Sourdough Starter
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This quick sourdough starter is a faster way to have your own healthy, thriving sourdough starter in just 24 hours. This recipe leverages commercial yeast to jumpstart the fermentation process.
I prefer to think of myself as industrious. It’s definitely not that I’m kind of lazy and a little (a lot) impatient. I’m working smarter, not longer with this sourdough starter!
This faster, easy sourdough starter is dedicated to industriousness.
November 2024 update: I am still using the same starter I made in this tutorial – we’ve not missed a beat!
Master Your Sourdough Starter In 5 Days!
From Confused To Confident.
Find success with 5 simple, actionable secrets delivered to you. No more guessing games – just clear, proven steps to a thriving starter.
Tips
- Each day when it comes to feeding time, transfer your starter to a clean jar or container, add the water to the starter and stir until completely combined before adding the flour. This step is helpful in ensuring the starter is completely distributed!
- If you’re intimidated by a 7 -10 day sourdough starter, this is a GREAT starting point. You’re going to see activity every day and can start baking by the second day, although the flavor, complexity and leavening power will only improve over time.
- It helps to get into a routine! If you’re a counter keeper, try to always feed your sourdough at the same time, I like to feed my babies while my morning coffee is brewing. If they’re in the fridge, I like to keep them front and center (so I don’t lose them in the back. RIP Fred) and feed them each Sunday!
- Keep your starter in a non-airtight container. If using a mason jar, simply set the flat lid on top of the jar and spin on the ring only enough to keep the flat lid in place.
Key Ingredients
Flour: This recipe calls for unbleached all purpose flour. This can be substituted for organic unbleached flour or even unbleached bread flour.
Water: It’s important to use filtered water for this recipe, sometimes, treated municipal/city tap water can kill the yeast. It’s equally important to use the right temperature water, too cold and the starter will take too long, too hot and the yeast will be killed.
Yeast: I always have a jar of yeast in the fridge, and for this recipe, I use active dry yeast. The larger granules take longer to re-hydrate and are slower to propagate in the starter. This is ideal since we are leaving it for 24 hours.
How To Make A Sourdough Starter Quicker
Day 1:
- In a large, non-metallic container, mix 100g unbleached all purpose flour, 100g room temperature water, and 1/2 teaspoon of active dry yeast until completely combined. No need to proof the yeast.
- Either cover the container with a clean kitchen towel or transfer it to a glass or plastic container with at least 3 times the volume of the starter – it will grow! Do not seal airtight – your starter needs to breath.
- Set the starter in a warm spot, free of temperature swings, and drafts to ferment for 24 hours.
Day 2:
- After 24 hours, stir down the bubbles and transfer 50 g of starter to a clean starter jar and feed it by mixing in 50 g warm water until mostly combined, then add 50 g unbleached all purpose flour and stir until completely combined.
You can save any amount of starter you’d like, but just remember it must be fed 1:1:1 ratio of starter:water:flour to keep your starter at 100% hydration. discard all but 50 g of starter and feed it with 50 g room temperature water and 50 g unbleached all purpose flour. If you notice a layer of liquid (hooch) on the bottom of the jar, stir this in before discarding. - Once the fed starter is fed, bubbly, and doubled in volume it’s ready to use! This will take about 6-12 hours depending on your kitchen and starter.
Day 3 + Onward:
- Transfer 50 g of starter to a clean starter jar and feed it by mixing in 50 g warm water until mostly combined, then add 50 g unbleached all purpose flour and stir until completely combined.
You can save any amount of starter you’d like, but just remember it must be fed 1:1:1 ratio of starter:water:flour to keep your starter at 100% hydration. - See the following section for more information on storage!
Master Your Sourdough Starter In 5 Days!
From Confused To Confident.
Find success with 5 simple, actionable secrets delivered to you. No more guessing games – just clear, proven steps to a thriving starter.
Sourdough Starter Feeding + Storage
This all depends on your baking proclivities!
Daily to bi-weekly baker
If you plan on baking daily or few times a week, you’ll want to keep your starter at room temperature. This will keep it warm and active whenever you’re ready for it!
