Sourdough Starter

I always wanted to try my hand on bread making especially sourdough. Now that we are all locked up in our houses and going to store is not possible, this was the perfect time to start off. Sourdough bread takes a lot of patience. Mainly because we have to make our own yeast at home. That is what gives the sour taste, smell and the rise. This Sourdough Starter recipe takes anywhere between 7-14 days to be ready.

You don’t need a lot of ingredients. I had heard that we should use organic flour and unbleached flour. I agree that the results with those would be very different altogether but all I had at home was whole wheat flour (the one we get in the Indian stores) and all-purpose flour (bleached). I decided to with that only.

I definitely had a few ups and downs and was worried that this might not work. But I got help from a few amazing bakers. My baker friend Vidya helped me out with the starter questions I had. She’s really an amazing baker and you should definitely check her work at The Marzipan. The other amazing person I took help from was Marissa. She had collaborated with Tasty to teach us how to bake sourdough bread. I contacted her on Instagram where she suggested a few things that I should be doing. I’m in awe with her work. Check her work at Baker Buie.

So let’s get started.

All You Need:

Whole Wheat Flour (Atta)- 50 grams or ¼ cup (everyday)
All-Purpose Flour- 50 grams or ¼ cup (everyday)
Warm Water- 100 grams or ½ cup (everyday)

A Few Tips:

I will highly recommend buying a food scale for this recipe. It makes it more precise.
Make sure the water is warm and not hot. To know that, either use a thermometer which should read around 95° F. Or, dip your finger and it shouldn’t feel to hot, just warm.
Don’t be disappointed if your starter doesn’t rise for a day or 2. It can happen. Just keep continuing.
This process can take anywhere between 7 days to 14 days depending on the temperature of your house.
If you’re using all-purpose flour like I did, you can try and decrease the water to 85 g. It might also work. 100 g worked just fine for me, so I went with that.

Method:

Day 1:
- Take a big glass bowl and place it on a the scale. Measure it and write down the weight of the bottle.
- Tare the scale. Add 50 g of Whole Wheat Flour and 50 g of All-Purpose flour.
- Add 100 g of Warm Water.
- Mix until you don’t see any dry flour.
- Close the lid loosely and put it in a warm place.
- Mark the level of the flour using a rubber band or a making tape or a marker.

Day 2:
- Just Observe if there’s any rise or fall in the starter. We are looking for a little rise and then fall at this stage.
- No need to feed it again.

Day 3:
- You might be able to see some rise and fall in the starter.
- Discard 75% of the starter.
- You should be left with about 2-3 tbsp of the starter in the bowl.
- Add 50 g Whole Wheat flour, 50 g All-purpose flour and 100 g warm water. Mix it until there are no dry spots visible. Scrape down the sides.
- Adjust the rubber band or any marking if there’s any need.
- Place it in a warm spot.

Day 4 & 5:
- On these 2 days, I didn’t see any rise.
- I saw some water on top of the starter on Day 5. This water is called Hooch.
- This means that the Starter is hungry. You need to feed it.
- So again, I fed it 50 g Whole Wheat Flour, 50 g All- Purpose Flour and 100 g warm water.

Day 6 & 7:
- I kept discarding and feeding my starter.
- Discard 75% of the starter.
- Add 50 g Whole Wheat Flour, 50 g All- Purpose Flour and 100 g warm water.
Day 8:
- I kept seeing constant rise and fall in my starter.
- I kept feeding it everyday.
Day 10:
- I did the float test to check if my starter is ready to make some bread. And it passed!!
- YAYYYYYY!!
I wanted to let the starter sit for a little more time. It was just my personal choice.
I kept feeding it for 2 weeks and left it on my kitchen counter.
Once you’re done with making your bread, feed your starter again and let it sit in a warm place for another day and then place it in the fridge.
Feed your starter once week.
For the next time you want to bake bread, just feed it 8 hours earlier. Check with the float test, if it passes, you’re all set. If not, wait it out another day.
This is how my starter looked like the day before I baked my bread.