Feeding your Sourdough Starter

Tools Needed: Kitchen scale that measures in grams. I prefer digital.

Ingredients:

30 g sourdough starter

125g warm filtered water (no chlorinated city water)

140g white unbleached bread flour

I keep my starter on the counter, in a glass quart jar with the lid on but, not sealed. Because I like to bake, my bread, in the morning, I feed my starter late morning. I have found my starter is ready (according to the float test) in about 5-8 hours.

To feed you starter, start with a clean glass quart jar. Add 30g of starter. Add 125g warm water. Mix gently until the water is milky. Add 140g flour. Mix well. You should notice that within 5-8 hours your starter has increased in volume by 2-3 times. This may be a good time to check the readiness of your starter, by doing a float test. Also, don’t forget to save 30g for your on going starter.

Float test

Once your starter has grown in volume, you may want to check its readiness, before baking. Simply drop a teaspoon of active starter, into a glass of room temperature water. If it floats, you are ready to bake. If it sinks you either are past peak rise (needs to be fed again) or it still needs more time.

Baking Break

If you want to take a baking break, its totally fine. Your starter can live safely, in the fridge for 2 weeks, without being fed. I recommend feeding your starter, then sealing the lid and placing it, in the least cold spot, of the fridge. Mine lives in the door. When you are ready to bake again, let your starter come to room temperature and feed it. Sometimes they are slow to restart, depending on the length of refrigeration. Give it feeding or two and it will be back to actively bubbling.

Discard

This is such a simple thing but, was so confusing to me for a while. Once your starter is fed and increases in volume, you may not use it all to bake with. The leftover is referred to as discard. Basically its hungry starter. You can feed it, to keep an ongoing supply of starter, you can put it in the fridge or you can put it in the trash. It is useful! There are countless Pinterest recipes for sourdough discard. I encourage you to try some.