was slowly getting there. The starter developed a really bad smell. This is common, but just continue to discard half and feed as normal. It may not rise for a few days, but around day 6, the smell went away, and it started rising. You want the starter to have a sour smell to it, but not overpowering.
Dry build up around the top. This is easy to fix. Try and wipe down the top of your jar after each feed so it doesn’t dry around the edges. I had an overflow on one of my feeds from the rise, and there was a lot to clean up on the jar.
There are many factors why it won’t rise. If it is too cold in your home, then it won’t rise or rise much. Try putting it in the oven while it is off, but just the oven light on. That should make it warm enough and have enough moisture in the air to help it create yeast. The time of year, the humidity in the air is a factor as well.
Once you have an established starter, you can keep the discard and save it in a jar in the fridge to use in recipes later. There are many recipes that you can add discard to.
Once you are established, you should give your starter a name. It is a living thing with active yeast. We named my starter Beatrice. She has been doing amazing since.
If you aren’t going to be baking and don’t want to feed every day, place the starter in the fridge with a lid on. I have kept her in the fridge for a month and brought her out, fed her for 2 days, then made bread. I bake multiple loaves at once and freeze them to take out when needed. She will be considered inactive while in the fridge. The yeast is still there but just dormant without getting fed.
Conclusion
Stay consistent. That is the best way to get an established starter. I made bread on day 14, and it turned out perfect. It had a great rise and was delicious. Making starter and sourdough can seem very daunting with all the knowledge needed or to be understood, but it is worth it. The loaves turn out delicious. You can also make a lot more recipes than just bread with the discard and starter. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. You can make delicious bread at home too.
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