How to make a Sourdough Starter

February 27, 2015

Homemade Sourdough

Sourdough bread simply tastes great. In Austria there are numerous (mostly small) bakeries, which are selling real sourdough bread. My parents would always buy such bread, believing that there is not only a difference in taste compared to conventional bread, but also in moisture and increased shelf-life. So when David and I moved to Boston last summer, something was missing. Li’l Vienna, you got it! No, but seriously, we missed dark bread. If you are used to eating it every single day this feeling doesn’t disappear within a week. That’s why I started baking bread (see recipe for the one and only Li’l Vienna Rye Sourdough Bread).

Little Vienna Rye Sourdough Bread

 

The first attempts

Once into it, the next step after basic yeast bread was the sourdough challenge. Making a fresh batch of sourdough starter is as easy as stirring together some flour and water and letting it sit. So I tried it and started my own sourdough – in all, I started it 3 times. One time I kept it simply too hot – well, it was a hot summer and I had placed it on our small balcony table outside, resulting in an unbearable smell. At that time I didn’t know if that smell was normal. Since I read before, that sourdough can really get smelly, I kept on feeding it for a while, but the disgusting odor wouldn’t go away, so I finally discarded it.

The next time I used too little flour and water because I didn’t want to end up with 2 lbs of sourdough when finished. Didn’t work out either. But all good things come in threes. I started another starter in September 2014, since then my rye sourdough starter is alive. And so is my all-purpose starter, which I made a couple of days later at the height of my sourdough-fever.

For the first months, I wouldn’t dare to use the sourdough as the only leavening, having read that it may be weak in the beginning, so I added some yeast to my recipes. But after a month or so, the starter should be strong enough to be the only leavening. If you do so, the only thing you have to pay attention to, is the sourdough-flour-ratio. A certain amount of flour needs a certain amount of sourdough to manage the leavening.

But for now, let’s get started with your rye starter.

how to make a sourdough starter from scratch

Day 1: Make the initial starter.
Day 2: You may see some small bubbles.
Day 3: The starter is dotted with bubbles and is visibly larger in volume.
Day 4: Between day 3 and 4 it has doubled in volume (and collapsed), it will look very bubbely. Due to the thin starter, sometimes there will be a watery line, called hooch (see explanation below).
Day 5: Still very bubbely, feed it one last time and use it 6-24 hours after.

Making your sourdough starter

First of all: You have to start 5 days before you want to bake sourdough bread. For example, if you want to bake on a Saturday morning, you will have to start by Monday evening. This recipe is for a rye starter. If you want to make an all purpose starter, you will need less water (50 g flour/50 g water from day 1 to 5).

The following instructions call for 50 g flour and 100 g water. If you are more familiar with measuring in cups, use 1/2 cup flour, respectively 1/2 cup water instead.

Day 1: Place 50 g of rye flour (I’m using organic rye flour from Arrowhead mills) into a medium sized mixing bowl or jar and add 100 g of warm water. A transparent plastic or glass jar (not metal) with at least 1 quart is best, since you can watch your starter growing bubbles. Beat to a creamy batter and cover with a lid to keep the moisture in. Leave it for 24 hours without disturbance. Don’t put it on a place too hot – like onto a radiator. I left mine in the cool kitchen (it will be happiest between 65 and 75 °F or 20 °C).

Day 2:  Add another 50 g of rye flour and 100 g warm water, mix until well combined and set aside for 24 hours.

Day 3: Add 50 g rye flour and 100 g warm water and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours.

Day 4: Add 50 g rye flour and 100 g warm water and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours.

Day 5: Add 50 g rye flour but NO water. Stir well. You can use the starter 6 hours after the feeding (up to 24 hours later). Now you have 650 g rye starter (250 g flour and 400 g water).

You can use your sourdough on day 5 (6 hours after feeding, or up to 24 hours). For my rye-sourdough bread, which I developed over the last months (recipe here), you will need 200 g (about 1 cup) sourdough. And what to do with the rest? Either bake another bread or discard it, but keep 1-2 tablespoons for maintaining your starter. You can also freeze any left over. Just bring the frozen dough back to room temperature and give it one good feed, let it rest at room temperature for at least 12 hours, then it will be ready to bake with.

