A QuickStart guide and easy sourdough starter recipe! Get a bubbling, active starter that is ready to leaven bread in just 7 days!
Table of Contents
What is a sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter is a fermented mixture containing flour, water, wild yeast, bacteria, and organic acids. Over time, wild yeast from the environment and the flour itself are fed, reproduce and multiply to create a bubbling, active culture that will actually raise a loaf of bread without any commercial yeast or baking powder! As a bonus the bacteria in sourdough produces acid that kills bad mold!
Pro Tips for a Successful Sourdough Starter
- The ideal temperature for storing a starter is between 73-77°F. For some, this is in the oven with the light turned on and some people invest in a proofing box. I am here to tell you that nowhere in any of the restaurants where I was the pastry chef, nor in my home nor at culinary school, maintained a temperature in that range, and I still manage to make excellent sourdough in all these places. It just takes more time.
- In the first few days of creating a starter, you’re unlikely to see too much activity. Some people experience a surge in their starters in the first day or two, but that’s never happened for me. Regardless, in about 5-9 days I’ve consistently developed happy, healthy starters — but for others, it may take even longer. Don’t stress! If you follow the directions, it will happen for you.
- The formula for this sourdough starter is not absolute. I have tried starters with different amounts of whole wheat, rye flour, and all-purpose flour, or just unbleached all-purpose flour. The key is not what you feed your starter but the consistency with which you do it, especially in the beginning.
- Use a rubber band marker. I place a rubber band around my starter jar where my starter, once stirred, is at its full height. This helps me to visualize how much the starter grows over the course of the day, which is important to be aware of once your starter is mature and behaving predictably (after a week or so) so you know when to expect it to be ready for making bread or sourdough cinnamon rolls, for that matter!
Ingredients Needed
- Whole Wheat Flour: The outside part of the wheat berry or rye berry grain contains most of the wild yeast. Whole-grain flours like whole wheat flour are less processed and, thus, contain more natural yeast. This will help your sourdough starter get started faster! You can substitute coarse ground rye flour, and the starter will develop faster, because yeast ferment rye flour easier than wheat flours.
- Unbleached All-Purpose Flour: Starting on Day 2 you’ll begin feeding your starter half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose. This makes a more neutral tasting starter that still gets the benefit of the wild yeast in whole grain flour. You can also use bread flour if that is what you have on hand.
- Water: I always use tap water for bread making and sourdough starter feeding, but I live and work in NYC. If you live somewhere with hard water (a lot of minerals), you should use distilled water, bottled water or filtered water. High mineral content will inhibit fermentation and tighten the gluten structure, resulting in less airy bread. Chlorine can also inhibit the growth of yeast and bacteria. If you are concerned, you can boil and cool tap water or set it in a container for 24 hours to naturally dechlorinate.
- Time: I could also say the 4th ingredient is patience but “time” sounds better! Making a sourdough starter with wild yeasts takes time just as making flavorful, voluminous sourdough bread requires time. There are no shortcuts.
You will also need two containers: The which is not particularly important. Choose a mason jar, Weck jar, or food-grade quart or storage container with smooth sides. For some reason back in 2016, I chose an octagonal mason jar. It is super cute but incredibly obnoxious to mix in. And for some unknown reason, I still use it almost a decade later. Baffling. Be smarter than 2016 Lindsey.
How to Make this Sourdough Starter Recipe
Congrats! You’re already on your way to the best sourdough bread of your life. Use these instructions to make sourdough starter from scratch in just 7 days! Further details and measurements can be found in the printable recipe card below.
DAY ONE:
To get started, place your starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 100 grams whole wheat flour and 150 grams distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid or a clean kitchen towel (to allow air flow but to keep any contaminants from going into the jar). Place your jar in a warm place or on the kitchen counter and let rest for 24 hours.
DAY TWO: At this point you may see a lot of bubbles or you may see little to none. Either way, it’s good.
Place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter from Day 1, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g unbleached all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 24 hours. Discard your excess starter.
I wouldn’t recommend using your sourdough discard for another recipe yet, because it’s too young to leaven and void of flavor. There will be plenty of active discard later for sourdough waffles, but if you’re really bummed about wasting it right away, you can compost it.