To keep your starter alive, you’ll need to feed it every 24-36 hours. You can play with the feeding schedule a bit, once you get to know your starter and how hungry it is. The starter should be fed after the culture doubles in size and deflates, and ideally before hooch starts to form.
You’ll know your starter has begun to deflate by the slide marks left on your jar!
Weekly or less frequent
Not a huge baker? Don’t have a lot of time to devote to the sourdough? Don’t let this deter you. You can bake beautiful sourdoughs as frequently or infrequently as you like.
If you’re an infrequent baker, keep your sourdough in the fridge! This slows down the fermentation time considerably and allows you to feed your sourdough only once a week. Due to the length of time between feeds, the refrigerated starter will likely have hooch forming on the top, this is totally fine, stir it in and feed as required.
If keeping your starter in the fridge, simply remove it from the fridge, stir and feed, and rest for 12-24 hours before baking.
Is My Starter Healthy?
Most likely. There are few things that can go wrong with a sourdough starter, and they are pretty resiliant!
To determine the health of your starter, first start by spending some time with it! Use your senses:
Smell:
Your stater will have a scent. This is normal! We are growing a community of yeast and bacteria, here. It’s gonna smell, and the smell isn’t necessarily indicative of the health of your starter as much as the types of yeasts growing in it.
These scents are normal:
- Fed starter:
- fruity
- yeasty
- cheesy
- overripe fruit
- Hungry starter:
- vinegar
- wine
- nail polish remover
- gym socks
Your starter may smell strongly, but it shouldn’t be offensive. If the starter smells like rotting meat or otherwise completely awful, it’s time to start over.
Appearance:
A happy starter will look different at different times of it’s feeding cycle.
- Fed starter:
- the starter will be thick, like peanut butter
- Active starter:
- dotted with large and small bubbles throughout
- domed on the surface
- double in volume within 8-12 hours
- Hungry starter:
- deflated
- thinner consistency than a freshly fed starter
- may have a darkish liquid (hooch) on top
- slide marks visible on the jar
What’s Hooch?
No, we’re not talking about that relative brewing moonshine in the guest bathtub! We’re talking sourdough hooch!
Sourdough starters release a liquid while they’re eating away at the fresh flour they’ve been fed. This alcohol is given off by the yeast as it ferments. Hooch can range in color from clear to dark grey, and generally darkens more as it’s left longer.
Repeat after me “hooch is not bad!” Hooch is a sign that your sourdough is hungry! If you see your starter consistently giving off hooch, you’ll know it’s time to adjust your feeding schedule.
Now, the question is what do I do with the hooch? Some people recommend to pour it off, some people recommend to stir it in. I personally like to stir it in, this helps me keep my hydration levels consistent and can add a bit more tang to the starter.
Has My Starter Gone Bad?
As previously mentioned, there are few things that can go wrong with a sourdough starter.
Bad bacteria taking up residence:
Sometimes, the bad bacteria overwhelm the good bacteria and create a hostile environment for the good stuff! You’ll know this has happened to your starter when you see a faint orange or pink streak on the surface. Or actual fuzzy mold forms on top. Or it smells so foul you don’t think you could handle cooking with it.
Death of the yeast:
A strong starter is pretty hard to kill – even though I managed to kill mine, he got lost in the back of the fridge for 3 months. Yikes. {November 2021 update – I should not have given up on that starter so easily! I just revived a sourdough starter that had gone unfed in the fridge for over 4 months!}
Neglect can cause your wild yeast to die off, making it easier to be invaded by bad bacteria. Lack of feeding, or temperatures over 90f can have adverse effects on your starter.
If the starter is dead, you will likely have a large amount of dark hooch on the top, and the starter will not activate after feedings. It’s time to start over!
Starter Vs. Discard
They both contain the same ingredients, and come from the same place, so what’s the difference?
Starter is fed and active sourdough starter, while discard is the unfed and inactive sourdough starter. Starter is generally harvested 4-6 hours after a feeding when the sourdough host is bubbly and at it’s most active, discard is harvested when the sourdough host is hungry and before it’s fed again.