Maintaining your sourdough starter

Once ready, your starter will improve and get stronger with age. Since I want to keep a rye starter, I only feed my starter with rye flour.

After day 5 you have a lot of sourdough. Set 1 tablespoon aside in a glass or plastic jar and put it in the fridge. You can use the rest for baking bread. In the first 1-2 weeks you will have to feed your starter more often in order for it to gain strength. I did so every other day. Put it out of the fridge, let it get to room temperature and feed it with 30 g rye flour and 50 g warm water. Let it ripen for about 10-15 hours (I usually do overnight), until doubled or even tripled in volume. Put it back into the fridge. 2 days later take it out of the fridge, discard all but 1 tablespoon, feed it with 30 g rye flour and 50 g warm water. Let it ripen, then put it back into the fridge. If you plan on baking something, you can use the ripe sourdough instead of discarding it. The best moment to use it for baking, is the moment when it starts to collapse again (after 10-15 hours at room temperature). That said, I always got good results, even when used before collapsing. With 50 g flour and 83 g water you will get 100 g sourdough to bake and about 30 g (2 tablespoons) to keep as starter.

Put the starter in the fridge again and use the rest for baking. If you need more sourdough you have to feed your starter with the amount flour and water needed. But keep in mind that it will take longer to ripen or you have to put it in a slightly warmer place. The speed of the ripening depends on three factors: The temperature, the amount of starter you are using and the amount of flour and water you add. If you are using 1 tablespoon starter and only add 2 tablespoons of flour and some water, you will have a ready-to-bake sourdough (even though a very small amount) in a couple of hours. If you let it ripen at warm room temperature, this process will even be faster. If you add a lot of flour and water, let’s say 1 cup of flour and accordingly water, the ripening process will take longer. As a rule of thumb you will need 10 % starter, which means: If your recipe calls for 1/2 cup (100 g) sourdough, you should feed 1 tablespoon of starter (10-15 g) with 1/3 cup (45 g) rye flour and 1/4 cup +1 tbsp (75 g) water. Use up all but 1-2 tablespoons of the sourdough to keep as starter in the fridge.

Which type of flour for a sourdough starter?

Wild yeast is the key ingredient to activate your starter. Wild yeast is present in all types of flour. However, I would not suggest using bleached ones. In this recipe, I am using rye flour, but below you will also find the instructions for a starter using unbleached all-purpose flour. The easiest way to make a starter is simply by combining flour and water and letting it sit for several days. You don’t need any additional ingredients to get the wild yeast going.

Why discarding sourdough?

Sourdough needs something to eat, namely flour. If you have 1 tablespoon of starter (ripe sourdough) and feed it with 1/3 cup flour and 1/3 cup water, let it ripen and you will end up with a lot more ripe sourdough (= starter), let’s assume 3/4 cup. This amount of starter will soon be hungry and will need accordingly more flour to eat. You would have to feed it with 4 cups of flour, conditions being equal, to satisfy its needs. That means, if you are not discarding (or baking with) some of your starter, you will end up with huge amounts of sourdough.

I reduced the amount of starter to the minimum and only added 50 g flour (a good 1/3 cup) and 100 g water (1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon) a day. This is the absolute minimum. A lot of recipes add 1 cup of flour per day, but this would mean discarding a lot of dough.

Sourdough hydration

With the following recipe you will get a very hydrated sourdough of 167 %, meaning the sourdough consists of 60 g flour and 100 g water (ratio of water to flour in percent). This is a very thin mixture, but I like it this way, since it is easier to handle when mixing it with the other bread ingredients. A lot of recipes are using a 100 % hydration (100 g water/100 g flour). It’s up to you. You can follow my instructions to get your first sourdough, and if you think that the sourdough is too thin for your needs, you can change the level of hydration with every feeding. Different recipes call for different ratios of flour and water in your sourdough. To use this starter in any recipe, take a look at the ratio of flour and water the recipe is calling for in their starter, and feed yours accordingly.

