I’ve got babies!
Well, they’re not really babies. But they’re alive, and I helped make them. They’re just not really human. Or even an animal.
They’re a community of yeasts and bacteria growing in a flour and water slurry.
I just call them my babies.
Sourdough Starter by any other name would be just as sour, and just as wonderful!
They’re easy (kinda) to make. You may have a burn out, and your first batch may not turn into the pinicle of deliciousness, but perservere and you’ll have delicious bread (and other things) in several weeks!
All you really need to make sourdough is water and flour. And time, a lot of time. But stacking the deck makes things easier and faster.
I like using a whole grain flour, and an acidic liquid to help my babies grow the best.
I started 3 different types of starter a few weeks ago. Weigh everything for best results, I used about 6 oz for each part.
Jar 1:
1 part pineapple juice
1 part rye flour
Jar 2:
1 part filtered water
1 part rye flour
Jar 3:
1 part filtered water with 1/16th of a teaspoon citric acid (pH ~4-5)
1 part whole wheat flour
Cover with a loose weave cloth, or tight weave cheesecloth (keep out the fruit flies) and place in a fairly warm place.
Every day I would feed them equal parts (by weight) whole wheat flour and filtered water, about 2 oz. Sometimes I would feed them at night and in the morning.
[](picture of a feeding?)
After a few days you could see activity in the jars. At that point I was nearly out of whole wheat flour so I switched to unbleached all purpose flour. Also at that point the jars were getting rather full, and there was enough activity to cause them to overflow. So I made some bread. It’s pretty good. (recipe comming soon)
I then transfered the rest of the starter into smaller jars, used a little extra flour, and put them in the fridge.
Now I’ve got fully grown babies. The way to take care of them is fairly simple.
To maintain:
Mix 1 part filtered water with ~1.25 parts flour. Add to 1 part starter (or less). Place in fridge and repeat weekly. With the extra starter you can either multiply your jars (great gifts!) (and insurance for mistakes); make bread, pancakes, crackers, more crackers, pizza, pretzels, the possibilites are endless! or simply toss (not recomened, what a waste!).
To grow to bake with:
Mix 1 part filtered water and 1 part flour. Add to starter (up to 2 parts starter). Place on counter and feed either once or twice daily for several days. When the starter foams up fairly soon after feeding (1-3 hours) it should be ready to bake. (place a rubber band around the jar to see this in action!)
Trouble!
If your not yet grown starter smells funky, it’s likely got a little too much undesirable bacteria. This can go away, but may not. Give it a few days, and if it doesn’t get better, toss it and start over! (this happened to me. I think it was because I used tap water with a little too much chlorine in it)
If your starter smells like nail polish (especially with a layer of liquid on the top), it’s hungry! Feed it more often, or give it more flour when you feed it. You can discard the liquid, or mix it back in for a really sour loaf.
If there’s green fuzzy (or any color fuzzy) growth, that’s mold. Toss the whole thing!
If ‘it’s been a week and NOTHING is happening!’ Double check you’re feeding it often enough, and that it can breath. Make sure you’re using clean water, and that it’s in a fairly warm place.
Sourdough starter is amazingly resilient and as long as you really do treat it like a pet (and don’t forget about it in your fridge for months on end), it’ll grow and grow and grow!
