Feeding Sourdough Starter

So you’ve made your starter. Now you’ve got to keep it alive. Your starter doesn’t have to be a burden — you either feed it at regular weekly intervals if you’re not baking OR you feed it a few times before you make a loaf.

Note that I use a scale when doing this (some folks like to eyeball it, but I’m not quite there yet).

Ingredients

• Sourdough starter (my starter’s weight is 150g)
• Flour (unbleached all-purpose, whole wheat, or bread)
• Water

Steps

1. Discard 100g of your starter
2. A few options that I’ve done with flour combinations (as long as you’re putting in 50g):
   • 100% AP
   • 50% AP + 50% whole wheat
   • 100% bread (I usually reserve this kind of feeding when I’m about to bake)
3. Add 50g filtered water
4. Mix it all up in your container to make sure there are no dry bits left
5. Scrape the sides down (clean) and then use a wet paper towel to clean the rim of the glass (this prevents the lid from getting ‘glued’ to the container)
6. Boomski.

If I’m not baking, I’ll usually keep the newly fed starter on the kitchen counter for about an hour, then move it to the fridge for a weekish (if you see it starting to pool some water on top, then you’ll want to feed)

If I’m about to bake a loaf, I’ll place the container into the oven with the light on (this is an ideal warm environment for the starter to grow). I’ve found that it usually takes about 4 hours for the starter to reach its peak. I like to feed the starter each morning for 2-3 days before baking.

Tips

• DON’T discard your starter down the sink. Instead, discard into a gallon ziplock bag and store that bag in your fridge (prevents/slows down any fermentation from happening)
• Use unbleached all-purpose flour — when I first had my sourdough, I was using bleached flour (like a chump). I got some bubbles/growth out of the starter, but it was slow. After switching to unbleached flour, activity has really picked up and it even consistently passes the float test!
• Keep note of how much your empty starter container weighs — makes things easier when you’re discarding