Sourdough Starter

Sourdough starter is basically a fermented flour mixture that will eventually be used as a levian when you make a bread. Replacing the yeast used in many bread recipes.

Sourdough Starter by My Mister (Rick Morton)

A sourdough starter is basically a fermented flour mixture that will eventually be used as a levian when you make a loaf of bread. It replaces the yeast used in many bread recipes.

A happy, active, and bubbly Rusty

With yeasted bread you buy the yeast and add it to some warm liquid (perhaps milk & water) to wake it up and you mix in a bit of sugar so it has something to eat. The byproduct of the yeast eating the sugar is gaseous and that is what makes the bread rise and have little air holes. With a sourdough bread you ferment flour and the bacteria created during the fermentation process is like a natural yeast. Some might think of their starter as a flatulent teenager … you feed it sugar and flour and it grows and gets gassy 🙂

From a practical standpoint, the big difference between yeast and a sourdough starter is that it takes time for the flour to ferment and you have to tend to the mixture until it becomes active. To create the starter you mix flour and some filtered water in a jar, cover it with a porous material (I use cheesecloth at home but at work we use plastic wrap), then you put it in a place where the temperature is relatively stable and relatively warm (between 20 degC and 27 degC). You must use filtered water since chlorine in tap water kills the bacteria that makes the mixture active and creates the bubbles. The temperature of the ingredients is important … all of them should be in the low to mid twenties (between 20 degC and 27degC). The cover that you put over the jar needs to allow gas to escape so don’t wrap it too tightly if you are using plastic wrap.

Once the starter is created, it needs to be maintained until it becomes active. Every twelve hours or so you create a new starter and then take half of the previous starter and mix them together. Then cover it and leave it on the counter until the next “feeding”. The other half must be tossed in the organic waste bin 🙁

You need to keep feeding the starter until it starts to become active and bubbly. This could take anywhere from 3 days to ten days depending on the temperature on your counter. If it is relatively cool then it will take longer and if it is pretty warm then it will happen faster. It’s important that the temperature doesn’t fluctuate too rapidly during this initial growth period.

Once the starter is active and you can see bubbles through the side of your container (I use straight sided mason jars so I can see the activity), you can use it to make some bread (recipe coming soon).

Sourdough Starter - RUSTY (aka OUR SOURDOUGH STARTER)

Teri-Ann Carty

A sourdough starter is basically a fermented flour mixture that will eventually be used as a levian when you make a loaf of bread. It replaces the yeast used in many bread recipes.

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Course Basics, Bread

Servings 1

Equipment

mason jar, clear bowl, or a clear glass
cheese cloth or plastic wrap

Ingredients

30 g Sorghum flour
30 g Buckwheat flour
90 g Filtered water

Instructions

Weight out the ingredients and mix them together in your container (mason jar, clear bowl, or a clear glass). Cover with cheese cloth or plastic wrap and place on your counter.

Notes

Feeding - Initial growth

Make a new starter every twelve hours and add half of the previous starter before putting it on the counter again. Discard the other half of the previous starter at this point. Repeat this process every 12 hours until your starter becomes bubbly and active. You can use this to make bread at this point or you can go into maintenance mode until you’re ready to bake.

All ingredients must be weighted … including the water.

Adding half of yesterday's starter to today's flour and water.

Prep-ed and ready to feed

Feeding - Maintenance

If you are going to make bread every day then you can feed your starter daily when you make your levian/bread. If you are going to make it once a week or less then you can put it in the fridge a couple of hours after feeding. Take it out once a week and make bread or just feed it and return it to the fridge.

Keyword baking, basics, sourdough, sourdough starter, starter

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