How to Make a Sourdough Starter!

There are very few tools you need to start a sourdough starter. Some recipes will tell you to use grapes, yeast, honey, or other ingredients. From my experiment, I learned that honey does not make a starter work any better (I've never tried grapes - but if it works without them, why use them?). Using yeast defeats the purpose of making a starter - except for a few exceptions, you shouldn't need to add any yeast.

The tools are:
- A clear, glass measuring cup works really well. I also used glass canning jars, but they were difficult to reach into. I would suggest using at least a 4 cup size. Avoid anything metal or aluminum.
- Spatulas are also very helpful - sometimes even two. The starter can get sticky!
- Measuring cups. You will need a 1/4 cup and a 1/8 cup (or a Tablespoon).

The ingredients are:
- Flour. To start, you will use whole wheat flour. Eventually, you can switch to plain, unbleached white flour. Never use bleached flour. Try to use as unrefined and high quality flours as possible.
- Water. You probably don't need special water, unless your tap water is really poor. Generally, I'd use whatever water you use to drink.

The recipe for your starter is as follows. I found this recipe here.

Sourdough Starter Recipe
1/4 cups water
3/8 cups whole wheat flour (yes, really whole wheat) - this is just 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons
-Mix the two ingredients together and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

That's it! Now just set it aside in a warm (not hot) place for about 12 hours. After 12 hours, look to see if your starter has started bubbling yet. If not, stir it and let it sit for another 12 hours. If it has, "feed" your starter 1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup whole wheat flour. If your starter isn't bubbling after 24 hours, try feeding it. This helped mine get going.

Check your starter every 12 hours. If it is active, stir and "feed" it. You can tell your starter is active by the bubbling. It will also grow - sometimes up to twice the size! That is why it is helpful to use a glass measuring cup - you can see exactly how much it has grown and what is going on inside.

After about the second or third "feeding," your starter will be pretty large. At the next feeding, dump out half of the starter. "Feed" the remaining portion the 1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup whole wheat flour. Your starter should start to smell sour by this point.

Continue "feeding" the starter after 12 hours if the starter is active. After about 3 days of "feedings," you can begin to introduce unbleached white flour. Your starter will be ready to use after a week of activity - wait until it is consistently bubbling and rising.

Don't worry about doing it correctly! People have been creating sourdough starters for over 3000 thousand years. It doesn't have to be an exact science.

If a yellowish liquid forms on the top of the starter - don't panic! That is called hooch. It is a byproduct of the fermenting process. Try to drain as much off as you can. Stir the rest in. The picture here is an example of what hooch looks like.

After the starter is active for about a week, you can keep it in the fridge. It only needs to be fed every couple of weeks once its in the fridge. You will have to reactivate it prior to using it - the cookbook you find a recipe in should tell you how to do this.