Did you know you can grow and maintain a small sourdough starter and simplify your life? I’m going to show you how I grow and feed my sourdough starter.

***Update- There seems to be a shortage of store-bought yeast in some areas nationwide at present. Many people are baking their own bread or making their own starters during self quarantine and social distancing. Making your own sourdough starter is easy but takes about 5-7 days to get really active. If you’re in a huge hurry to bake some bread I’d be happy to ship you some sourdough starter to help you get started sooner with a super active starter.

A smaller starter gives me great results, if not better when baking a sourdough boule. Let’s get started.

2 Steps to Starting & Maintaining A Smaller Sourdough Starter:

1. Use a small easily accessible container.

2. Use less flour & water & feed your starter at least every 2 weeks once you get it active.

By keeping a smaller sourdough starter you’re going to generate less waste and have more flour for baking. When I first started out my sourdough bread baking journey I maintained a larger starter and didn’t really measure anything when I fed my starter. I’ve come a long way since then and I can tell you you’re going to want to invest in a small kitchen scale.

Just by using a kitchen scale and measuring my feedings and ingredients out when I bake a loaf of sourdough bread, I’ve achieved the best results by far and my bread is tastier and has a less heavy “tangy” taste (which I prefer) than it used to have. Even my crumb has become open and airy and my oven spring on my loaf is moist and chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

Can I relate all those great results to just using a smaller starter? Probably not. I’ve also learned some techniques along my sourdough adventures as well. Today, I’m going to walk you through making a small starter and feeding it daily until you have an active starter. Which takes about a week.

What is the best container for growing & feeding a sourdough starter?

• I personally prefer to use an 8 oz mason jar
• The lid is easily removed to remove excess starter and feed the starter again
• The lid also fits nicely over the jar, so I don’t have to screw the lid tight and it lets air in and keeps gnats out

I’ll also explain how to maintain your starter and how to wake it up to get an active levain to give your bread a natural wild yeast rise.

Then, I’m going to show you how I bake a delicious sourdough bread with a beautiful open crumb.

Day 1: Making a Small Sourdough Starter

You will need a small kitchen scale, a small mason jar or other easily accessible container with a lid. I have listed some suggested products for you at the end of the post.

It’s best to use filtered, distilled or bottled water. The chemicals in tap water can kill off the natural yeasts and bacterias. If you use tap water just let it sit out overnight, it should be fine.

Ingredients:

1. 10 grams of All Purpose Flour
2. 8 – 10 grams of distilled or filtered water.

Directions:

1. Place your jar or container on the scale and zero it. (Make sure you convert to grams.)
2. Add 10 grams of all purpose flour in your jar or container.
3. Zero your scale back out.
4. Add 8- 10 grams of distilled water in the jar.
5. Mix well with a rubber spatula until all the flour is incorporated.
6. Place a lid loosely over your container to allow air to still get in & sit out on counter overnight.

Day 2: Feeding Your Sourdough Starter

You can choose to feed your starter once or twice a day when first starting out. It’s totally up to you. I think I fed mine once a day until it got nice and active. Around a week mark.

Directions:

1. Place a fresh jar or container on the scale and zero out.
2. Take 5 grams of your starter mixture and place in the jar.
3. Zero out scale.
4. Add 10 grams of all purpose flour in the jar.
5. Zero out scale.
6. Add 8-10 gram distilled or filtered water in.
7. Mix until all the flour is hydrated & smooth.
8. Cover loosely and leave on counter.
9. Cover your original jar or container and place it in the fridge. This is where you can discard your extra starter while feeding and even use the starter in other baking products such as pancakes, cupcakes etc.

Day 3: Repeat the above steps for Day 2 daily until you see that your starter is bubbly and active.

If if you’re not going to bake bread right away once your starter seems active, place your starter in the fridge and feed it at least once a week.  Once your starter is a bit stronger you can probably get away with feeding it every other week. I’ve even revived starter after a month. So there’s that. 

When you’re ready to bake a loaf of sourdough bread here’s what you do. I usually feed mine over a course of 2 days to get it nice and active again. The longer you do this, the more familiar you are going to become with your starter. Take notes and photos over the course of feedings and baking. It really helps and let’s you get to know your starter as it develops a personality of sorts.

Feed your starter as I have listed in Day 2 above. Do this twice a day. Once in the morning and then in the evening. You’re going to increase your evening feeding because now we need to have a nice bigger levain for our bread. Heres what you’ll do.

Directions For Activating your Starter Day 1 Second Feeding:

1. Zero your scale and place 10 grams of starter in a fresh jar.
2. Add 20 grams of all purpose flour.
3. Zero scale out.
4. Add 18-20 grams filtered water.
5. Mix well, cover loosely and let sit on counter overnight

The next morning you’re going to give it one last bigger feed and again increase it’s size so you have enough levain to add to your autolyse mixture.

