The Starter

The most daunting prospect of baking sourdough; the most important.

Whenever you find the perfect,vsourdough recipe one ingredient will without a doubt feature- a ‘starter’ but what actually is it?

A starter is what starts the entire fermentation process which leads to all of the delicious baking you’re about to embark upon. For some, the prospect of maintaining this thriving community of natural yeasts is too daunting, but it really needn’t be!

In baking, we need a rising agent- for most breads, this comes as dried (instant) yeast, in cakes we reach for eggs and bicarbonate compounds, but in sourdough, we reach to nature (and pray- a lot!).

Everything in nature contains wild yeasts- I mean everything! Your favourite flowers, fruits, vegetables and even the air itself! Yeast is everywhere, our job is to capture this ‘wild yeast’and cultivate it into something which we can substitute for our commercial raising agent.

Not only are there proven health benefits of sourdough bakes thanks to these wild microorganisms, but their cultivation and use provides us with depths of flavours and textures which cannot be rivalled by any commercial products.

So how do I catch them? A net? A bowl with water and sugar? A magnet?! Flour.

Luckily, your number one baking ingredient is teeming with yeasts! The abundance and species composition of these will of course vary by region and flour choice, however, you should be able to cultivate a strong culture from most commercial flours in your pantry.

Flour Choice

When it comes to flour choice, there are literally thousands of combinations you could try.

Some bakers swear by their feeding and starting recipes and routines and won’t accept any different, however, the truth is that we can make a culture from just about anything, because remember- yeast is everywhere.

There are however a few key rules.

The flour you use should ideally not have any additives, meaning if you are in the UK, self-raising wouldn’t be appropriate. Plus, you’re defeating the purpose of your entire journey of trying to cultivate a raising agent.

I always recommend starting with organic flours. This is because you know there are no additives, and combined with the minimal processing, your yeast population in these is likely to be higher and you will find it easier to get starter.

When it comes to what flour to use, that’s totally up to you!

White (bread) flour, wholewheat and rye are always sound options which provide great results. You can always experiment with the ratios and don’t ever have to stick to a single feeding routine! I have also had great success with spelt and khorosan flours (I will include recipes for these bakes in the recipe section).

Starting and feeding

Ok, so you’ve selected your flour(s) now what?

Easy.

For this starter recipe, I have selected organic white and wholewheat flour. I have found this combination to never have failed and it provides a strong starter which has been ready to bake with within 1-2 weeks. The longer for which the starter matures, the more reliable and better your bakes will be, however, it’s important to fail a few times- so you understand the whole process!

Day 1

50g Wholewheat Flour

50g White Flour

100g Lukewarm Water

Mix all your ingredients together, place in a glass jar and place in a warm place (on tp of the fridge is usually ideal and is where mine has always lived!)

Day 2

100g Starter Mixture (from previous day)

50g Wholewheat Flour

50g White Flour

100g Lukewarm Water

From Day 1, discard 100g of your mixture and use the rest for Day 2. This process will be repeated for the next few days.

Day 3 + 4

Same as Day 2

At this point you will most likely see bubbles and even maybe a bit of a rise. Sorry to disappoint, but this initial activity is most likely from natural bacteria which will thrive whilst your mixture is still at a high pH; not from yeast. This is completely normal and often a promising sign, but you won’t get anywhere if you try to bake with your starter at this point. As the pH falls and the mixture becomes more acidic, these bacteria will die and your yeast population will become more abundant- PERSEVERE!

Day 5 + 6

70g Starter Mixture (from previous day)

50g Wholewheat Flour

50g White Flour

100g Lukewarm Water

Day 7 to Infinity

50g Starter Mixture (from previous day)

50g Wholewheat Flour

50g White Flour

100g Lukewarm Water

You’ve done it! You have taken the first steps to creating a thriving starter. At this point, your starter may already be showing some regular activity and might be ready to bake with. You can definitely give it a go! But don’t be disheartened if the bake isn’t great, your starter is still young and will develop over the coming weeks and months.

If at this point your starter still isn’t very active, don’t despair and continue with the day 7+ feeding routine. It took 2.5 weeks for my first ever starter to begin rising predictably and bake anything resembling a loaf! You will get there!

Maintenance

Your starter is alive!

Nurture it like a child, it is the fruit of your continuous love and attention, now to make sure you don’t undo all your hard work!

Maintenance is easy, just follow the day 7+ feeding routine. How often depends on how often you bake.

I bake a loaf probably 3-4 times a week, so I feed my starter everyday (some even do every 12 hours, but once it’s healthy there is realy no need).

If you only intend to bake 1-2 times a week or less, you can store your starter in the fridge. If doing this, I would recommend feeding, placing in the fridge for upto 5 days, removing and allowing to sit at room temp for at least 3 hours then feeding and placing back in the fridge. When you want to use it, just remove from the fridge and feed the night before.

If you want to preserve it for longer term, you can also dry the starter and store it this way as the yeast will form spores in unfavourable conditions and ‘hibernate’ until those conditions arise. To ‘wake it up’ again, just rehydrate and feed following the standard day 7 routine (+ the grams of water equivalent to dry mixture).

When to bake?

So your starter is ready but when do you use it?

Once you have a predictable rise and fall, you can time your feeds accordingly to select it at its most active point.

For my starter, I know that roughly 4-6 hours after feeding, it will reach its peak, and so if I want to prepare my levain in the early afternoon, I will feed my starter at 8am which is usual for me, but do whatever works for you! I will have more details on making the levain and getting to the bake in other blog posts which I will link here.

And that’s it! Hopefully this has helped in getting you started on your sourdough journey. Don’t hesitate to send me any questions which you may have!