It’s easy to make sourdough bread if you know what you are doing. Most things are easy, or at least less hard when you know what you are doing.
I remember the first time I read about how to make a sourdough starter. It seemed to be a piece of cake. You just had to mix flour and water, place it somewhere warm and wait.
Of course, you had to feed the starter now and then, and perhaps shake the jar sometimes. But in a couple of days, you should have a bubbling starter without much effort.
I mixed my first starter the same day.
A few weeks later I swore I would kill that ψ&#¤¥√¤ author if I met him/her on the street. There was no sign of life whatsoever in my starter.
All I could see was some ridiculously small bubbles on the surface. A result of my frenzied shaking of the jar, I suppose.
Today I seldom have any problems getting a lively bubbling starter.
I learned. By reading books, posts like this and collecting information from different forums. But most of all I learned by trial and error. I know that’s not what most beginners want to hear. Nevertheless, I think it’s true.
You can get tons of invaluable information on the internet, but in the end, there’s only one thing that will make you the best baker in the neighborhood. Getting your hands into the dough bowl and start baking.
And that’s great because it’s fun and rewarding to bake sourdough bread, even if you fail. Remember that even the best bakers fail sometimes. They just don’t show them on Facebook or Instagram.
But you will realize that even your “failures” sometimes tastes far better than the junk you buy in the grocery store.
Look at the picture below, and you will see one of my “failures”. I over proofed the dough, and when it was time to shuffle it into the oven it deflated completely.
“Are you making flatbread?” one of my family members asked in a slightly sarcastic tone.
I baked it anyhow, and it turned out to be just great. A bit flat and quite ugly, but that didn’t matter. It had all the delicious tastes and superior texture that only a real sourdough bread can offer.
“Call it a ciabatta and claim it supposed to look that way!” someone suggested on Facebook. Not a bad idea at all.
In this post, we will start where everything begins. With the sourdough starter. Every sourdough bread needs a lively and mature starter, and this is where the first problems arise for most beginners.
But if you prepare yourself carefully you can avoid most of them.
PREPARE CAREFULLY
Choose your flour.
A regular sourdough starter consists of two things. Flour and water.
The quality of the flour is very important. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it has to be alive. If your flour is sterilized (dead), you won’t see much activity in your starter. At least not for a very long time. Some claim that a starter can collect wild yeast from the air, but I’m a bit skeptical about that.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite easy to know which flour is the best.
Many claims that organic flour it superior, but I have to disagree, which is sad. I fully embrace the idea of organic food, but it’s not always the best choice when it comes to baking bread. If you can find an organic flour that works, you should, of course, use it. But be prepared that it may not turn out to be your best option.*
It can be a good idea to buy flour of two or three different brands, mix a starter with each variety, and see which one works best. As said before, the most expensive one doesn’t have to be the best but try to avoid the cheapest varieties. Bleached flour is not very common here in Sweden where I live, so I don’t have any experience with it. But I understand that it has been treated with chemicals for aesthetic reasons, and that would be enough for me to avoid it.
Make sure your sourdough starter is warm.
Your starter wants a warm environment. 80°F to 85°F (26°C to 29°C) is ideal. That can be a problem during winter time if you live in the northern hemisphere. If you can’t find a place that is warm enough, you can place your starter in the oven with the lamp lit. Add a thermometer to the starter just in case. It can be a bit too hot.
Don’t give up too quickly.
It may take a while before something happens in your starter. Don’t presume it’s dead just because nothing has happened after a couple of days. Continue feeding it for at least a week. A sourdough starter is a complex living environment that needs some time to stabilize.
ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP PLAN.
OK, so you have made all the necessary preparations, mixed your starter, placed it somewhere warm, and fed for a week o two. Still, nothing happens. All you see is some tiny bubbles at the surface. Perhaps there is some activity but not much. And it doesn’t help how much you feed it.
Then what to do?
Boost your wheat starter with rye.
If you mix one starter with wheat flour and one with rye, it’s most likely that you will see activity in the rye starter first. Rye flour is packed with microorganisms that will kickstart the fermenting process.
That’s why you should mix a rye starter even if you’re not pretending to use it. If your wheat starter is grumpy and tired, you just have to add a dollop of your rye starter that probably is trying to break out from the jar you’re keeping it in.
If you don’t want to mix a rye starter, you can add rye flour only. That will probably wake up your sleepy starter. If you want a “pure” wheat starter, you can try with whole wheat flour.
Personally, I always add a small amount of rye when I’m feeding my wheat starter. It almost never fails. You can also try to add some grated apple. I have never tried that myself, but some bakers claim that it can give some energy to a lazy starter.