A starter that has at least doubled in size and active is able to leaven bread, while a nearly inactive discard cannot. Discard can, however, be used in recipes that use a secondary leavening agent, like baking soda or baking powder.
Master Your Sourdough Starter In 5 Days!
From Confused To Confident.
Find success with 5 simple, actionable secrets delivered to you. No more guessing games – just clear, proven steps to a thriving starter.
How To Use Starter
- About 6 hours before you’re ready to bake, feed your starter according to the recipe below and set it in a comfortable place for it to activate.
- When prepared to bake, stir the starter down, knocking the air bubbles out of the starter before scooping it into a measuring cup.
- Follow your sourdough recipe as required.
Float test:
There’s a lot of talk about the float test on the internet. Some swear that it’s a great way to test the viability of your starter for use in bread making, others say it doesn’t matter.
Personally, I think it makes sense, once the yeast has activated and started to create bubbles in the starter, the starter will float due to added buoyancy from the trapped air. That said, I do not use it.
To do the float test, simply drop a small amount of sourdough starter in a glass of water, if it floats, it’s all good! If it doesn’t float, might be time to feed your starter!
How To Use Discard
Discard can be used in many recipes, sweet or savoury. The fermented discard will add a layer of flavor and tenderness that a base recipe cannot achieve. Discard can also be used to start ANOTHER sourdough starter – this is great for gifting, starting a second starter with a different flour (and therefore, different flavour), or storing longer term if you’re particularly fond of your starter.
Discard can be used immediately, or kept at room temperature for approximately 24 hours, or stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 7 days before use.
Use Discard In Any Recipe
Your sourdough discard can ALSO be worked into nearly any recipe. It just requires a bit of math. (I know… SORRY!)
- Know the hydration of your starter. This is easy if you’re following my sourdough starter recipe, as my hydration is 100%.
- Weigh your discard. Let’s use 100 g for example, if we know our 100 g discard is 100% hydration, that means we can ascertain with pretty close confidence that the 100 g is made up of 50 g flour and 50 g water.
- Look at your recipe: Subtract 50 g from the total flour required and 50 g from the total water required in the finished recipe, and add the 100 g discard!
If your recipe is stated volumetric vs weights (cups v grams) you’ll need to do a BIT more figuring, and this math is less accurate, but should still work for most recipes.
Check out this handy dandy chart over at King Arthur Flour.
Using this chart, we know that 1 cup of all-purpose flour = 120g and 1 cup of water = 227g. 50 g of flour is approximately 1/3 cup of flour, and 50g of water is about 1/5 cup or 3 1/2 tablespoons. Reduce the final recipe by 1/3 cup of flour and 3 1/2 tablespoons of water.
Master Your Sourdough Starter In 5 Days!
From Confused To Confident.
Find success with 5 simple, actionable secrets delivered to you. No more guessing games – just clear, proven steps to a thriving starter.
📖 Printable Recipe
Easy Sourdough Starter With Yeast –> Ready in 24 Hours!
Ingredients
day 1:
- 100 g filtered water
- 100 g unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
day 2:
- 50 g filtered water
- 50 g unbleached all purpose flour
Instructions
Day 1:
- In a large, non-metallic container, mix 100g unbleached all purpose flour, 100g room temperature water, and 1/2 teaspoon of active dry yeast until completely combined. No need to proof the yeast.
- Either cover the container with a clean kitchen towel or transfer it to a glass or plastic container with at least 3 times the volume of the starter – it will grow! Do not seal airtight – your starter needs to breath.
- Set the starter in a warm spot, free of temperature swings, and drafts to ferment for 24 hours.
Day 2:
- After 24 hours, stir down the bubbles and transfer 50 g of starter to a clean starter jar and feed it by mixing in 50 g warm water until mostly combined, then add 50 g unbleached all purpose flour and stir until completely combined.You can save any amount of starter you’d like, but just remember it must be fed 1:1:1 ratio of starter:water:flour to keep your starter at 100% hydration. discard all but 50 g of starter and feed it with 50 g room temperature water and 50 g unbleached all purpose flour. If you notice a layer of liquid (hooch) on the bottom of the jar, stir this in before discarding.