Hooch: The waterline in sourdough

Have you seen the watery line in the pictures of day 3 and 4? This “watery line”, called hooch, is formed when a starter is fed too little (amount of flour) or too infrequently. It’s more common in thin starters, because there isn’t much food (flour) in the starter compared to a thicker starter. The starter eats all the food and if it has finished, it throws off hooch. When you are in the process of creating a starter, this doesn’t matter. Just stir it in with the next feeding. If you want to keep your (small amount) of starter in the fridge for a longer time, it’s a good idea to mix in a little extra flour, so it needs longer to eat it.

I sometimes find a small layer of hooch on top of my starter, when I haven’t fed it in a while – 2 weeks or so. I always handle it in the following way: If it’s a lot of hooch, I pour it off and feed the starter. If its just a tiny bit, I stir it in when feeding.

How to make a Sourdough Starter

How to make a Sourdough Starter

Ingredients

    Rye Sourdough Starter
  • Day 1: 50 g rye flour and 100 g warm water (or 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup water)
  • Day 2: 50 g rye flour and 100 g warm water
  • Day 3: 50 g rye flour and 100 g warm water
  • Day 4: 50 g rye flour and 100 g warm water
  • Day 5: 50 g rye flour, no water
  • All purpose Sourdough Starter (with unbleached all-purpose flour)
  • Day 1: 50 g AP flour and 50 g warm water (1/3 cup flour, 3 tbsp. water)
  • Day 2: 50 g AP flour and 50 g warm water
  • Day 3: 50 g AP flour and 50 g warm water
  • Day 4: 50 g AP flour and 50 g warm water
  • Day 5: 50 g AP flour and 50 g warm water

Instructions

    Recipe for the Starter
  1. Start 5 days before you want to bake sourdough bread. For example, if you want to bake on a Saturday morning, you will have to start by Monday evening. This recipe is for a rye starter. If you want to make an all purpose starter, you will need less water (50 g flour/50 g water from day 1 to 5)
  2. Day 1: Place 50 g (or 1/2 cup) of rye flour (I’m using organic rye flour from Arrowhead mills) into a medium sized mixing bowl or jar and add 100 g (or 1/2 cup) of warm water. A transparent plastic or glass jar (not metal) with at least 1 quart is best, since you can watch your starter growing bubbles. Beat to a creamy batter and cover with a lid to keep the moisture in. Leave it for 24 hours without disturbance. Don’t put it on a place too hot – like onto a radiator. I left mine in the cool kitchen (it will be happiest between 65 and 75 °F or 20 °C).
  3. Day 2: Add another 50 g (or 1/2 cup) of rye flour and 100 g (or 1/2 cup) warm water, mix until well combined and set aside for 24 hours. The starter will change its smell (fresh & yeasty).
  4. Day 3: Add 50 g (or 1/2 cup) rye flour and 100 g (or 1/2 cup) warm water and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours. It will smell somehow sour.
  5. Day 4: Add 50 g (or 1/2 cup) rye flour and 100 g (or 1/2 cup) warm water and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours. It will smell quite sour.
  6. Day 5: Add 50 g (or 1/2 cup) rye flour but NO water. Stir well. The starter will smell smoky (or at least mine does, like bacon or smoked tofu). You can use the starter 6 hours after the feeding (up to 24 hours later). Now you have 650 g (250 g flour and 400 g water) of sourdough or nearly 4 cups rye sourdough.
  7. Day 5 or 6: Bake bread
  8. Maintaining your sourdough starter
  9. After day 5 days you have a lot of sourdough. Set 1 tablespoon aside in a glass or plastic jar and put it in the fridge. With the rest you can bake bread.
  10. The first 1-2 weeks: Feed your starter every second day with 30 g (1/4 cup) rye flour and 50 g (3 tbsp. + 1 tsp.) warm water. Let it ripen for about 10-15 hours (I usually do overnight), until doubled or even tripled in volume. Put it back into the fridge. 2 days later take it out of the fridge, discard all but 1 tablespoon, feed it with 30 g (1/4 cup) rye flour and 50 g g (3 tbsp. + 1 tsp.) warm water. Let it ripen, then put it back into the fridge. Instead of discarding you can bake bread with the fed starter (but you will probably need more, see instructions).
  11. Week 3-5: After the first 2 weeks of excessive feeding, reduce feeding to once weekly over the next 3 weeks.
  12. After 5 weeks, you can reduce feeding your starter to twice a month. In that case, keep at least 2 tablespoons of starter in your fridge, because even when covered, it tends to get dry.
  13. Baking bread
  14. Take your starter (1-2 tablespoons) out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature.
  15. Feed it with the amount of flour and water needed. Good recipes tell you which amount of flour and water you have to feed your starter with. For example: If your recipe calls for 1 cup (200 g) freshly fed sourdough, you have to feed your starter with 2/3 cups rye flour (80 g) and 1/2 cup water (120 g) if you want a very hydrated sourdough (150 %). A lot of recipes call for the same amount of flour and water (measured in weight = 100 % hydration), which would be 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp. (100 g) rye flour and 1/3 cup plus 1 ½ tbsp. (100 g) water.
  16. After having fed your starter with flour and water, let it rest at room temperature for 8-15 hours (depending on your room temperature and amount of starter you have used) until it doubles or triples in volume. I usually do this step overnight.
  17. When your sourdough just starts to collapse, it’s ready to bake (if it has doubled/tripled in volume you can also use it, I usually don’t wait for it to collapse).
  18. Mix your ripe sourdough with the rest of your bread ingredients and let it ferment according to your recipe. If you have a very young sourdough, a couple of weeks old, add a tiny amount of yeast (active dry yeast dissolved in water first) to make sure, it has enough leavening-power. Bake your bread.
https://www.lilvienna.com/how-to-make-sourdough-starter/

