Welcome to the beginning of your sourdough journey! Sourdough is an incredibly fun way to make fresh, delicious bread for your family and friends. Creating a sourdough starter can feel like a daunting process but it is so worth it! This post will teach you how to create and maintain a sourdough starter, but beware, it might lead to sourdough taking over your life!

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What is a sourdough starter?

A sourdough starter is a combination of flour and water that has been allowed to ferment. The naturally occurring yeast and bacteria in the flour will essentially “eat” the carbohydrates in the flour, producing carbon dioxide which is what causes the bread to rise. The process also produces lactic acid which is what gives sourdough its signature tangy flavor. Once your starter is established, you will have a stable culture of yeast and bacteria that you will regularly feed with more flour and water.

Ingredients

One of the best things about a sourdough starter is that it only contains two ingredients! Flour and water. I recommend using an unbleached, organic flour. You can use bread flour if you want, but I haven’t noticed a significant difference in the quality of my bread and I personally don’t think it’s worth the price. I usually use unbleached, organic all purpose flour because it is more cost effective. You will also want to use filtered, distilled or boiled water. Tap water can contain chlorine and other additives that might affect the quality of your starter.

Tools

You don’t need many tools to create a sourdough starter, but there are some things that will make your journey easier. To start, you only need a glass bowl or jar (do not use metal as it can interact with the yeast and bacteria), a spatula or wooden spoon, and some tool for measurement. I recommend using a food scale for better accuracy, but it is possible to create a starter and bake sourdough using measuring cups. I prefer to use mason jars to store and maintain my starter because I have so many on hand, but this KneadAce basic start kit is great option as well, and honestly, the spatula is the shining star of the kit – I use it every single day!

Tips

• Feed your new starter daily for a couple weeks to get it nice and strong before baking. Continue to feed it daily if you are using it regularly.
• If, like me, you usually bake on the weekends, you can let your starter go a few days without feeding, just make sure to feed it every day for 2-3 days before using it to bake again. 
• You can place a rubber band around the jar lined up with the top of your starter right after feeding, that way you will be able to see how much it grows. You can also use a dry erase marker to draw a line on the jar at the top of your starter.
• You want to bake with your starter when it is at its peak, meaning it has reached its highest point before it begins to fall. After getting familiar you will be able to tell when the peak is. 
• Once your starter is more established, you can keep it in the fridge when not using it. It can go several weeks between feedings when stored in the fridge. When you want to use it again, just bring it to room temperature and feed it consistently for a couple days to revive it. 
• I often store my “mother starter” in the fridge. When I want to bake, I will take some of the starter out of the fridge, feed it, and leave it on the counter, returning the rest of the “mother” to the fridge. It is usually ready to go in a couple days. 
• Make sure to feed your refrigerated mother starter monthly at a minimum.
• Name your starter! If you name it, you will be more likely to feed it and care for it regularly. My starter’s name is Queenie.