- Once the fed starter is fed, bubbly, and doubled in volume it’s ready to use! This will take about 6-12 hours depending on your kitchen and starter.
Day 3 + Onward:
- Transfer 50 g of starter to a clean starter jar and feed it by mixing in 50 g warm water until mostly combined, then add 50 g unbleached all purpose flour and stir until completely combined.You can save any amount of starter you’d like, but just remember it must be fed 1:1:1 ratio of starter:water:flour to keep your starter at 100% hydration.
- See storage directions below!
Notes
Feeding + Storage
frequent baker Keep your starter at room temperature in a NON-airtight container. To keep it alive, you’ll need to feed it every 24 -36 hours, depending on the rate of fermentation. infrequent baker: Keep your starter in a loosely covered container in the fridge. To keep a refrigerated starter alive, it must be removed from the fridge, allowed to warm up slightly before feeding, then returned to the fridge. To bake with a refrigerated starter, remove the starter from the fridge 12 hours before baking, feed it as normal and allow it to activate before using.Recommended Equipment + Ingredients
Nutrition
Can’t Miss Sourdough Guides
Pin this easy sourdough starter recipe!
Hi, I love your recipes and am just trying this one now, I was wondering – I couldn’t tell from the photos, does it matter if the sourdough is in an air tight container or not during the first 3 days? Thanks
That is so great to hear, thank you! Great question, It should not be airtight. When it’s in the mason jar, I place a piece of woven cotton on top to keep things out but allow airflow. The plastic containers are not airtight, either, I will amend the post to add this information!
My starter has not resin as high as yours. At our Walmart there is petrified, spring, distilled, and drinking water. I am using spring water hoping that is the closest to filtered water. Is that killing my yeast?
Any of those should work, I use water from my reverse osmosis when I’m starting a new starter, but after that I just use my well water.
Did your starter double in size? It should have, but if not, your yeast might be a bit older. You can always feed it again once it deflates and watch to see what happens!
Hi,
I am so excited to try this recipe. Is it ok to use whole wheat flour for the starter? I started mine yesterday and it looks a little limp and sad right now. It looks like there is a layer of hooch (I guess) on the bottom. Its time for me to feed again, but Im wondering did the whole wheat flour sabotage my starter???
It shouldn’t have. There is more food in the whole wheat flour than all purpose or bread flour! I’d just stir it all together feed it again to see what happens!
This is THE best description/tutorial on sourdough starter that I have read anywhere! You explain every little nuance and the reason behind why you do everything. The pictures help so much, too. I’m very good at reading and following instructions (I was a career grant writer), but most people’s instructions are vague and incomplete. Yours are brilliant! A million thank yous. I now feel confident about creating my own sourdough starter. 🙂
I am so glad to help you get that confidence! Good luck with your sourdough baking 🙂
I’m a little confused. On your easy sourdough starter with yeast ready in 24 hours. Do you include step one in day 2 before using starter or do you just stir and use at spent 3 on day one and add nothing else. Thanks
You will be feeding a portion of your starter, 50g of the total from the first day with 50g of water and 50g of flour. Once that mixture from the feed doubles in volume and becomes airy, you’ll be using the required amount of that for your recipe. If you use my small loaf sourdough recipe, you’ll be using 60g of the fed, doubled starter. There will be starter remaining, which you can allow to deflate and then feed again the next day.
Can you freeze a part of this? I always freeze a part of my friendship starter and I never have a problem with reviving it can I do that with this? Thank you it looks like a blast
Yes!!! I have a great tutorial on how to store sourdough dough starter if you’re interested!!
Please put in imperial measurements.
Hi Shirley, sourdough should really be made by weights (eg 50g vs volume 2 oz or 1/4 cup). Metric weights seem intimidating but most or all kitchen scales should weigh things in grams for you. The reason for this is that the 1/4 cup of flour you scoop and the 1/4 cup of flour I scoop can be two wildly different weights based on the type of flour, humidity, scooping method etc. So the best bet to achieve consistent results is by weighing all the ingredients. The easiest way is to place your mixing bowl on the scale and use the tare function on your scale to zero out or ignore the weight of the bowl. Then add the starter, again tare to zero out the weight, water, tare, and finally flour.
