Easy Sourdough Starter

Hi friends! Guess what? Last year while laid up with a bungled leg/knee my two year old sourdough starter kicked the bucket. Once I was up and walking again, I took it out of the fridge to feed it only to find out it had dried up into a smelly brownish purple-y hockey puck! It was rather disgusting.

The last time I had fed it was May 13, 2017.  I baked a loaf of sourdough bread exactly one week before my accident. The next 6 months were somewhat of a painful drawn out blur while I tried to recover from a horse riding accident where I suffered a serious knee/leg fracture and surgery recovery.

When I finally pulled it from the fridge to see if I could salvage it, I was heartbroken that I had to begin a new starter. Two years of labor and love down the drain. What’s done is done. Much like my bungled leg. Hey, at least I can joke about it, right?

Back when I first started learning how to grow and care for a sourdough starter, I read so many complicated blogs and articles that called for all these weird flours I had never heard of, let alone know where to find said weirdo flours. All the measurements and wasting of so much flour was mind boggling. Feed it once a day versus feed it twice a day? Or threes times a day!  Leave it out at room temperature versus fridge. It was just so confusing.

I finally just tossed everything out the window so to speak and decided to go as basic bitch as I could after a few failed and smelly attempts at a starter. During that trial and error period and caring for my starter for over two years, I had learned a few tried and true techniques.

You begin to get a sense for how your starter behaves and what gets it going. It takes on a life and personality of its own. I guess that’s why people name their starters.

Turns out I didn’t need all those fancy schmancy 6 different flours and tricky hydration measurements. In fact, I don’t measure or weigh anything at all when it comes to caring for my starter. I also don’t need to feed it eleventy billion times a day or waste a dump truck load of starter while feeding.

I can even get away with feeding only once a week after the first several days of feeding it. It’s very forgiving thank goodness. Since I don’t use exact measurements other than starting out with a half cup of organic unbleached white APF (All Purpose Flour,) I go by the consistency. The above photo demonstrates the consistency I like. That’s the beauty of this no fuss no muss starter. You can make it wet or dry. Whatever your heart desires.

I only use distilled water with my starter. The inter webs say that the metals in tap water can prohibit the wild yeasts and bacteria from growing. It’s ok to use tap water if it’s sat out for 24 hours, supposedly. I prefer to use distilled water.

Again, I start out with around 1/2 cup flour and I keep adding distilled water until I get the consistency I want. Somewhere in between 1/4 cup water but no more than 1/2 cup. After I’m satisfied with my consistency, I put the glob into a jar, close it up and let it do its thing on the counter at room temperature.

The next day I feed it only once, after the 24 hour mark. I remove about half of the mixture and toss it down the drain. Then I simply feed it with approximately a 1/2 cup flour and eyeball my distilled water until I get the consistency I want. If it’s a little runny or dry, I don’t concern myself with that anymore. I can fix it the next day by adding more flour or less water.

Keeping the starter small and wasting about half of it during feedings, makes for less flour waste and keeps my starter from growing into a monster. When I want to bake some bread, I’ll feed it the day before with about a cup or so of flour. This way, I’ll take what I need for my bread leaven and leave just enough to keep my starter going.

When beginning a starter, I feed it once a day for the first week, then after that, It goes to the fridge and I feed it once a week until I’m ready to make some sourdough bread. It takes about a week for it to get really active. The longer you let it go, the more active and sour it becomes.

During the first week you will see it begin to change. By the third or fourth day of feeding, you can see in the below photo that it’s starting to get active and bubbly. This is a sure sign the wild yeasts are feeding on the sugars. The by product of the sugar consumption is gas (that’s CO2 for you fancy schmancy science hipsters.) Which is what is causing all those wonderful air bubbles. That’s the stuff you want right there folks!

A fermentation simpatico! You may even see a layer of thin white liquid on the top of your starter,another by product of the yeast. This is alcohol and referred to as “hooch.” It won’t hurt anything at all. Just give it a stir and mix it in. In addition to the alcohol, the aroma your starter gives off will be a bit sweet with maybe even some fruity notes. It will have a definite funky sour odor, but that’s the desired outcome.  I’ve had a starter that smelled like nail polish remover before. Blech!

Did you know that the bacteria (lactobacilli) and wild yeasts that grow in your kitchen are unique to your region and that it is the acids of the bacteria that make sourdough bread taste sour? Not the wild yeasts. San Francisco boasts some of the best sourdough starter from bacteria and wild yeasts indigenous to only that area, which they say makes the bread taste different and supposedly better than say…Fort Lauderdale, Florida (where I live.) While I believe it’s true that yeasts and bacteria are native to the region you live and can change the flavor of the bread, I don’t necessarily believe that one is better than the other.

Let’s say I gave you a sample of my starter. You take it home and feed and care for it for a few weeks. Guess what? It’s not going to have the same microbes it did than when I gave it to you. It’s going to take on the wild yeasts and bacteria in your kitchen and local area. So you see, it doesn’t matter that you got your starter from San Francisco or from me, your bread is going to taste different because of the native yeasts and bacteria and the flours you put in your recipe, down to the technique you use to proof and bake the bread. So save your money on that San Fransisco starter and begin your own starter. Some may disagree with this, but I give zero fucks.

You do you and I’ll do me. Live and let live. You get the pic. So there you have it folks. Can it get much easier and more simplified than that? I am probably on week 12 of my new sourdough starter and it’s been ready to transform into a loaf of bread for weeks. I think it’s time. Folks, meet my starter…First name Wilda…Last name…Beast.

Have you ever tried making a sourdough starter? Have you ever killed a sourdough starter? Share your experience in the comments. Some might argue that my starter technique is ridiculous, but over the years, I’ve found what works for me, and I’m sticking with that. My bread also tastes delicious and just look how happy she is. You can’t argue with that.

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