Sourdough Starter

This is the starter for that I used to make the breads pictured here. I have tried making a sourdough starter with white flour and water but found that it gets a lot of the strain of bacteria called leuconostoc, which is harmless. The issue I had with it was it smelled really bad, like baby puke for a few days. They say using pineapple juice will reduce that strain or prevent it. I prefer to keep things simple though and just use good old flour and water. When I used the whole wheat flour and water mix, I did not get leuconostoc.

It's up to you what you do for a starter but do NOT use any commercial yeast. It is not true sourdough and it is not healthy. No, I am not being a "sourdough snob" as some would like to say. Commercial yeast is toxic. Here's a good article on it. http://ranprieur.com/readings/natleavbread.html This is another good article discussing why you should make your own bread. "The Poisonous Truth About Our Daily Bread".

If you prefer to purchase a ready made starter, this is a good site to buy from, as they have many heirloom starters. They have other culture starters there as well, great for making homemade yogurt.

This following recipe is adapted from the book, Bread Matters by Andrew Whitely. It is important to keep it covered so that it doesn't dry out and so that you don't get anything uninvited growing or swimming in it. It is a myth that you need to "catch" the yeast. It is already present on the grain. An important note, do NOT use tap water that has chlorine. It will keep the yeast from growing.

I use a large glass jar for my starter that gives it plenty of room to grow. It has a lid that just sets on top. Never tighten a lid on a starter container. The pressure of gases released from the yeast, can blow up a jar. Not only making a mess, but if the jar is flawed it can make it shatter. I bought my large jar at Walmart for around five or six bucks.

Wheat Leaven 

Day 1
35 g Stoneground whole wheat flour
35 g Water

Keep this mixture in a warm location. It is best to mix this in a small bowl the first two days and then move it to a larger jar. Keep it covered and mix 2 to 3 times a day. Twice is sufficient.

Day 2

35 g Stoneground whole wheat flour
35 g Water

Mix into Day 1 starter and cover, mixing at least twice a day.

Day 3
35 g Stoneground whole wheat flour
15 g Water

Reducing the water will tighten the dough up a bit and this helps the yeast grow better. I have found that if my starter is too wet it will become too acidic too fast. Bacteria grow better in wetter starter. If you ever find that your starter has become to sour, just dump some off and add more flour to water when you feed it. If it has become really sour and feeding it more flour doesn't seem to help enough, you can give it a little sugar and it should help.

Day 4

100 g Stoneground whole wheat flour
80 g Water

If you would like to make a white flour starter, white flour can be added to lighten the leaven a little at this point. If you prefer though, you can stick with wheat flour. I found it best to not add white flour until the starter was fully active.

After fermenting Day 4 starter for another 24 hrs you should have a starter that smells slightly acidic and may or may not have risen and collapsed. Mine was had what I thought was a slightly sweet smell the first few days.

If you really don't see any signs of life in your starter by Day 5, even after you have kept it in a warm place as suggested, it probably needs more time to get going. Mine needed about 7 days, if I remember correctly. Give it another refreshment by repeating day 4. If it was showing signs of life, but doesn't anymore, maybe it has become too acidic before the number of yeast cells had grow enough. If this is the case, you need to dilute it with fresh whole wheat flour, which will give it some more yeast food. So, discard all but 120 g of your starter and feed as follows:

120g Old Starter
120g Water
170g Stoneground whole wheat flour

Keep feeding it and stirring two times a day and it should spring to life within 10 days...though some people have had it go longer. If you have any issues or questions The Fresh Loaf is a good place to ask questions. I did a lot of messing around with my first batch and it finally straightened out and became a good starter.

This is a picture of my active starter. You can see how bubbly it is.

Hope it works out well for you. Remember if it's too much work to get one started, just buy one from the site listed above.

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