I hope that’s helpful!
Ally, I’m a long time sourdough baker but haven’t in a few years so I read through a number of your articles to refresh my methods. Thanks so much for them as they have been a great read. In reading through the comments, I notice what I remembered from other sources. People often seem to expect instant results, more especially when you introduce the commercial yeast. Perhaps you might give duration ranges and comment on how things always come around with patience. The best line I read written by you was about feeding your starter again if you don’t get the results you expected, that’s always a great suggestion.
Ah I’m so glad to have helped jog your memory. It’s like riding a bike, if your bike had a lot of rules and needs, am I right?! haha! That’s a great idea, I will take some time to add a little note about timeframes and tempering expectations based on time!
You can’t use commercial yeast and call it sourdough
This starter uses commercial yeast to kickstart the sourdough starter process. Commercial yeast is developed to give consistent results within a consistent time frame – in this process, we are training that same yeast to behave how we want them to.
We can argue semantics, but both store-bought yeast and sourdough starter use yeast to leaven bread. Is it a shortcut? Yes. Does it work? Also yes, I have been rocking the same starter for years now!
Rick is right – this ISNT sourdough. You are simply making a yeast culture. Where is the “sour”?
You need lactobacillus. I would even let the commercial yeast thing slide since you are deliberately trying to fast-track things but the lack of any Lactobacillus means you are NOT making sourdough bread. Try putting a scope of yougurt in, or even just some whey if you want it to be SOURdough
Hey James – while I understand what you’re saying, I think we’re still splitting hairs here.
From the research I’ve done, the commercial yeast will kickstart the process but it eventually dies off, making way for the more hardy wild yeasts to take over.
There is wild yeast in the ingredients fed to my starter and lactic acid bacteria around my environment, it’s not inconceivable that the changes in the starter happen just the same as when a person moves to a new place and feeds their starter different water or flour, or a starter is gifted to another baker and that starter changes its composition based on the wild yeasts in the new owner’s hands, home, and ingredients. Here is an article about the sourdough microbiome and a scientific study that discusses the origin of LAB species in sourdough starters.
This starter behaves exactly like a sourdough starter should and is plenty sour, and I have no doubts that should it be sequenced, it would have all the same major components as other’s more “pure” starters.
Great starter recipe! The first day my starter was bubbling. I followed your directions for day two. Today is day three and I didn’t see any growth except hooch! I am weighing the ingredients, what am I doing wrong? Thanks
You’re not doing anything wrong, sometimes starters are finicky at the beginning. If your starter is developing hooch within 24 hours, that means it’s active but going through its food too quickly. You can slow down the activity on your starter by feeding it with cold water or even placing it somewhere cooler. If there is a lot of hooch or a marked lack of rise, you can give it a double feed. Use 50g starter and 100g water with 100g flour, then set it aside for 24 hours. That should really fire it up. I find a double feed can be a good boost to a sluggish starter!
Will this work with gluten free 1:1 flour?
Hi Catmk, I have not tried sourdough baking with gluten free flour, and I’m afraid that I would NOT be a good resource! So sorry :<
@Ally, I think I remember King Arthur has a recipe for gluten-free sourdough
Oh that’s a good tip! I think there is a large group on facebook dedicated to gluten free sourdough baking as well!
Hello! I’m using this recipe for a school project (Thank you so much for the recipe, I really needed something quick an easy!), but I was wondering if I can use the discard to make an extra starter to give to my teacher?
So happy you found it helpful! Yes, you can certainly use the discard to propagate a new starter! The easiest way would be to feed some of the discard in a separate container and then hand off the other container 🙂
@Ally,
Thank you so much!
Hey there! I just started this sourdough starter recipe and with in the first couple of hours it has already risen 3x its size and fallen half its size. It also has some clear liquid (hooch I think) at the bottom of the jar. Could I have had it in too warm of a spot? What should I do slow down the rising time?
Thanks!!
Hey Shelby – sorry for the slow reply – we took our kids on a vacation!
I’m sure you’re well past this spot in your starter journey, but to answer your question, yes, if you find your yeast is activating too quickly, you can slow it down in a cooler spot! When I leave my starter at room temp ~70 degrees, I feed it every 24 hours. Hope that helps!
