What is sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria that is used to make bread rise. It is created by combining flour and water and allowing it to ferment.
When I started my journey to make sourdough bread, I have failed so many times. I gave up few times. Then tried again. I tried using different flour (rye, whole wheat, gluten free) but nothing worked. It was so frustrating that I was planning to the end to ever try making starter. And one day I decided to give another try so I bought Bob’s red mill whole wheat bread flour. I was so confuse about which water to use? I started watching many videos. I paid lots of attention to tips and tricks people shared. What ratio of water and flour works? Everyone has their own style. Where to discard the starter or not? The weather here in Canada is very cold so where to keep the starter so it can get alive?
Believe me this is all trial and error. Something works for one it doesn’t mean it will work for you. You have to figure out what works for you. But I would assure you, once you do, you are never going back. It is therapeutic and addictive. You can name it, I called mine “GAURI”.
Ingredients:
Bread flour
Warm tap water
Glass Jar
Wooden or rubber spatula
Here is what worked for me while making starter:
1st day: In a glass jar, I added 1:1 ratio of warm water and bread flour. Using wooden spoon, mixed it and made the thick pancake style slurry. I just kept the lid on top (didn’t tighten it). Put it on countertop near stove where it was warm.
2nd day: I added 1 tbsp of bread flour and 1 tbsp (or less) warm water to the same bottle and mix well with rubber or wooden spatula. Loosely put the lid and keep on countertop.
3rd day: now you need to repeat above process twice during the day.
4th day: if you see there is lot of starter in the bottle, take out everything and keep about one tablespoon. Then add 1 tbsp bread flour and 1 tbsp (or less) water to make thick paste. Keep this in warm place. You will start noticing bubbles. You need to do this twice a day. Don’t throw away extra starter you took out (it’s called discard). You can start putting that in different bottle and use later. You can use it to make chila, roti, thepla, pancakes etc.
5th, 6th and 7th day repeat the same process as day 4. You will smell the sourness in the starter. It will double in size in few hour after you feed flour and water.
The starter is now ready for use. You can continue the above process and feed twice a day. Do this for at least 4 weeks and then you can keep this in fridge if you don’t use it. When you decide to make bread, take it out few hours before, add flour and warm water and let it double in size and then use it. You can also dry the active starter and dry on parchment paper. Once it is dried, you can store in clean bottle. You can reactivate it when needed and can also share with your friends.
Let me know if you have question regarding the process.
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How to make sourdough starter?
Procedure:
Here is what worked for me while making starter:
1st day: In a glass jar, I added 1:1 ratio of warm water and bread flour. Using wooden spoon, mixed it and made the thick pancake style slurry. I just kept the lid on top (didn’t tighten it). Put it on countertop near stove where it was warm.
2nd day: I added 1 tbsp of bread flour and 1 tbsp (or less) warm water to the same bottle and mix well with rubber or wooden spatula. Loosely put the lid and keep on countertop.
3rd day: now you need to repeat above process twice during the day.
4th day: if you see there is lot of starter in the bottle, take out everything and keep about one tablespoon. Then add 1 tbsp bread flour and 1 tbsp (or less) water to make thick paste. Keep this in warm place. You will start noticing bubbles. You need to do this twice a day. Don’t throw away extra starter you took out (it’s called discard). You can start putting that in different bottle and use later. You can use it to make chila, roti, thepla, pancakes etc.
5th, 6th and 7th day repeat the same process as day 4. You will smell the sourness in the starter. It will double in size in few hour after you feed flour and water.
The starter is now ready for use. You can continue the above process and feed twice a day. Do this for at least 4 weeks and then you can keep this in fridge if you don’t use it. When you decide to make bread, take it out few hours before, add flour and warm water and let it double in size and then use it. You can also dry the active starter and dry on parchment paper. Once it is dried, you can store in clean bottle. You can reactivate it when needed and can also share with your friends.
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