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This is your ultimate guide to sourdough starter and becoming a super healthy sourdough baker extraordinaire!
Sourdough can seem like a daunting and intimidating baking challenge but I’m writing this guide to show you how easy it is.
I will explain what sourdough is, how it works, and how to make it work for you. If you ever feel intimidated during the sourdough process just try to remember that up until two hundred years ago, all leavened bread was made traditionally with wild yeast and bacteria (sourdough)!
My fifteen year old sourdough is my pride and joy. I bake with it at least once a week and it’s become a part of my family and part of my history and evolution as a chef.
I’ve recently made a commitment to only eat soaked and fermented grains for the rest of my life.
I know, that’s a big commitment!
What that means is that I now make my own breads, crackers, pancakes, waffles, biscuits, muffins, tortillas, pasta, pastry crust, cookies, cakes, English muffins, and quickbreads all with my trusty and very happy mother starter.
It is my mission to transform every recipe that uses wheat flour into a sourdough recipe.
You can see all of my sourdough recipes here.
Beautiful Sourdough Baked Goods
Copyright Butter For All
Monika
Thursday 9th of July 2020
Please help me my sourdough bread always comes out sour . i did float test . how can i get no sour sourdough bread . Thanks
Beth
Thursday 9th of July 2020
Hi thank you for sharing. Is there anyway to print all the pages in one document without cutting and pasting?
Erin Cork Woolfolk
Monday 22nd of June 2020
Hi! I've been following along with your sourdough guide and had what I thought was a great starter after 2 weeks of feeding it. There were lots of bubbles and it was doubling in size after being fed. I used it to bake your whole wheat sourdough bread, but the bread didn't rise very much when baked. The bread dough had doubled in size overnight when left out, like the directions say it should. I put it in the refrigerator for about 24 hours before baking. I put the dough in the oven cold straight out of the refrigerator, should I have let it come to room temperature before baking?
Butter For All
Wednesday 24th of June 2020
Hi Erin,
I'm so sorry to hear it. It could be that the starter isn't strong enough to do a cold ferment (YET). Yes, if it didn't rise in the fridge, I would let a new starter come to room temp and rise before baking. Or even better, try shaping the dough and leaving it to proof again at room temp next time. You could also sub up to 50% bread flour if the WW is still too dense! Let me know how it goes!
Courtney
Emma
Monday 25th of May 2020
Hi! We received starter from a friend of ours who has been making bread for years. We've had it for almost a week now and have been feeding it but after about 3 days of normal results it now looks really soup-y every morning and hasn't grown at all..did we mess it up or is it salvagable?
Daria
Saturday 6th of June 2020
Hi,
I am new to this. I started with 50/50... on day 2 you tell us to remove half and add in 25/25... next day we remove the 50 and add 25/25 until we need to feed twice a day. Doesn't it rise? You have a photo posted with it overflowing :( is this starter for one time only? 50 grams in total? What about recipes that say 125g? :( now what? Thank you!
Butter For All
Wednesday 27th of May 2020
Hi Emma,
It's salvageable! Just keep feeding it. Every 12 hours. The yeast/bacteria ratio probably changed due to the flour/water/environment you are using. It might take a bit of time to equal out again. Let me know how it goes.
Courtney
Carol Warner
Saturday 16th of May 2020
Hi Courtney, So by day 15, you have a strong starter ready for baking but it’s only around 50g. You need 250g of starter, and add 125g each flour and water...would this increased volume weaken the starter? And if it’s a whole meal starter, is it okay to change to white flour or 50/50 white/whole meal? ~Carol~
Butter For All
Wednesday 8th of July 2020
Hi again, Carol!
That is exactly what you do. You build the starter to the desired amount before using it. It actually does the opposite, and strengthens the starter by giving it plenty of food! Once your starter is established you can use any flour to feed it, but I keep mine with AP and save my nice whole grain flour for bread! Note that different flours may have different results so it's best to watch your starter and judge based on how it reacts!
Hope that helps!
Courtney