DAY THREE: You are still unlikely to see too much activity — maybe a few bubbles here and there, but nothing too outrageous.
Place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 24 hours. Discard your excess starter.
DAY FOUR: Today, we might start seeing some real activity — this is exciting! You may see a few bubbles forming on the surface or throughout the starter, and it might even have a slight hint of a sour smell. If you don’t, do not worry! Some starters just take their sweet time.
Today is the first day that we’ll feed our starter twice in one day, so plan accordingly. You’ll feed your starter from here on out about every 12 hours.
In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
DAY FIVE: Today we should start seeing some serious activity in our starter — lots of bubbles, a slight sour smell, maybe even a little rise and fall. Again, if you don’t, do not panic. It’ll happen!
In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
DAY SIX: My starter basically looks identical to the way it did on day five. Let’s keep feeding!
In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
DAY SEVEN: OK, friends. Here is where the magic happens. Today, or maybe in a few days, you should start to see your starter pick up activity. There are bubbles all throughout the starter; it smells sour but in a fresh, wheat-y way and not in a pungent, off-putting way; it rises and falls predictably (usually a starter rises over the course of 10-12 hours, then plateaus for an hour or two, then begins to fall). All of these are signs that we have a mature starter.
In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 50g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 100g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
DAY EIGHT AND BEYOND: Today is a big day. Today, you’re either staring at a mature, ready-to-bake-with starter, or you’re staring at a starter that still needs some love. If the latter is your case, DO NOT FRET. I’ve been there, and I promise you with a little bit of time, patience and TLC, your beloved starter will get its act together.
IF YOUR STARTER IS RISING AND FALLING PREDICTABLY at this point, follow either an AM or PM feeding schedule depending on when you plan to make dough: If you like to make bread dough in the morning, every evening, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 20g of your starter, 100g unbleached all-purpose flour and 100g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for approximately 24 hours.
Discard your excess starter or save it to bake something fun the next morning! I am obsessed with these sourdough pancakes and my freezer is always packed with a stash of these sourdough blueberry muffins!
At this point, you can continue to feed your starter in this exact way, once a day, until you’re ready to bake your first loaf. I love a cozy loaf of cinnamon raisin sourdough bread spread with butter as celebration but that’s just me!
How do I know when the sourdough starter is ready?
If a sourdough starter is rising to at least double and then falling on a predictable schedule, in a consistent environment, then it is an excellent sign that the starter is ready to start being used in bread dough. The float test is a great visual cue that your starter is ready and it is at its peak. To perform the float test, simply drop a spoonful of starter into a glass or bowl of water and if it floats, its ready! If it sinks, it is either not yet ready to use or it has passed its peak. Just feed it as usual and try again!
How to Maintain a Sourdough Starter
There are 4 ways to store a sourdough starter. I will go into each briefly below and then dive into more details in my post How to Feed Sourdough Starter. That post explains how to feed starter no matter how you are storing it and answers a lot of questions on troubleshooting and maintenance.
- Store at room temperature for frequent bakers. Whether your room is warm or cold, you’ll want to feed a starter at room temperature once a day per the instructions for Day 8 above. A well-established starter will survive a day or two of not feeding but I recommend storing it in the fridge or freezer if you can’t commit to her daily feeding. No shade, just a strong suggestion.
- Store in the refrigerator. If you have no imminent bread making plans, and no reason to be wasting flour endlessly feeding your starter, place a fed starter in the refrigerator for 2 weeks without feeding. I always feed my starter then pop it in the fridge to ensure the yeast slow down and have access to a lot of food.
- Store in the freezer. If bi-weekly still feels like a lot, or you are going out of town, place that fed starter in the freezer for up to 2 months.
- Dehydrate your starter for long-term storage. This is a little trick I learned in professional bread school. When you are running a restaurant or a bakery that makes sourdough, you cannot be without a backup starter. Spread your fed and happy starter thin on a piece of parchment paper, then let it dry out at room temperature. Take those flakes and store them in a non-humid environment for an emergency. You can rehydrate them and have an active starter in a day or two.
