Sourdough Starter Instructions

TOOLS NEEDED: Clean glass jar, kitchen scale, spatula or wooden spoon, filtered water, unbleached ALL purpose flour, dehydrated starter, a rubber band or tape to put on your jar to measure the rising progress.

***READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE STARTING! IT DOES REQUIRE SOME TIME AND ATTENTION FOR 7 DAYS!!***

· Day One Morning: (I always weigh my jars that i'm using and i write the weight with a sharpie on the bottom...makes life easier) 

1) Combine 5 grams (approx 1/3 of the package) of the dehydrated sourdough starter in a small glass jar. 

2) Add 25 grams room temp filtered water and stir until the dry starter is completely submerged in the water. 

3) Cover with a lid and allow mixture to sit for 1-2 hours at room temperature until mostly desolved.

4) Add 20 grams unbleached All purpose flour and stir with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Note: We're using slightly more water than flour in this first feeding - a thinner, more hydrated starter allows for increased activity for yeast and bacteria.  

5) Cover with a lid and store at room temperature for 24 hours. (keep in a warm environment, but not too warm). NOTE: What you have made is now called starter mixture.

· Day Two & Three Morning: TO A CLEAN JAR 

1) Combine 10 grams starter mixture (discard the rest), 25 grams all-purpose flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a clean glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at room temperature for 24 hours.

Day Three Evening

1) Feed it an additional 25 grams flour and 25 grams water (before bed approx 9pm)

· Day Four Morning: TO A CLEAN JAR (you can stop using clean jars after today) 

1) Combine 10 grams starter mixture, 25 grams all purpose flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at room temperature for 12 hours. After 12 hours you should start to see bubbles and activity.

· Day Four Evening: 

1) Feed it an additional 25 grams flour and 25 grams room temperature filtered water (before bed approx 9pm)

· Day Five Morning: By now, the starter mixture should have nearly doubled in volume and there will be small and big bubbles throughout the starter mixture. 

At this point, I would start discarding half of the mixture and feeding it morning and evening with a 1:1:1 ratio (equal parts starter/flour/water) to keep it growing faster. I would even recommend adding into my flour a small amount of whole wheet or rye flour (1 tsp) as it has a lot of protein and it really helps boost activity. 

Keep this up for day 6 and by day 7 you should be able to bake with it as long as it's doubling in size. Depending on your home temperature environment etc, this could also take an extra few days so don't get discouraged. Keep it in a warm place during the day like ontop of the fridge, or a low temp heating pad. 

If you want to increase the amount of starter you have to make more loaves, or to have extra discard etc, then start using a 1:2:2 (one par starter 2 parts water/flour). It may take a bit longer to rise, but you will have lots of extra on hand for baking. 

DON'T GET DISCOURAGED, YOU MAY HAVE SEVERAL FAILED ATTEMPTS AT THE PERFECT LOAF BEFORE YOU ACCOMPLISH THE "PERFECT" ONE. I THINK MY MAGIC NUMBER WAS 12!!

Congratulations!! You have your first sourdough starter.

I use a kitchen scale to measure the weight of the jar first, and use a sharpie to write the weight of your empty clean jar on the bottom. This way you can subtract the amount of starter inside the jar from the jar weight and get an accurate measurement.

My feeding schedule and amounts:

9:30/10:00 pm- Discard 50-100g (keep in jar in fridge for other baking, or throw out)

- Add 2x the amount of unbleached flour and filtered water (I use distilled)

- I sometimes add a scoop of Whole wheat or rye flour in with my weighed flour too and this helps give it a kick into gear. This is a 1:2:2 ratio (1 part starter, 2 parts flour, 2 parts water)

- If you ever want to increase your starter amount to bake more loaves, then you can also do 1:3:3 ratio or 1:4:4 ratios. This allows it to take longer to peak as well so keep that in mind because it has more food to eat through. But it will create more starter, just takes a bit more rising time.

- My rule of thumb is feeding it 8-12 hours before you plan to start your bread.

7:00 AM, I start my bread process (Next pages)

I don’t usually do another feed until the next evening. I only do once a day, but if you wanted to start another loaf mid-day and need more starter, then you can feed it again in the morning and wait a couple of hours to let it rise and peak, and you can start another. 

There are so many methods out there, but everyone has different house temperatures and environments that could cause it to take longer or shorter process times. 

When you want to take a break from it, then you can just feed it and let it rise for an hour or so and pop it in the fridge for however long you need. Just try to feed it once a week. 

Also, if you ever get overwhelmed, then feed it 1:1:1 and pop it in the fridge until you are ready to go again. 

Try not to get discouraged and throw it out, it’s a healthy starter and should be able to be revived if you give me a DM. 

Bread Process (This is just a guideline that I use, you will develop your own)

6:30 am- Add my starter with the water and mix well. It should pass the “float test” (almost to dissolving, add the rye, bread and unbleached all-purpose flour (or whatever flour combo you use.) you may have to make water adjustments to it depending on what four you use (whole wheat and rye absorb more water so if you use larger amounts of those, then you have to adjust your water)

Add the salt and mix well into a shaggy dough making sure all the flour is mixed in.

Let sit an hour

7:45 do your first set of stretch and folds or coil folds, I use stretch and fold by pulling up a section of dough and folding into the centre, do this 4-6x around the dough until it starts to tighten. 

You will do 3 or 4 more sets of these every half hour 

until the gluten has tightened into a nice stiffer dough

9:45: start the bulk fermentation (first rise) this can take anywhere from 2-8 hours. It depends on your kitchen climate. In the summer mine would be done in 2.5 hours, now it’s taking closer to 4. You learn how to watch for it to rise almost double. I like to end it at about 75% rise. 

Then you scrape the dough out of the bowl and do some shaping by stretching and folding some more and making a tight ball and adding tension by rolling it using a bench scraper. ( I watched a lot of videos on this technique).

Let it rest on the counter for 15 minutes and lift it smooth side down into a proofing bowl lined with a tea towel or natural fabric. Do a dough stitch by pulling the seam of the dough ball into a tight seam (again, videos are helpful with this technique)  I cover with a damp towel or plastic and place in the fridge over night

6:30 am (Next day) Preheat oven to 480 with a dutch oven or baking pot in it that can withstand the high heat, preheat for half hour-45 min. 

Take your loaf out of the fridge 5 minutes before baking and turn onto a piece of parchment or silicone bread mat. Take a lame or a very sharp knife or even scissors and score a deep ish line down the centre to let the steam escape and give it a great oven spring. 

Remove dutch oven from oven and place the parchment lined dough ball in with the lid on bake for 22 minutes then remove the pot and lid turn the oven down to 465 and place back in the oven without the lid for 12-15 min (depending on your preference of doneness) 

Let cool for a few hours. 

RECIPE:

125 g Ripe active starter (fed 8-10 hours prior)

320 g filtered water ( I use distilled)

50 g Rye or Whole Wheat flour

300 g Bread Flour

150 g unbleached All Purpose Flour

10 g fine Kosher salt (this is what I use, feel free to use whatever salt you prefer)