Caring for your sourdough starter!
Thank you for purchasing our sourdough starter! Let's get to caring for it!
Starter Rehydration and Starter Maintenance
Rehydration Instructions
To get started you’ll need: Your dehydrated sourdough starter, a kitchen scale, containers with lids, flour, and water. Unbleached white flour (AP or bread) will work best for rehydrating your starter.
Day 1 - Add 20 grams of your dehydrated sourdough starter to your clean container. You can store the remaining 30 grams in an airtight container for another use.
Add 30g of warm water to your container and using a clean spoon, swirl the water and starter. The starter flakes will not dissolve yet; they just need to be in contact with the water to soften.
20-60 minutes after mixing, add 30g of flour to the container, mix thoroughly, and place your lid lightly on your container. Because the starter will eventually release gas and a tightly sealed container could burst so make sure it’s lightly covered.
Day 2 - After 24 hours, measure 20 grams of your first mix into a new, clean container and discard the remainder. To your 20 grams of starter, add 25 grams of water and 25 of grams of flour. Mix until no dry flour remains before placing your lid lightly on your container.
Day 3 - After 24 hours you’ll start seeing some activity and bubbles in your starter. You’ll repeat the same steps as yesterday; place 20 grams of your second mix into a clean container before adding 25 grams each of flour and water.
Mix until no dry flour remains and set your lid on your container.
Day 4 - You’ll see the most activity and bubbles today. You’re almost there! To a clean container add 20g of your day 3 mix with 25 grams each flour and water.
Within 12 hours you’ll see much more activity than the previous days.
Day 5 - Your starter is ready to use! You can begin maintaining your starter following our maintenance instructions.
Maintaining and using your starter
Maintenance Feeding
To keep your starter healthy, you’ll need to feed it regularly. Feeding your starter revolves around using different ratios of starter, water, and flour. I normally keep 100g of starter on hand and feed it once a week when I’m not using it for bread. I use a 1:10:10 method, which is 1-part old starter, 10 parts water, and 10 parts flour. My normal feedings consist of 10g old starter, 100g water, and 100g flour. I’ll mix all the parts in the evening, and let it rise for at least 12 hours, so it’s grown and peaked before feeding it again, or storing it in the refrigerator until needed.
Getting Ready to Bake
Making your starter culture work for your schedule is very important to not feel overwhelmed by it, which is why I keep mine in the refrigerator until I need it. The morning of the day before I’m mixing, I recommend taking the starter out of the refrigerator and letting it come to room temperature before feeding it again. It helps me better predict how the starter will rise and when it will be ready to use.
Did I just kill my starter?
Your starter culture is a symbiotic mixture of yeast and bacteria that live and thrive from the flour and water that you feed it.
What happens if you forget to feed your starter for a few weeks? Is it dead? Do you need to start from scratch?
You’d be surprised how resilient a starter culture can be. However long it sat on your counter or in your refrigerator simply give it a good mix and feed it how your normally would. It should bounce right back.