Here are my best tips on sourdough starter!
The MOST important thing about making sourdough is your starter. This is your yeast for your bread. If you don’t have it, your bread won’t rise.
Sourdough was really hard for me to learn. It is not like your normal bread baking. It’s a new way of learning how to bake bread! But, I actually like baking sourdough a lot more than regular bread, now that I have it figured out. More times than not, my sourdough bread turns out! And I struggle with baking regular breads!
Read over my tips about sourdough starter and don’t forget to read how I like to feed my sourdough starter!
What does “feeding Your starter” even mean? Your starter is an active living thing that needs to be fed to stay alive. So that’s what you’re doing, feeding it, just with flour and water! By feeding it you keep it alive, happy, bubbly and smelling good.
Use your starter when it’s peaked. That’s when it is the strongest which will make your bread rise. If you don’t use it at its peak you will have a hard lump of bread! That was my biggest issue when I was learning! I was so frustrated, but I didn’t read anything about a peak. So when you feed your starter it will grow (rise/peak) then it will sink or fall down. This can be anywhere from 6-24 hours later! You will get your starter figured out and know for the most part when it will peak. I know I can feed mine a “bulk” feeding in the morning and start using it in the late afternoon or I can feed it a “bulk” feeding at night and start using it in the morning.
You will want to keep the flour you feed it the same, if you switch to a different kind, give it a few days to get used to it. Some people will use different types of flour together. Like bread flour and whole wheat or rye. As long as you keep the main flour the same!
There are two kinds of feedings. A “bulk feeding” is when you feed your sourdough a lot to use for Baking. Also there is a “maintain feeding” that is when you feed just a little amount to keep your sourdough happy and strong.
You can test your starter to make sure it’s ready to use by doing a float test. Just take a small amount about a teaspoon and put it in a cup of water and see if it floats. If it floats it’s ready to be used! (although I have used it when it hasn’t floated and my bread was fine. So I don’t always go by this. But if it does float it is ready!)
Starter likes a warm environment around 75-80 degrees so if you have a colder kitchen put your jar on the fridge or next to your coffee machine if it’s warmer there. There are “warming plates/pads” you can buy for this! Winter and summer months will change the way your starter grows. So you may need to change your feedings to more or less. My feeding tends to be 1x/24 hours in the winter and 2x/24 hours in the summer.
The weather can affect your starter! If there is a storm coming in your starter may take extra time to grow.
You can store your starter on the counter and feed it daily. Or you can store it in the fridge and feed it when you use it. I prefer mine on the counter because I use it 3x a week. Storing it in the fridge: keep about 1/4-1/2 cup starter in a sealed sealed container (larger than 1/2 cup for feedings) when you want to use it, take it out of the fridge, scoop out half to “bulk feed” in a separate jar (you may need to give it 2-3 feeding to get it nice and active again so it may need to be out for 24 hours before your able to use it,) put the rest that you will put back into the fridge a “maintain feeding”. You will always have the “maintain feeding” in the fridge, just remember that half is to use and half is to put back in the fridge).
Storing it in the fridge may give it more of a sour taste. Storing it on the counter and feeding it daily can give it more of a fresh, lighter taste. But the taste of it also has so many other factors I don’t even know about!
If you forget to feed your starter it will start to smell bad and have watery stuff on top. Don’t throw it away! Pour off the watery stuff and take out about a spoonful and start feeding it again 2x a day until you’ve made it happy again! Storing it in the fridge you may see more water on top. I’ve forgot to feed mine for a week on the counter and was spectacul about it. But I fed it for a few days and brought it back to being bubbly and active! Or if it has dried out in your jar, put a little water on it until you’re able to take a little out and start feeding it or if you can take a little dried piece off and put it in a small amount of water until it softens then start feeding it! You will be surprised at how neglected a sourdough starter can come back alive!
When your starter seems to not be doing well and you have been feeding it regularly and it just seems to be slugglish. Try watching and feed your Sourdough when it is peaked that will make it stronger. Ideally feeding every 12 hours is best! If you end up doing less, and your sourdough just seems to be slacking, give it an extra feeding with some wheat flour, it will give it a little extra boost.
The hardest thing about your starter is when do I feed my starter a “bulk feeding” so I know when to start using it for my baking? This has been a learning game! Here’s what I do, I either feed my starter a “bulk feeding” in the early morning 6am-7ish and I’ll be able to start my mixing with it in the late afternoon and have my dough do a bulk rise during the night and bake it in the morning OR I feed my starter a “bulk feeding” right before bed 9pm-10 and I’ll be able to start my mixing with it in the morning and let it bulk rise during the day and bake right before bed.
Why is every recipe in grams!? I was so confused seeing all the grams and no cups! But it makes sense! Then everything is equal, there is no guessing if I put enough flour or too much. Just measure it out and I have never had an issue. Me, measuring out 1 cup of flour may equal 380 grams of flour and your 1 cup of flour may equal 320 grams. So weighing your ingredients on a scale makes it all the same!
Understanding your starter will greatly improve your bread. Though I don’t fully understand everything about mine, I know around when it will peak. So feed it in the morning and watch it during the day to see how many hours it will take before it starts to fall back down. It doesn’t fall fast once it peaks, so don’t be scared if you don’t use it right away, it will sit there for a bit before going down and hour or two.
Now that I know how to take care of my starter and when the best time to use my starter I have been having so much fun making sourdough bread and I hope you do to!
I hope these tips help you learn about your starter!