Check the water quality.
If nothing helps, it may be a good idea to control the water. Most people use tap water, and in most cases that’s OK. But if your tap water consists of high levels of chlorine or chloramine you may have to do something about it.
There’s a reason why chlorine is added to tap water, and that is to kill all those nasty bacteria that can’t wait to run havoc in your stomach. The problem is that some of the good bacteria in your starter may be killed as well.
There are three ways to solve this problem. Leave some water in an open container, exposed to air for 24 hours. Most of the chlorine will evaporate.
If you’re in a hurry, you can boil the water for 15 minutes. That will, however, remove most of the oxygen in the water as well. Yeast needs oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, so you have to restore it.
You can oxygenate the water by shaking it in a half-filled PET bottle for a minute.
However, if the tap water contains high levels of chloramine, the problem is more serious. Chloramine is more stable than Chlorine and therefore much harder to remove. The most practical solution, in this case, is to use bottled water.
There you have it. My best advice on how to troubleshoot your sourdough starter. I will soon be back with some valuable information about what you should think about when baking your first sourdough bread. Meanwhile, it’s time for you to mix your own sourdough starter. Or wake up the grumpy one you already feeding and transform it into a bubbling inferno that will break out of the jar and make a complete mess in your kitchen.
And you will know that you have become a real sourdough nerd because all you can feel watching that mess is pure happiness.
Good luck.
29 Comments
Loved the article. It is well written and beautifully explained.
I’m glad you liked it, Neeru.
Hi
I’m on my third attempt. I’ve used a starter of at least half organic rye and some bread flour and half water. My last attempt got really sour/acidic but only tiny bubbles and never really rose. I read that can mean you just have bacteria that is making acid. Will you ever be able to turn it around, will it be to acid to allow for the yeast to ever take off and have to start over. It’s starting to get pretty warm in where I live in Canada now so I’m hoping the warmth helps.
I’ve also tried the set aside water to ensure its not a problem.
Hi Sarah,
I don’t think you have to worry. There are still yeast microbes in your starter. But they are not that fond of the conditions in your starter at the moment. The first thing you should do is discard at least half of it and refresh it with the same amount of flour and water.
Keep doing that every day until it start rising. It should at least double in volume, preferably more.
When you revive an old dying starter, how often do you feed it to start? Day 1, day 2, day 3 and so in?
First of all, I discard most of the starter. I only keep enough to cover the bottom of the glass jar. After that, I feed it with 50 gram water and 50 gram flour. If it’s a wheat starter, I always add a small amount of rye to speed up the process. After that, I leave the starter in room temperature. I repeat this process every day until the starter is up and running at normal strength again.
Great advice!! May I ask typically after you feed your sourdough, how long do you keep it outside or what do you watch out for before you keep it back into the chiller. Thanks!!
Hi Jenn,
Normally I feed my starter before it’s time to mix the dough or a levain. I want it to at least double in size, and that can 4-5 hours at room temperature. After I have used what I need, I put the rest back into the refrigerator.
Why does my sour dough bread not have holes?
Hi,
I was wondering how thick should my starter be? I’ve heard everything from a sticky dough consistency to a pancake batter consistency. Which is right for the best (healthiest) starter?
Hi Leah,
There is nothing right or wrong here. A stiff starter is just as good and healthy as a loose batter style one. What you should ask yourself is, What is most convenient for you. A stiff starter with less water will take a longer time to peak its activity compared to a more liquid starter. That means you have to wait longer before you can bake with it after you have refreshed it. On the other hand, it will stay on top longer, which gives you more maneuverability.
Hi my bread always bakes with the outside hard and crusty and the inside is moist. I just can’t get it to bake perfectly on the inside
Hi Bob,
It sounds like your bread is perhaps not fully baked. Have you checked the inner temperature? It should be at least 190°F, sometimes more if you are baking baguettes for example.
Another problem can be insufficient fermentation. Is the crumb tight and dense? If so, I think you have a fermentation issue.
It’s a bit hard to give a straight answer with so little information. Can you give me some more detailed information about the crumb? If you could send me a photo it would be even better.
Hi Tomas!
I just started the whole sourdough adventure last week. My starter does indeed double in size throughout the day, but it has only small bubbles and looks nowhere like the jar in your picture. Am I doing something wrong? I feed it 50g of all purpose flour, 50g of rye flour and 100g of water each day.
Hi Tiana,
I don’t think you are doing anything particular wrong. I just think you need some patience. Perhaps it’s time to feed it twice a day. It sounds like your starter is not ready yet. But you can make a test bake with it and see what happens.
