It’s that time of year again! That’s right it sourdough starter season. Spring and summer are the absolute best times to start a new starter because everything is warmer and the started has a chance to get establish. For my starter a don’t like to discard and end up making a lot of starter that I use in various recipes. There are recipes that require discard so you don’t have to waste it. This recipe is a basic starter recipe that requires discarding some of the starter.

 

Ingredients

½ Cup Whole Wheat Flour

¼ Cup Tepid Water (slightly warmer than room temperature)

½ Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1 32oz Glass Jar With Lid

 

Instructions

 

Day 1 – Pour ½ cup whole wheat flour and ¼ cup tepid water into jar and close the lid slight. Do not screw the lid on all the way just loosely screw it on. Let it sit for 24 hours.

Day 2 – After 24 hours stir mixture and add in ½ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ cup tepid water. Loosely place the lid back on the jar and sit it back in a warm spot for 24 hours.

Day 3 – You should start to see some bubbles on day three if not you may need to find a warmer spot for your started to sit. On day three you want to remove half of the started and discard it. Then add in ½ cup of all-purpose flour and ¼ cup water. Your starter should be the consistency of a thick pancake batter different flours absorb differently so you may need to add more or less water. If you need more slowly go up by tablespoons until you reach the right consistency. Let it sit for 24 hours.

Day 4 – You may see more bubbles and even some rise on day four. You can start to mark your levels after feeding using a washable not dry erase marker to see how much the levels change. On day four you want to discard half of the starter and add ½ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ cup of tepid water (more or less as need to make a thick batter.) Loosely add the lid back on and let it sit for 24 hours. The next day you should see where it rose up over night.  

Days 5-7 – Repeat steps from Day 4 on days 5-7, and make sure to mark your line after feeding. On days 5-7 your started may need to be feed twice a day but it also may not. If your started gets hungry you will notice because there will be brown liquid on the top of your started. This means that’s your started doesn’t have enough flour to eat to help it grow. If this happens stir in 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour. Keep hading 1 tablespoon and storing until the starter reaches the right consistency.

 

Notes: On day 7 and 8 your starter should be ready to use for baking. Sourdough started needs a nice warm place to grow, if the area is not warm enough it may take longer to grow it it may not grow at all. There are a lot of recipes that use sourdough discard so that you don’t have to waste food by throwing it out.

 

Warning: Sourdough bread can cause upset stomach and indigestion in some small children 5 years and under. If they have never had sourdough bread before start them off with small amounts and work them up to larger amounts slowly over time. This will give their sensitive stomach time to work up a tolerance for sourdough bread. If they are very sensitive to it wait until they older to give them sourdough bread so that their stomach has time to develop more to avoid causes permanent damage. Remember every individual is different and while some small children can eat certain foods all day long others may not be able to and may be more sensitive.