Did you follow this recipe? You could share your result here. All you need to do is take a picture with your smartphone and send it to [email protected]

Little Vienna Rye Sourdough Bread

How to make a Sourdough Starter was last modified: June 13th, 2015 by Ursula

16 thoughts on “How to make a Sourdough Starter

  1. Rachel (teacher-chef)

    I LOVE a good sourdough but so many starter recipes I have seen do not seem to give enough information for me to feel confident (OR they require daily work which I just do not want to commit to – I already have a husband, a dog, and a baby on the way – thats enough daily work for me). This recipe for your starter just looks perfect!! Can’t wait to check out the breads you make with it as well – good Austrian sourdough bread :-)

    Reply
    1. Ursula Post author

      Hi Rachel,
      yes, I am a huge sourdough fan too! It just tastes better than conventional bread… I have to admit, making your own sourdough is a little work in the beginning, but once it’s strong, I only feed it every 2 or 3 weeks. That’s ok for me. And a huge pro is, that this recipe is waste-free. I will post a really, really good bread in a couple of days, so stay tuned ;-)
      Ursula

      Update March 5, 2015: Here is the link to the Li’l Vienna Rye Sourdough Bread. Enjoy!

      Reply
  2. Terica

    I made this recipe- it didn’t work for me! I am so frustrated with Sour Dough! The crust was paper like and the dough did not have oven spring.

    Reply
    1. Ursula Post author

      Hi Terica, Oh no, I am so sorry that it didn’t work. I know how frustrating it can be if a recipe doesn’t work – all the work and all the wasted ingredients…. Did you make the Rye Sourdough Bread? This always works so well when I make it, maybe we can troubleshoot, if you are willing to give the recipe another try…..? It sounds like the sourdough (did you use rye sourdough?) wasn’t strong enough. How old is your sourdough? Did you add some additional yeast as mentioned in the recipe (only needed with young sourdough)? I really hope you will give this recipe another try since the bread really tastes delicious. Sorry for your troubles!
      Ursula
      ps: you can also reach me here: [email protected]

      Reply
  3. Jazzeyra A Jailani

    Hi there,

    Thank God! I found this blogpost, it really helps to understand more the process, but I have one question for you. Rather than keep the starter in the fridge (because I have limited space in the fridge but large freezer compartment), how to keep the starter in the freezer? is it still alive after thawing it for hours and need to feed it?

