Getting a sourdough starter can be difficult.  Dried starters can be ordered from various places, such as Northwest Sourdough, King Arthur or Sourdo. These have to be activated and brought back to life.  Ideally, a friend would give you an active starter.  Once you get an active starter that you really like, and they all have different flavors, if you’re anything like me, you worry a bit about something happening to it.  I know that I can stick mine in the fridge for several weeks and leave it alone and then with a bit of TLC, get it back to the state where I use it every day or so.

I keep a jar in the fridge and usually toss it after a few weeks and put fresh in there.  That’s just my backup starter.  The one I am mostly working from sits on the counter and gets fed every day or every other day.  Some instructions will tell you that a starter sitting out has to be fed twice a day.  So far, I have not and mine is fine.

Another thing I do that makes me feel pretty secure, is that I keep some of my starter, dried, and in the freezer.  Here’s how to go about drying some of your starter.

Simply smear a bit of it on plastic.  It can be plastic wrap or something that’s plastic and easy to manipulate so that the dried starter can be peeled off.  I use my King Arthur pastry sheet.

Smeared Sourdough

If smeared thinly, within a few hours, it’s completely dry and will pop off on it’s own.

Dried Starter

At this point, it resembles a thin potato chip.  I place them in a zipper bag.

Dried Starter

Using my hands, I crush the dried starter.

Crushed Starter

It can be crushed as fine or as coarse as you’d like.  Next time I get the Food Saver out, I’ll place this zipper bag into a vacuum seal bag and seal it.  In the meantime (and after it’s vacuum sealed), it will be stored in the freezer.  It will keep at least a couple of years in the freezer but at least once a year, I go through this process again and make sure I have a good sample in the freezer.   Hopefully, I will never have to use this but it’s simply my backup, to be used if I lose my starter.

We also want to be sure we label these bags.  I’d hate for someone to go digging through my freezer and find some unknown white powder in a zipper bag!  :(

There is information on this page for activating a dried starter, as well as how to care for a sick starter.

Keeping a sourdough starter isn’t really time consuming but you have to pay some amount of attention to it.  I’ve been a bad sourdough mom and left mine in the fridge for several weeks without feeding it and all it took was a couple of feedings to bring it right back up to a nice condition.  I’ve also dried some of mine and store it in the freezer for when/if I neglect it and lose it.  There’s info here on how to dry and store starter, and then info here on how to revive it from a dried state.

Ideally, if the starter is kept in the fridge, it should be fed at least once a week, whether you’re going to use it or not.  If left on the counter, which probably should only be done if you’re using it almost every day, it is recommended that you feed it twice a day.  I keep mine on the counter when I’m baking a lot and I feed it once a day and it does fine.

Before you begin feeding the starter, you may sometimes notice a liquid has formed at the top.  I stir that back into the starter.  Some will say it should be dumped.  The liquid will add more “sour” to your starter so if you’re happy with the amount of sour you have, pour it off.  If you’d like a little more sour, stir it in.  If you’re taking good care of your starter, you shouldn’t see that dark liquid.

As with everything, there are exceptions.  Depending on the flour your using, some flours absorb more or less water.  I use King Arthur or Wheat Montana and both work great with the formulas below.  If you’re finding your starter to be too dry or too moist, add more or less water or flour.  These measurements do not have to be so precise that a little variation will ruin your starter.

There are two ways to feed the starter.  One is by weight and one is by measure.  I find the weight method easier but if you’re feeding by measure, simply add one part starter, one part flour and two parts water.  Example:  1 cup starter, 1 cup flour, 2 cups water.

Here’s how I do it by weight.

Start with a food scale, an empty and clean wide mouth jar, and the starter.

Feeding the Dough

Place the empty jar on the scale.

Feeding the Dough

Hit the “tare” button to get the scale to zero.  If you don’t have a tare button on your scale, write down the weight of the empty jar.

Feeding the Starter

Once the scale is reading zero or you’ve written down the weight of your empty jar, you’re ready to begin the process of feeding the starter.  For the weight method of feeding, equal parts of starter, flour and water are added.  Start with any amount you wish, keeping in mind that it’s going to rise and may overflow if you put too much.  If you put in 3 ounces of starter, add 3 ounces of flour and 3 ounces of water.  If you’re putting in 4 ounces of starter, add 4 ounces each of flour and water.  I usually use 5 ounces of starter.

Feeding the Starter

Without stirring or doing anything, I add 5 ounces of flour. You will see that my scale now reads 10 ounces.  That’s 5 ounces of starter and 5 ounces of flour.  Sometimes I go over or under just a bit and that’s ok.  The starter is very forgiving.

Feeding the Starter

Next, I pour in 5 ounces of lukewarm water.  It is recommended that you use water that has no chemicals added.  If your water is highly chlorinated, you can put water in a jar and leave it sitting on your counter, shaking it a couple of times a day and the choline may dissipate.  I use well water so it’s a bit hard but it has no added chemicals.

Now, there are 15 ounces in the jar – 5 each – starter, flour and water.

Feeding the Starter

I keep two starters going so I’ve now fed both of them.  Using a tea spoon, I give each jar a quick stir . . I don’t spend a lot of time with it because it’s really a lumpy glob and it works itself out during the night.

Feeding the Starter

This is what it looks like once it’s been stirred and is ready to spend the night on the countertop.  It’s lumpy and quite thick.

The Fed Starter

This is what those jars of starter look like in the morning.  It’s very smooth and liquidy — no lumps or globs.  It has risen and is quite bubbly.  This is a fed starter and is ready to use in recipes that call for a well fed starter.

The Morning After

Yesterday I told you that my sponge is quite shaggy.  This is the sponge I made this morning for tonight’s bread.  This is actually half a recipe (1/2 cup starter, 1-1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 tsp Kosher salt).  I’m making half a recipe tonight because I’m also making rolls.  The rolls will be for dinner.  The loaf of bread will be for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch.

Sponge

When I make a whole loaf each day, that’s bread for dinner, then for breakfast and lunch the next day.  Anything that doesn’t get used will be cut up and used either for croutons or for bread crumbs.

We’re still on our healthy eating  kick but with company coming this weekend to my house and company coming to my neighbor’s house and us going to their house for a very special treat and them coming here for a special treat, we’re going to need lots of bread.

Sourdough

The plan is that I will make the following:

• Sourdough loaf bread (for slicing for sandwiches)
• Sourdough crusty bread
• Sourdough waffles
• Sourdough biscuits

There might be other sourdough things I can make but that’s my list for now.

All of the jars will be combined into one big bowl tomorrow after the final feeding.  Then tomorrow night I’ll mix up the dough for the loaf bread and crusty bread.  The starter for the waffles and biscuits can go into the fridge til ready to use.

Sourdough is so interesting to work with.  Here’s a link that has some good videos and information. King Arthur also has some great sourdough info here.