Easy No-Fail Sourdough Starter

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This sourdough starter is how I began my sourdough journey and is the recipe I encourage others to use to do the same. This recipe is easy to follow and will have you baking sourdough goodness in no time at all!

Steps to make a sourdough starter

Day 1: Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of filtered water. Stir well, cover with a tea towel or lose lid and let sit on counter for 24 hours. Days 2-5: Discard half of the starter in your jar and mix 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water. Stir well, cover and let sit for 24 hours.Days 6-7: Discard half, mix 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water. Stir well, cover and feed every 12 hours. By day 7, you should have a healthy and active sourdough starter ready to use!

Why do you have to discard?

I know it can be difficult to just toss half of your sourdough starter in the garbage. It seems wasteful. I get it! But, there are important reasons for discarding as you are growing a healthy, new starter. First, you can’t use your sourdough discard for the first 7 days as a leavening agent. This is because it hasn’t matured yet. It is still growing and hasn’t formed the beneficial yeast and healthy bubbles. You need certain ratios of the flour and water to sourdough starter, for the yeast to feed on. The more starter you have in your jar, the greater amount of flour and water you have to feed it. This would give you a ton of starter that you won’t be able to use until it is mature and healthy. And you’ll have to continually feed your starter once it’s mature, so you’d never need that much starter.

The second reason for discarding half of your starter is because you need space in your jar. When your starter is growing it expands a lot. If you have a full jar of starter, you’re going to have a big mess on your counter as the bubbles grow and the starter matures.

Once you have a healthy sourdough starter you may still find that you have too much starter at times. After all, you can only eat so much bread! Don’t worry! Not only are there tons of recipes for sourdough pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, muffins, etc., there are also numerous recipes for using up your discard. We love making pancakes, cookies, crackers, etc. out of our extra sourdough discard.

Let us know if in the comments if you have made your own sourdough starter yet.

Sourdough Starter Feeding Ratio Example

There are different options when it comes to your starter feeding ratio. I like to keep it simple! I add equal parts of flour and water to the amount of sourdough starter I currently have in my jar. For example, if I have 1/2 a cup of sourdough starter, I will add 1/4 a cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water. But, if you’re needing to make a recipe and need extra starter, you can also feed additional flour and water above this recommendation. You just don’t want to starve your starter by not feeding it enough.

Why Sourdough?

Sourdough is a fermented dough that is achieved through wild lactobacillaceae and yeast. In order to make sourdough bread, you use a natural leavening agent known as a “sourdough starter” instead of traditional yeast. Sourdough starter is created by mixing water and flour and allowing this mixture to ferment on your counter to create carbon dioxide bubbles. These bubbles allow the bread to rise naturally. The carbon dioxide is activated by the friendly bacteria and wild yeast in the flour and your environment. Sourdough is easier for your body to digest since it is naturally fermented. This makes sourdough bread more nutrient dense, easier to digest and lower in gluten.

Enjoy!