    Love from Malaisie

    Reply
    1. Ursula Post author

      Hi,
      I freeze a tiny bit of my all purpose flour starter (1 or 2 tablespoons) every 2 months, just in case I forget my starter in the fridge and it gets mouldy (that happened once…). So I usually freeze it in a tiny container (you can even use tin foil or parchment paper). It will freeze to a block but you will still be able to cruble it. So I simply removed it from the freezer (I didn’t thaw it), mixed it with water until dissolved completely and mixed in the flour and let stand overnight. What I noticed is that the starter needed somehow longer to double/triple its volume when you feed it from the freezer. But other than that, it shouldn’t be a problem to freeze it. I hope this helps! Good luck!

      Reply
    1. Ursula Post author

      Sure, not problem at all. They are interchangeable. Most people do have AP-flour at home (as do I), so I went with AP-flour. Are you thinking of making your own starter? Yay!

      Reply
        1. Ursula Post author

          Omg, so sorry for my late reply. Yes, on day 5 you do add water if you are making an AP or bread flour starter. Not if you are following the recipe for a rye starter, where more water is added in the days before.

          It’s too late now but I saw on Instagram, that your bread looks wonderful. I hope you have fun baking!

          Reply
  4. Mariana

    Hey Ursula,
    thank you very much for the description, it is very useful!
    I’m wondering: in the end, I have 650g sourdough starter but your bread recipe only asks for 20g.
    What am I supposed to do with the rest? Is there a way to make the 600g (keep 50g in the fridge) into a bread?
    Thanks a lot,
    Mariana

    Reply
    1. Ursula Post author

      Hi Mariana. So sorry for my late reply. I have been on vacation and didn’t check the comments…. So you usually do need around 200-300 g (about 1 cup) of sourdough to bake a sourdough bread. For example in this recipe, it’s 200 g: https://www.lilvienna.com/lil-vienna-rye-sourdough-bread-no-knead/

      When you are making a sourdough from scratch for the first time, you’ll have a lot of sourdough, I know. So even if you bake one loaf of sourdough bread, you’ll have to discard some of it. Don’t forget to put aside 2 Tablespoons or so for your next bread. I still consider this recipe for sourdough as very low waste recipe since with others, you’ll have to discard a lot of sourdough during the making.

      What you can also do is adding some of the sourdough to a waffle or pancake batter (just for the taste, not for leavening). Hope this helps…

      Reply
      1. Mariana

        Thank you, Ursula!
        I actually did some calculations and used all of the sourdough starter. It worked (though the original recipe definitely works better).
        On that note, I wanted to express my gratitude to you and for your page! I’ve always meant to try baking “proper” bread ever since I moved away from Austria, and thanks to your recipe, 4 years later, I finally did (and enjoy the results).

        Reply
        1. Ursula Post author

          Haha, this is great to hear! Of course, I love feedback like yours. Let me know if you have any bread-baking (or other) questions. I love to talk about this topic ;-)

          Reply
  5. Lori

    Hi Ursula!

    I followed your five day instructions exactly & got great results. At the end of the fifth day, I had intended to bake a Loaf of bread but ran out of time. I put the deflated starter in the fridge & it’s been there for two days. I just got it out & letting it warm to run temp before I fed it. My question is (my apologies if you’ve already answered): should I have fed it prior to refrigeration? Or am I good to go with the flattened or deflated?

    Thank you for all of the time & effort you’ve put in to helping us newbies!

    Lori

    Reply
    1. Ursula Post author

      Hi Lori,
      Great that everything worked so far :)
      It doesn’t really matter but you shouldn’t let the deflated sourdough hang around in the fridge for too long, especially new sourdough. In the beginning, right after making the starter, it is best to feed it at least every week (better twice a week). After a few weeks/months, once a week or even every other week will be fine. Before using the sourdough to make bread, make sure to feed it. So if a recipe calls for 200 g (3/4 cup) ripe sourdough, like this recipe https://www.lilvienna.com/lil-vienna-rye-sourdough-bread-no-knead/, you’d do the following: Feed 1-2 tablespoons starter with 2/3 cups rye flour and 1/2 cup + 1 teaspoon warm water) and let leaven at room temp. for 8-15 hours, until doubled in size and bubbly. Put the rest of the starter in the fridge meanwhile, in case anything goes wrong you still have a backup. In the beginning, the starter sometimes isn’t as strong, so adding 1/2 teaspoon of yeast to the first loaf of bread is often a good idea.

      Hope this helps. Happy baking! Ursula

      Reply

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