Frequently Asked Questions
I purposefully do not give volume measurements for this recipe. ½ cup flour (or different flours for that matter) does not have the same mass (grams) as ½ cup water. Additionally, ¼ cup of starter will have drastically different gram measurements depending on where it is in its cycle of rising and falling. A starter at its peak will weigh less and take up less volume than a fallen starter or one that has been recently fed. It is not wrong to make a sourdough starter using cups, however, I do recommend that when feeding a starter for sourdough bread, one uses a kitchen scale for accurate and predictable results.
Yes, discarding part of the sourdough starter during each feeding is essential to the creation and maintenance of a sourdough starter. This controls the power of the starter by limiting the quantity in the new starter; it ensures that there is enough food available to feed all the yeast; and it keeps the by-products of fermentation from building up in your starter, which will affect the flavor and future fermentation.
In my personal opinion, the biggest mistake is not feeding a fledgling starter consistently. A mature, and well-established, starter can handle a few missed feedings, but not a new one or one you are trying to revive.
Very few things can truly ruin a sourdough starter. If the sourdough starter gets too hot, the yeast could die, but that probably won’t happen unless you accidentally preheat your oven with the starter inside. The other, more likely scenario, is that you don’t feed it for too long and they yeast don’t have enough food. They will eventually die especially at room temperature.
A bubbling by not rising sourdough starter means one of two things: you have an active but probably too wet starter, or you haven’t given it enough time to rise in your environment. The colder the room, the longer it takes. It is perfectly normal for a starter to take 14-16 hours to double if the room is cold.
That substance is alcohol and water, which are actually the bi-product of fermentation. It is called a “hooch,” and it simply means it has run out of food and is beyond ready to eat. You can either stir it in or pour it off, which is what I do.
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below! I love hearing from you and your comments make my day!
sourdough starter recipe
Ingredients
- whole wheat flour
- unbleached all-purpose flour
- water, distilled or tap
Instructions
- DAY ONE: To get started, place your starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 100 grams whole wheat flour and 150 grams distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid or a clean kitchen towel (to allow air flow but to keep any contaminants from going into the jar). Place your jar in a warm place or on the kitchen counter and let rest for 24 hours.
- DAY TWO: Place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter from Day 1, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g unbleached all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 24 hours. Discard your excess starter.
- DAY THREE: Place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 24 hours. Discard your excess starter.
- DAY FOUR: Today is the first day that we’ll feed our starter twice in one day, so plan accordingly. You’ll feed your starter from here on out about every 12 hours.
- In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
- In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
- DAY FIVE: In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
- In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
DAY SIX:
- In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 75g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 125g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
- In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
- DAY SEVEN: In the morning, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 50g of your starter, 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 100g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for 12 hours. Discard your excess starter.
- In the evening, repeat the process exactly as written above.
- DAY EIGHT AND BEYOND: IF YOUR STARTER IS RISING AND FALLING PREDICTABLY at this point, follow either an AM or PM feeding schedule depending on when you plan to make dough: If you like to make bread dough in the morning, every evening, place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 20g of your starter, 100g unbleached all-purpose flour and 100g distilled water at room temperature. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the starter jar with a lid, and place somewhere warm or on the kitchen counter for approximately 24 hours.
- At this point, you can continue to feed your starter in this exact way, once a day, until you’re ready to bake your first loaf.
Notes
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!Before You Go
Now that you have your very own sourdough starter, you are ready to bake any and all of my sourdough recipes! My personal favorites are sourdough cinnamon rolls and my whole wheat sourdough bread recipe!
How would I make a gf sourdough starter? Recipe please?
Hey Jeannine! I hate to be the barer of bad news, but yeast consume the glutenous flour and convert it to sugar and alcohol. You can’t make a gluten free sourdough starter. The fermentation process, especially long fermentation, does alter the gluten structure and makes it more tolerable for some people with gluten intolerances to consume, however, that does not make it gluten free. ~Chef Lindsey
Yes, I’m also looking for it. I hope we can find it or someone will help us:)
Thanks for the tutorial 🙂
what happened to the pdf though…it says it went 404! Did you remove it?
Hi dear,I am making sourdough starter from scratch, the volume of the starter tripled on the first day!and today was second day, it was above tripled!!Is that okay?I used 30%rye flour and 70% all purpose flour
I’ve use rye flour also to start it in the inital phase. Rye flour typically will rise immediately; don’t worry, it is normal.