This cleared up a lot of questions I had. I’ve been reading so many different blogs and watching YouTube videos and was still confused. Thank you so much for just putting it simple straight forward.
That’s great to hear! Good luck on your sourdough journey!
what do i do with the discard on day 2?
Most people toss their discard for the first week, but because we inoculated this batch with thriving commercial yeast, you can put it in a container and store it in the fridge while you build up more discard! I have a guide on what to do with sourdough discard, and a guide on storing sourdough discard. Hope that helps!
After the first 24 hours my starter didn’t really seem any bigger and got a hard shell over the whole thing? I had it in a bowl and had a towel around it. Did I do something wrong??
Hey Morgan, I don’t think you did anything wrong! It’s hard to measure rise in a bowl, so I do recommend using a straight sided container for your starter, as for the shell, because the towel allows airflow, the top layer just dried out. You can peel off the top layer and salvage the stuff underneath – after the next feed, put a less porus cover over the starter. I like to use mason jars and rest the jar lid on top, or a deli take out container that’s not airtight and place the lid on top. It’s important that the cover isn’t airtight, but prevents some airflow. Hope that helps!
@Ally, I had the same thing happen and I mixed the shell in. It absorbed right in and kept on trucking. Is there a caution about doing that often? Thanks I really enjoyed this tutorial and I agree with others about being confused before reading your explanation. I am on day 2 but I started mine before I found you. So no yeast but it a growing and bubbling way more than I expected for the first day. My suspicion is that there’s a lot of yeast in the air because I’ve been baking bread the past few days and resting it over night on the counter. Thanks for taking the time to explain this process!!
Hi Tatum,
No, I can’t see it being a problem to mix it in! It’s probably easier to just discard it, though – much harder to mix a semi solid blob lol. I’m glad you enjoyed the read <3 Keep me posted on your starter's progress - I'm interested to hear how it goes because I'm pretty sure you're right about the yeast rich environment you started it in!
Hi, I have been trying to get a starter up and working. I will have bubbling after 24 hours but after the first feeding it does nothing and the bubbles do not return. I do get the liquid either on top or beneath and have tried pouring it off or mixing it in. What am I doing wrong?
You’re not doing anything wrong! Sourdough starters are picky critters!
So to clarify you’re feeding it every 24 hours and it’s not inflating or deflating at all? There’s no way that you could be missing the rise? or a slight rise? Are you marking the starter jar? Another way to know for sure is to mix it then transfer to a clean jar where the slide marks and rise would be very evident. What are you using as a container?
I prefer a clear, straight sided sourdough starter jar, it makes it easier to see any rise, fall, and easier to clean.
The next question is going to be what is the temperature in your kitchen? It’s summer here, so my kitchen is much warmer than usual, and if yours is too, then chances are your starter could be rising faster than you expect it to, and you could be missing the rise – for example if you’re feeding before work and not home for 3-6 hours after the feeding. IF it is really hot in your kitchen, the microbes are much more active and your starter may require more than one feeding a day – which could be very possible if you’re seeing hooch on your starter.
What is the consistency of your starter? After you feed it it should be thick and sticky almost like peanut butter, when hungry it should be thinner and
easier to handle. If that’s not the case, are you making sure to weigh your ingredients each time you feed the starter?
That was a lot of questions, sorry, but it will make it easier to troubleshoot – we will get this figured out!
If i make this 5pm wednesday and feed it 9am thursday will it be ready to use after around 3hrs?thanks
Hey Saoirse, My guess is that it will be ready – you’ll just want to wait for it to at least double in volume before starting the bread. As the starter continues to age it will become stronger and your bread will improve!
@Ally, thank you so much!
I’m new to sourdough baking. I have been working with my starter for a few weeks and struggling with the thickness and odd activity consistency. This article helped me understand where I’ve been making mistakes (most importantly not using weight instead of volume) as I was measuring 1:1 by volume but leaning a little heavy on leaving starter (not discarding enough). Evidently, starving my starter. Thank you!
