How to make sourdough starter: the practical guide and secrets for a perfect dough.
There are various schools of thought on how to create and refresh sourdough.
Today I want to share my experience and the great satisfaction this “living organism” can bring me.
Sourdough is simply a mixture of well-measured flour and water, left to ferment spontaneously with an “activator” (such as honey, apple pulp, or yogurt) to give the initial boost to the bacterial load. Unlike industrial yeast, sourdough is a complex ecosystem of yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. This balance gives baked goods superior digestibility, a unique aroma, and much longer preservation.
When starting to make sourdough, you need to have a lot of patience, especially in the initial phase, and follow all the refreshments regularly. This will allow our dough to become strong and usable after 30 days; however, if you cannot wait that long, it is possible to use it even after 15 days, but only if you have been regular with the refreshments. Now let’s see together how to make sourdough, the various tips and refreshments until it is ready for baking.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 60 Days
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 1Piece
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 331.64 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 72.31 (g) of which sugars 4.61 (g)
- Proteins 11.52 (g)
- Fat 1.00 (g) of which saturated 0.18 (g)of which unsaturated 0.78 (g)
- Fibers 2.90 (g)
- Sodium 4.39 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for making sourdough starter
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1 teaspoon honey
Tools
- 1 Jar tall and spacious glass
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Scale
- 1 Spatula
How to make sourdough starter
Preparation
Place in the bowl: the flour, water, and honey. Start mixing with a spatula or a fork, then with your hands, until you get a smooth dough. Put the dough inside the jar and cover with a gauze or a cotton cloth, as it needs to breathe. Now let it rest at room temperature away from drafts for 48 hours.
After 48 hours, do the refreshment with:
1 3/4 cups All-purpose Flour
1/2 cup water
At this point, take the starter and retrieve 200 g of dough, remove the top, which is less active, trying to take the core of the dough, the remaining unfortunately will have to be discarded. Put it in a bowl and add 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup of water. Knead and put the dough back in the jar, cover, and let it rest for another 48 hours. You will gradually see the mixture make its first bubbles, create small alveolations, and release a slightly acidic smell: it’s a sign it’s growing.
The refreshment phase requires real consistency and patience
Continue doing these refreshments for at least 15 consecutive days, but my advice is to do them for 30 days. After 30 days, our dough will have gained strength and will have become sourdough starter.
Long-term management:
Once the starter is mature, ready for baking, you can decide how to store it. If you don’t bake daily, there’s no need to refresh it every day, and it can be stored in the refrigerator, inside a tall glass or plastic jar with a lid. It needs to be refreshed once a week; if you keep it out of the fridge, the refreshments need to be done every day.
For example, when I plan to bake, I prefer to organize myself like this: refresh the starter in the morning, let it ferment, prepare the bread dough in the evening, and let it rise slowly overnight to bake it in the morning.
After thirty days, as I said above, the sourdough starter is mature, it has stabilized, and the scents become sweeter and more fruity, losing the excessive acidity of the first days. Being a living organism, it always grows. My advice is to refresh only 100 g of dough.
So every time it should be done this way:
Starter + Flour in the same proportion and half water:
100 g of starter
100 g of Flour
50 ml of water
Golden rules not to make mistakes:
Cleaning: Always use well-cleaned glass jars (without soap residues).
Observation: Learn to “read” your starter; if it smells like vinegar or alcohol, it usually means it’s hungry. By this, I mean that perhaps you waited too long to refresh it, or it took too much heat. If it smells good and has a smell of apple, sweetness, or yogurt, it has a light color and a nice consistency, then it is in perfect health.
Love: It may sound trivial, but the sourdough starter reacts to its environment. Treat it with care, and it will reward you with unforgettable bread, focaccia, and pizzas.A starter is healthy and ready for baking when, after a refreshment, it can triple its volume in about 4 hours at a temperature of 78-82°F, but the time can also vary. Many times if it doesn’t grow in this interval, it is still weak and needs further close refreshments.
How to tell if the sourdough starter has gone bad?
If you notice a strong smell, like vinegar, or even a too dark color, or mold spots, unfortunately, the starter is no longer good and should be discarded. This can happen because it has fermented too much or has been contaminated.The excess dough that results from each refreshment will have to be discarded, or it can be used for many other recipes. I always try to use it, for example, this is a recipe made with the surplus.
Tips
Cleaning the jar
The jar used to keep your starter should be tall, made of glass or plastic with a lid. With each new refreshment, the jar should be cleaned of previous residues, using only hot water and never detergent.
You can also freeze it
As I wrote above, if stored in the fridge, the sourdough starter should be refreshed every week; if kept outside, it should be refreshed every day, otherwise it will die. You might not use it for a period of time, “perhaps in summer,” in which case it can be frozen, even for a month. But before freezing, it should be refreshed, then placed in a freezer food bag and frozen. When defrosting, leave it at room temperature for about 12/15 hours, and after it has defrosted and grown, always do the new refreshment and store it as before freezing.
If you store the sourdough starter in the fridge, before refreshing it, keep it at room temperature for at least 2 hours, and once refreshed, put it back in the fridge after 2/3 hours
Which flours to use for refreshing the starter?
I never use the same flour for various refreshments but alternate between all-purpose, whole wheat, sometimes even durum wheat. I try not to refresh with all-purpose flour, but if during the refreshment you find yourself with nothing else, it’s okay. Sometimes the dough may be stickier, which also depends on the flour used. After the refreshment, before putting it in the fridge, you can oil the jar with a little extra virgin olive oil or some flour, it helps when we need to retrieve it.
Sourdough can also be prepared with gluten-free flour; my starter has been the same for over 10 years.
Here are some recipes made with sourdough
Whole Wheat Rolls, White Focaccia, Homemade Bread,
If you like baked goods, I also leave you the category with sweets 😉