Directions For Last Feed Before Baking:

1. Zero scale out.
2. Add 25 grams starter in jar.
3. Zero out.
4. Add 50 grams flour to jar.
5. Zero scale out.
6. Add 45-50 grams water to jar.
7. Mix well, cover loosely and put in in a nice warm place. Sometimes I preheat my oven to 200 for a few minutes. Shut the oven off. Then put my starter in the warm oven to help it double in size quicker. Make sure the oven is OFF and you’re not baking your starter.
8. Around the 3 to 5 hours mark is when you’re going to add your levain to your autolyse which we will talk about below.

Ready to bake some artisan sourdough bread?

ARTISAN SOURDOUGH BREAD RECIPE:

Our sourdough loaf is going to be 4 simple ingredients:

1. Flour
2. Water
3. Levain
4. Salt

Let’s begin by making our autolyse first.

What is an autolyse?

Autolyse (Auto-Leese) is a term used in baking that refers to a simple method which improves the flavor and quality of bread. Essentially, the flour and water in the formula are mixed together and left to rest. The dough might be resting but the microorganisms are going to work.

Ingredients:

1. 70 grams white whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur Flour)
2. 255 grams bread flour
3. 253 grams filtered/distilled or bottled water room temperature.

Do not add the salt yet. I repeat do not add the salt yet. If you already did. You still should be fine. It’s just bread. No one died.

Directions:

1. Mix well with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until all the flour is hydrated.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 2-4 hours.

During the autolyse resting period is when your starter should really be starting to wake up and grow to 2 to 3x it’s size.

At around the 3 hour mark is when I add my levain. You can tell when your autolyse is ready because it will be really stretchy and won’t tear. The gluten bands have had plenty of time to relax.

Next measure out 65 grams of your sourdough starter (leaven) and incorporate it into your autolyse. Mix well until it’s incorporated. About 3 minutes or so. A tip is to wet your hands or use a rubber glove on your hand to mix. The dough will be very sticky and wet.

Once the starter/levain has been fully incorporated. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes has passed you’re going to add your salt now. I use 8 grams of pink Himalayan sea salt.

Add the salt and mix well until it’s well incorporated. The finer the salt the easier to incorporate. This usually takes about 3-5 minutes. Cover and let rest another 30 minutes.

Next, I recommend watching this video from Full Proof Baker. It shows you exactly how and when to fold the dough at the various stages. It’s very helpful so don’t skip it.

Folds:

1. Turn out and fold each 4 sides over on itself and round off into a small.
2. Cover & rest another 30 minutes
3. Laminate: Spread out into a large rectangle and fold into thirds long ways and short ways (refer to above video.)
4. Now I move my dough to a shallow square baking dish to make it easier to fold. Cover & rest another 30 minutes.
5. Do 3 more 1/3 folds at 30-45 minute intervals.
6. Shape: Turn out on floured surface and fold into thirds on 2 sides then turn &  fold other side over and roll into tight log. Seal the seems. (Again, refer to above video it’s very helpful.)
7. Place what will be the top of your bread upside down into well floured bowl/ banneton and proof covered overnight in the refrigerator.

Next Morning:

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For Best Results use a Dutch oven.I highly recommend this Dutch Oven. I also recommend a digital kitchen scale to measure your ingredients. You’ll use it for more than just baking bread once you have it.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place Dutch Oven inside for at least an hour.

When oven has preheated remove your dough from the fridge.

Flour what will be the bottom of your bread before you turn out onto a piece of parchment paper.

Line a plate with parchment paper and very carefully turn your bowl over onto the plate to carefully release the bread. Flour the top of the bread and slash with a bread lame or razor blade/very sharp knife.

Carefully transfer your bread to your Dutch oven place the lid on and bake at 500 degrees for 20 minutes.

DO NOT REMOVE THE LID UNTIL 20 MINUTES HAS PASSED.

This is where all that trapped in steam is going to magically make your bread rise in unison with your natural levain.

After 20 minutes remove lid from Dutch oven and reduce to 450 degrees.

The proof is isn the pudding. Errrr, bread. I can see I have a nice rise after removing the lid. Continue to bake until golden brown at 450 degrees uncovered for another 20 minutes. When it’s done the bread will sound hollow when you tap the middle.

Let the loaf cool completely before slicing into it. Trust me on this. If you slice into the warm crusty bread, as tempting as it will be, it will be gummy inside. So just wait and let it come to room temperature for best results and taste.

Once cool now you get to see all your hard work and efforts has paid off by not only getting rewarded with a delicious crusty slice of fresh sourdough bread, but you get to peek at your crumb and admire your success. This bread had excellent result and a moist & chewy open crumb.

Enjoy it with your favorite topping. Mmmm warm butter, or strawberry jam!

It seems like a lot of work and I’m not going to lie. It’s laborious but the pay off is well worth all the effort. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t have success the first time or even the second. Baking sourdough bead is an art and a craft and like any other thing that you dedicate time and practice to makes you better at it.

If you make this recipe or have any questions please leave a comment below. I’d really like to know if you’re just beginning your sourdough journey and what your success and failures are/were.

Happy Sourdough Baking!