Hi! I’m so glad I found this. I’ve been trying sourdough starter recipes and none of them were taking off! I did this one this morning and it doubled within hours and has now fallen. I just wanted to make sure that’s ok? Thanks!
Hey Stephanie, you bet, this one rises and falls quickly because it’s reactiviating dried yeast, keep on with the feeding schedule as listed and you’ll be baking in no time!
Hi Ally,
Late morning, I started my starter and it has almost tripled in under 8 hours. If I want to make sourdough dinner rolls in two days (Thanksgiving), do I need to wait the 24 hrs before I separate the discard? Can I separate out 50 grams and feed it again sooner? Thank you.
Hey Marilynn, if the starter has tripled and not deflated, you can use it as starter, if it has started to delfate, I’d feed it again before using it. You can feed it tonight and then again tomorrow morning before making your rolls (assuming you don’t want to stay awake for it to rise!) and you’ll be on your way!
Can I use the same amount of rye flour with the same amount of water? Will it work?
I have a rye sourdough starter recipe!
Hi. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I am super new and on day 6 of my starter. I have been saving the discard and decided I was ready to bake. So I re-fed the discard Ans now have a whole bunch of it but I’m unsure what to do with it. I had not looked at your recipes and now realize I have way too much! Good problem ti have I guess?
Question is. What do I do with it all?? Toss or refrigerate again? Some people told me you cannot use discard till after day 10?? I’m so confused 😩. Thank you
Sourdough has a steep learning curve, so don’t feel too bad about being confused. Generally, people recommend not to use discard until day 10 because by that point, the good yeasts and bacteria have overtaken the less desirable microbes, I used mine straight away because I used commercial yeast to kick start my starter wayyyy back when I started it a few years ago – I felt that it was properly inoculated and could be used safely – that’s a personal choice, though.
I have had the problem of too much discard, so I wrote a couple articles on how to use discard and how to store discard. If you feel uneasy about using the discard in recipes, it’s best to get rid of it. Keep the discard from day 10 onwards and then you don’t have an ick! While your starter is a baby I recommend only keeping about 50g starter and feeding it 50g water/50g flour, or even less. You could even do 25g:25g:25g until its reliably doubling within 8-12 hours.
Hope that helps!
@Ally, thank you so much for your quick reply! I love how easy and simple your instructions are. But going down the rabbit hole of reading more to learn as I prepare to bake I got so confused. Makes sense. I started like you with commercial yeast (didn’t know you could do it any other way haha). I’m super excited to start baking some of your recipes!! 😊
No problem at all!
That rabbit hole is deep… and wide. HA! Every time I think I know everything there is to know, I get knocked back a peg or two. The one good thing with sourdough is that while the first few iterations may flop, it doesn’t mean they aren’t at least edible in some way – breadcrumbs, croutons, etc. My chickens have even gotten a few sideways loaves haha.
My best advice is stick with it. It will click one day, and you’ll develop your own baking style and routine, it will be awesome. My same day sourdough recipe is a nice one because it doesn’t take 3 days. I am very into my rustic sourdough right now – it has whole wheat and uses an autolyse process, which isn’t complicated, but might be one to circle back to when you’re ready.
Good luck and reach out if you need any help, I’ll get back to you!
Thank you so much for your recipe and instructions, Been looking for awhile for a good starter recipe and I have found it, with clear How to do instructions. Thank you so much : )
So happy to hear they were helpful Sharon!
This was a most excellent tutorial. The pictures of the process were fantastic. I can actually do this and will now start.
Thank you!! My starters have never been that strong. I started this a couple hours ago in a jar that was 3/4 times bigger than the starter and it’s nearly at the top already with hundreds of bubbles.
Really appreciate how clear your instructions are and NOT leaving anything out, like we should know some of this process. Also that its not a huge amount of starter. I made my starter yesterday in a really neat jar…a special one with little bubbles of glass on outside and then I made a colorful cover/hat for her….bigger that jar opening…by a couple of inches…and the square it up and stitched the corners down with colorful buttons…just having fun….named her…..she was ready to be fed this an and hope we are enjoying a little loaf of bread later…thanks for your blog! Off to explore more of it..