Hi Tomas,
I’m new at this and this is my first attempt and I’m using a Cultures for Health rye starter. It bubbled, though not robustly, until I discarded down to 1/2 cup and started to feed with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour. At discard time, was it a mistake to transfer from the glass jar to a plastic tub that was large enough to contain the 1/2 cup water+1/2 cup flour for 3-7 days? So the 2nd day, when it did not bubble, I fed it some rye flour to revive it and it doesn’t seem to be helping. Did I go wrong switching to a plastic tub, or is it not hopeless? How thick should it be at this point? Thank you for any advice!
Hi there.
If the plastic tub was clean and food safe, I find it hard to believe that it would have any impact on your starter. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the feeling that you have bought a ready-made starter.
If so, I think that can be the problem. I don’t think it’s anything wrong with that starter, but adding flour to an unknown starter can be a bit hazardous. That starter is simply not used to your flour.
If you still have that starter, try to continue feeding it for a couple of days and see what happens. Let become used to your flour.
Hi Tomas. I just discarded my third starter attempt after feeding for 5 days with no visible activity. (Tried using rye and had one day of great bubble activity, then nothing). I have many questions, but I’ll start with these?
– Does it matter whether you feed by volume or weight? I have tried both, and by weight uses much less water. 100 g flour = 1 c, but 100 g water= 1/2 c)!!
Also what amount to feed…should it be double the starter? So to I/2 c starter add 1 c flour and 1 c water (by volume).OR 100g flour and 100g water (by weight)?
– Do you feed daily regardless of whether there is any activity? When do you know whether to “give up” on a batch? And how do you know when to start feeding twice a day? And how do you know when the starter is “Mature?”
Thanks for these troubleshooting tips. They’ve been very helpful… I’m encouraged to try again….
Hi Cathy,
First of all, 5 days is not that long. I think you are giving up to early. It’s quite common that your starter initially starts to bubble and then “dies”. However, it’s not dead. It’s just recovering. Keep feeding it for at least 5 more days. I would say it takes at least 7 to 10 days to get an active starter. But I wouldn’t give up before two weeks of feeding.
I strongly recommend you to measure ingredients by weight. The actual amount of flour can vary a lot if you using a measuring cup. Measure by weight is more precise.
I feed daily except for the first two or three days, regardless of activity, and as said before, I don’t give up early.
I start to feed it twice when the starter rises (doubles in volume) and falls back for the first time.
I guess you mean ready to bake with when you are saying mature. I would say it should rise and fall back repeatedly for two or three times after feeding. The volume should at least double in size, preferably more.
I have written an ebook about making a sourdough starter. You can download it for free if you sign up for my newsletter. There you will find much more useful information.
Good luck, and don’t give up.
Your tips are very educational. I’m a newbie and looking for all tips.
I’m glad to hear that, Nor.
I’m just in to my second day but have some questions. When can the discard be used? At what point do I start feeding twice daily?
I presume that when you say my second day, you mean that you mixed your starter yesterday or the day before? If so, you probably have to wait at least 4-5 days or more until it’s ready to use. Your starter should at least double in size, preferably more, after each feeding. You can start feeding twice when the volume increase is between 75-100%.
Hi,
I have been feeding my 1st attempt at a sourdough starter for 2 weeks now. It bubbles on top, but I see nothing on the sides. It also fails the test to see if it is ready to use…the one where you drop a small amount in water to see if it floats…mines sinks. Feeding it unbleached flour 2x a day. Using filtered water.
Help. I’m about ready to give up.
Thanks
Hi Romalue,
Perhaps it’s time to start all over again. Try a different kind of flour. Mix a new starter, but don’t feed it for the first two days. Then start to feed it ones a day. When it starts to rise a bit start feeding it twice.
And don’t give up.
ןm trying to make a starter, , but it is not rising , it has a good smell, but i keep feeding it but its not bubbling, what did i do wrong??
Hi Shoshana
There are many possible reasons why your starter is not that active. How long have you been feeding your starter? How often do you feed it? Once a day, twice a day? Is it wheat or a rye starter?
If it is a wheat starter it sometimes helps to add a small amount of whole rye or wheat. What is the temperature where you keep your starter? Try to keep it in a warm place if possible. You can also try to use warm water, 77°F/25°C, when feeding. If you can give me some more information about your starter I will do my best to help you.
I can’t find how much water and how much flour to use for the start. And how much to use for feeding the starter. Thanks
Hi Margit,
This article describes things that are good to know if you have a problem with your starter. It’s not a recipe. If you are looking for a recipe I suggest you download my ebook “How to make a sourdough starter”. You can get it for free if you sign up for my newsletter.