What is sourdough bread?
A dough that is leavened with natural yeast. You can go to SelfReliantLife.tv/005 and watch Episode 5 – Flour and Yeast In Bread for more information.
What is a sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter is a little bit of dough (sort of–sometimes you might add more flour to make your dough, but not always) that you hold back to make more bread. In order to keep it alive, you’ll need to feed it.
How to make a sourdough starter
Grab a non-airtight container. The yeast will need to breathe so you don’t want anything that is airtight. You’ll need to make sure that the container is big enough for the yeast to expand when they are active. I like to use glass so I can see what’s going on.
The easiest way to start a sourdough starter
Find a friend that has a sourdough starter and ask them for a scoop of their starter. Then bring it home and feed it, then continue to build it up by feeding it for a few days without removing any of the starter.
How to start a sourdough starter from scratch
To Make Starter/First Day
Mix 3 T of flour and 2 T of pineapple juice in your sourdough container. Cover loosely and then stir two or three times throughout the day.
Note: You can also use apple cider vinegar, but I prefer to use pineapple juice for the extra sugar
Day 2
Add
3 T of flour
2 T of water
Stir 2 times
Day 3
Add
3 T of flour
2 T of water
Stir 2 times
Day 4
Add
3 T of flour
2 T of water
Stir 2 times
Day 5
Add
3 T of flour
2 T of water
Stir 2 times
Day 6
Your starter should smell like sourdough, which smells like dough but is a little acidic, and the dough should have bubbles.
Now you’ll probably want to take some of the sourdough out because you don’t want to fill up the jar too much. At this point, you’ll want to start feeding your starter twice a day – 3 T flour and 2 T of water for another week or two. Then you’ll be ready to bake with it. The longer you have a starter the stronger it gets. You can actually start cooking with it as soon as it has bubbles, but you might want to just ease into taking care of your starter and letting it get strong before you start to bake with it.
Each day you’ll take out a few tablespoons and then add your flour and water mixture stir it and scrape down the sides. You can put it in the refrigerator but I’d would encourage you to keep it on the counter because it will be a stronger culture. After some time it will be strong enough to go into the refrigerator when you go out of town or need to leave it for a few days.
As your starter grows stronger you can move to a 1 to 1 ratio by volume so you can give it 3 tablespoons of water to 3 tablespoons of flour for feedings. You’ll want to vary this according to your favorite recipes and how you build your starter up for those. But to just maintain a starter you can quickly give it a few tablespoons of flour and water. In a pinch, you don’t even have to take any out if you’re in a hurry.
Be sure to feed it at least twice a day. You might even consider feeding 3 times a day if you don’t like the sour tangy taste of sourdough in your recipes.
To get ready to bake
To build it up for a recipe you’ll want to add more flour than water. However, it’s not a hard and fast rule. The consensus is equal parts by weight but again it depends on your recipe. You don’t want to feed your starter more than 3 times its volume. So if you have a 1 cup starter then you would not want to add more than 3 cups of flour and 3 cups of water. If you had a 2 cup starter than you would not add more than 6 cups.
What is that liquid on the top?
The liquid that forms on the top when a starter needs to be feed is called hooch and is what makes the sourdough extra sour. So I always remove that part if it forms on the top when I feed my starter. However if you like sour and tangy feel free to mix it back into the starter. If you continually have a lot of liquid you might either increase the amount of flour or decrease the amount of liquid you feed your starter.
To make something with your sourdough starter
If you would like to make something like pancakes you can use your starter whenever you are ready to make the pancakes. If you want to make bread you’ll need to wait until the starter is bubbly so it will help the bread rise. There are some exceptions and it depends on what kind of bread you’re making as well. You’ll also need to build your starter up. Usually, this is done the day before. So instead of adding 2 or 3 T of flour and water, you’ll add 2 to 3 cups until you get the amount of sourdough you need for your baking recipes.
Where to store your starter
As I mentioned above you can keep your starter in the fridge and pull it out once a week. If you do that it will oxidize and have a sort of blackish/purplish liquid. This is fine just pour it off and feed it as normal. In my experience, refrigerated starters are not as strong as the ones kept on the counter. I’ve only kept starters in the refrigerator when I’ve gone out of town, or as a back up when I thought I might lose one. For example, when it was necessary for one of my boys babysit my starter.
Even if you eventually plan to keep your starter in the fridge the longer you can keep it on the counter the stronger it will be, 1 month, 6 months a year. Then you can put in the refrigerator or freeze or dehydrate.
