Making sourdough starter at home is as easy as stirring together some flour and water and letting it rest. The key to sourdough starter is the wild yeast.
To bake with sourdough, the most important ingredient is the
starter. The starter is the heart and soul of sourdough baking. Making a fresh
batch of starter is as easy as stirring together some flour and water and
letting it sit. No mashed up grapes, no mysterious rituals. Just flour and water (we are keeping it simple).
The key to the sourdough starter is the wild yeast. Wild yeast is
present everywhere. In the air, in the flour…everywhere. Over the years, commercial yeast replaced
wild yeast because commercial yeast is easier to mass-produce, easy to store
and easier to use. Wild yeast on the other hand can be fussy. It needs a
medium, a starter to be useful for baking. A starter has to be constantly
maintained and monitored. A starter is known by different names in different
parts of the world. Poolish, Biga, Levain, Mother, Sponge, Starter, Chef and
Biga. These are all preferments.
Just a mixture of flour, water and yeast.
When you make a starter, do not use it until day 7. Because before that it has good bacteria,
bad bacteria and yeast all fighting for the common food – flour. After day 7
bad bacteria die off, leaving behind a harmonious colony of good bacteria and
yeast. A stable starter is a SCOOBY – Symbiotic Colony of Good Bacteria and
Yeast. The by-products of their activities bring complex flavours and aroma
to the starter dough and the resultant loaves.
Sourdough Starter
Things Required
A large-mouthed glass bottle
An electronic weighing scale (with tare function)
Flour
Water
Day 1
25g all-purpose flour`
25g whole wheat flour
50g water.
Mix well so that no dry pockets of flour remain. Cover
loosely with the lid so that the gases escape. Leave in a warm place for 24
hours.
Day 2
Add 50 g of all-purpose flour and 50 g of water. Mix well.
Cover and keep in a warm place for 24 hours.
Day 3
Discard half of the starter (100 grams). Add 50 g of all-purpose
flour and 50 g of water. Mix well. Cover and keep in a warm place for 24 hours.
By the end of Day3, there should be bubbles on the surface
of the starter and it should look visibly larger in volume. It should feel
batter like when you stir it. If you are in a warm climate, you might hear the
bubbles popping when you stir it. It should smell a little sour.
Day 4
Same as Day 3. Discard half of the starter (100 grams). Add
50 g of all-purpose flour and 50 g of water. Mix well. Cover and keep in a warm
place for 24 hours.
By the end of day 4, the starter should look very bubbly. It
should have doubled in volume. It should smell quite sour and pungent.
Day 5 to
Day 6
Same as day 3
Repeat this step 3 each day
until day 6 or until the starter smells fruity, yeasty and is full of bubbles.
You may test the starter. If you are in a warm place, the starter after feeding
should double up in 6-8 hours.
If you feel that the starter
is yet not active and ready, repeat the same feeding schedule (day 3) for day
7, day 8 and if required day 9.
A starter that is ready will
become bulky, frothy, loose and will be full of bubbles. It will double in volume within 6-8 hours of feeding. It will
smell sour and pungent. You can taste it too. It will taste sour and vinegary.
The feeding process works
well when the ratio of starter-to-flour-to-water is 1:1:1 — equal parts, by
weight, existing starter, added flour, and added water. Some bakers prefer
different ratios, but this works well for me.
Storing and Feeding the Ripe Starter
Once the starter is ready, refrigerate
it after fresh feeding. This is called Mother Culture. Now feed it
weekly. Feeding ratios will remain the same. 1:1:1. The same quantity of starter by weight, add the same quantity of flour
by weight, the same quantity of water by weight. Stir and refrigerate.
However, if you are busy and
feel that for some reason you will not be able to feed the starter weekly, you
may follow the fortnightly feeding schedule. In this case, the feeding ratio
will be 1:4:4. That means one part of the starter, four parts of flour and
four parts of water. Stir and
refrigerate.
If you are planning to bake
bread, take the starter out of the fridge the night before. Then feed it every 24
hours twice or thrice until it becomes
very vigorous and doubles up in 6-8 hours. Now you are ready to bake sourdough bread with your homemade starter.
An Important point here is
that it is always a good practice to prepare LEVAIN to bake bread.
Levain is the copy of the mother culture made specifically to bake bread.
Take a fresh jar to prepare
Levain. The ideal ratio to build levain is 1:2:2. That is one part of the mother
starter, two parts of flour and two parts of water. Mix well. Levain should
double up in 6-8 hours to be used for baking.
Some Tips:
Feeding the starter regularly
is important to keep the culture healthy and active and to be able to leaven the dough. Weekly feeding is good practice. Set a weekly alarm for
feeding.
Before baking bread, ensure
that your mother culture is active and vigorous. For this take it out of the
refrigerator and feed it twice or thrice once every 24 hours. Now prepare
Levain. Use levain for baking bread.
Before going ahead with the
starter recipe, weigh the bottle. Note it somewhere or with a marker, write the
weight on the cap of the bottle.
After day 1 and onwards
during feeding, we will discard half of the starter keeping
in mind the weight of the bottle. Let me explain. Suppose our bottle weighs 200
grams.
Weight
of the bottle - 200 grams
Starter - 100 grams (after
discarding 100 grams, that is half of the starter)
Total - 200 +100 = 300
grams
After discarding 100 grams starter, press
tare and then add 50 grams flour. Press tare, add 50 grams of water.
Or, to simplify, discard all
except 300 grams. Add 50 grams flour, 50 grams water, stir and refrigerate.
There are many variables in
sourdough baking and there is no possibility to control all of them all the
time. Initially, stick to a tried and tested recipe. Bake with the same recipe
again and again. After you get it right and gain confidence, go ahead with your
technique.
Sourdough Discard
If you are baking regularly
with sourdough, you are likely to end up with a lot of discard. Sourdough
discard is the portion of your starter that is removed and discarded before
feeding. Keep storing discard in a large jar in the refrigerator. It can be used
to make a lot of sweet and savoury bakes and pancakes.
You may check out some of my
discard recipes.