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Sourdough Starter
The secret to incredible rustic bread begins with a robust wild yeast culture. This simple blend of unbleached bread flour, whole wheat flour, and filtered water ferments over a week to create a powerful, bubbly base. You'll develop a complex, sweetly sour aroma through a quick daily feeding routine. Once it's established, this active culture can live indefinitely in your fridge, ready to leaven countless loaves whenever the baking mood strikes.
Ingredients
- ½ cup (65 g) unbleached organic bread flour, plus more as directed
- ½ cup (55 g) whole wheat flour, plus more as directed
- ½ cup (120 ml) tepid filtered water, plus more as directed
Instructions
- 1Combine the unbleached bread flour, whole wheat flour, and tepid filtered water in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly with your hands until fully incorporated, then transfer the dough to a clean glass jar. Glass is ideal because it won't react with the acidic culture.
- 2Cover the mouth of the jar with a piece of cheesecloth and secure it tightly with a rubber band. Leave the jar undisturbed at room temperature for 24 hours.
- 3Remove and discard all but 120 grams of the fermented mixture from the jar. Discarding is necessary to keep the yeast population manageable and prevent the jar from overflowing. Stir in another ½ cup (65 g) of unbleached bread flour, ½ cup (55 g) of whole wheat flour, and ½ cup (120 ml) of water until smooth.
- 4Repeat this exact feeding process once a day for about a week. Watch for the mixture to become highly active and bubbly, double in volume, and develop a pleasant sour aroma similar to yogurt. This indicates your culture is ready to use.
Notes
- Measurement: Using a digital kitchen scale to measure your flour and water yields much more consistent results than using volume cups.
- Storage: Keep your mature starter in the fridge with a tight-fitting lid to slow down fermentation. Feed it at least twice a week using the same flour and water ratio to keep it alive indefinitely.
- Make ahead: Build a fresh levain from your cold culture the day before you plan to bake bread.
- Tradition: It's a long-standing baking custom to name your sourdough starter once it becomes active.