Make Your Own Sourdough Starter
If you’re feeling a bit adventurous, you may want to try creating your own sourdough starter from scratch. Baking bread from scratch is satisfying in its own right, but when you’ve also had a hand in the creation of one of the most fundamental components, the leavening agent itself, you’ll feel an even greater satisfaction and connectedness to the process.
Are there kids in your house? This little science project is ideally suited to sharing with any children you can convince to join in. Culture their budding scientific minds while creating your own bread culture.
This video outlines one simple method that worked for me the first time I tried it. In the video, I give credit for this technique to Peter Reinhart. It has since come to my attention that Debra Wink, a chemist and accomplished baker, is the mastermind and author of this Pineapple Juice Technique. A lot of research and testing went into developing and refining the technique. The choice of pineapple juice over other juices is from much trial and error. Debra was kind enough to email her essay on the Pineapple Juice Technique. Click here for a printable copy of it.
As I mention in the video, the wild yeast spores and lactic-acid bacteria that give your starter its leaving properties are all around you. You are simply creating the conditions ideally suited for them to thrive and multiply. I used whole wheat flour in this recipe because fresh whole wheat flour may harbor greater numbers of yeast spores than ordinary all-purpose flour and so increase your likelihood for success. It worked for me, so you might try the same. If, at any time, you wish to transition your whole wheat sourdough starter to a regular white flour starter, it’s super easy to do so.
I’ve listed the ingredients and approximate steps here to save you the note taking.
- Step 1. Mix 3 ½ tbs. whole wheat flour with ¼ cup unsweetened pineapple juice. Cover and set aside for 48 hours at room temperature. Stir vigorously 2-3x/day. (“Unsweetened” in this case simply means no extra sugar added).
- Step 2. Add to the above 2 tbs. whole wheat flour and 2 tbs. pineapple juice. Cover and set aside for a day or two. Stir vigorously 2-3x/day. You should see some activity of fermentation within 48 hours. If you don’t, you may want to toss this and start over (or go buy some!)
- Step 3. Add to the above 5 ¼ tbs. whole wheat flour and 3 tbs. purified water. Cover and set aside for 24 hours.
- Step 4. Add ½ cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 to 1/3 cup purified water. You should have a very healthy sourdough starter by now.
Notes: I do wonder if the fact that I bake all the time with a sourdough starter (and so theoretically have wild yeast floating around our house by the gazillions and covering everything we own) would increase the likelihood that I would have success creating my own sourdough culture from scratch. So I anxiously await feedback from anyone who attempts this process at home. (You’ll see a nifty little form below for comments and feedback. If you’re shy; you can use the Contact link at the top of the page. While I may report your (mis)adventures, I’ll keep your identity anonymous. 
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EXPERIMENT WITH ANOTHER WAY OF MAKING A STARTER
You might be interested in my experience with making a starter.
I had an accident with my starter that led me to develop a starter that results in a great tasting loaf (I compared a couple of starters.)
I had been making bread with a starter maintained for many years from one originally made from commercial yeast. As my kneading technique and control of proofing was not good, I was practicing making bread every few days, trying to follow the instructions from Nancy Silverton’s great book, Bread from the La Brea Bakery. One day, while not wanting to wait for the starter to warm up from refrigerator temperature, I placed the starter in a 150°F oven, intending to take it out after just a few minutes. However, I fell asleep and allowed it to heat up. Alas, feeding it produced no results — it was dead. After a couple of days at room temperature and no visible change, I remembered the book’s instruction to use grapes to develop a starter. Grapes have a frosty coating that is yeast. I took a handful of red grapes I happened to have in the refrigerator and mixed them in the dead starter and let it set on the counter. After a couple of days, I noticed some bubbles, so fed it flour and water and began the three feedings a day suggested by the book (about the same as your instructions). After another 3 days it was developing nicely. On the 4th day, I baked a loaf of bread froom the new starter with reasonable success.
Later, I decided to bake three loaves to compare performance, one from another sample of the old starter I had my wife send me from our home in Texas (I was on an assignment in Pasadena, CA), one from the new grapes starter, and one that was from a mixture of equal portions of each.
I was looking for differences in performance, hoping to improve on the oven spring. All three performed equally: about the same spring I had been getting all along.
To my surprise, the loaf made from the all grape starter smelled and tasted much better than the the one made from the old starter from commercial yeast. This was in spite of the fact that the grape starter smelled unpleasantly musty and pungent, compared to the fresh baked rolls smell of the other, old starter.
I have been using this grape-source starter ever since with better results as my technique improved. The resulting bread always smells and tastes great. Nancy’s method (including three rises, one preceeded by retarding overnight in the refrigerator and baking on a ceramic layer on top of the oven rack with water sprays at the beginning of baking) results in a thick, chewy crust with a soft chewy crumb for the country white bread.
I recently resumed baking bread after a three-year hiatus, using the starter that I had in the refrigerator in a sealed jar for all that time. While I feared the starter would be dead or spoiled, it became active again after three days of feeding. This time, I will prepare a dried sample for the freezer in case I again stop making bread for awhile.
By the way, normal tap water has essentially zero residual free chlorine (or it would taste and smell like chlorine). I use it with good results. You may prefer to use purified or distilled water if you are concerned about the health effects of the chlorine salts, ground water contaminants, and minerals.
Your sourdough starter stops at the last “seed” stage versus continuing on to the mother stage outlined in Peter Reinhart’s book Artisan Breads Everyday. How do I continue making the spelt bread with mother versus the seed as shown in your video? I can’t find any information on the website regarding keeping mother in fridge only seed cultures.
Can you use the whole wheat sourdough starter to make any other type of loaf or must you use a like starter to the type of flour you are using?
Hi Debby,
You can definitely mix it up any way you want.
Eric
Have just made Whole wheat bread with the braid the bread is in its first rise and found on your web site making different starters just by adding different feedings ,this web site is addictive every time I come to it I learn something else.Thanks for all the info
T.O.
Began my starter last Sunday and finally transferred it into the storage jar and fed it the following Saturday. It looks healthy, smells wonderful but when I feed it, it does not double in volume. I fed a half cup of starter about a quarter cup flour and maybe an eighth cup or little more of filtered water and it only produced perhaps an additional quarter cup of starter. Wondering if this is a problem or just a function of winter temps in the Midwest? My kitchen is only around 65 most of the time.
Thanks, wonderful website
d.
What kind of flour are you feeding into it? And how many times a day do you feed it? When it’s out on the counter, I’ve read they need to be fed twice a day. I made several starters and they really thrive when switched over to unbleached white flour, are fed twice a day when left out, and making sure you feed it enough flour and water. If you can’t weigh it (equal weights of flour and water) then you can measure 1/2 cup starter, 1/2 cup flour and 1/3 cup water or so. I live in midwest, have a cool house and my starters are rising and doubling great and have made amazing bread (& pancakes & English muffins). Spelt starter and the rye seemed to need more frequent feedings vs. the white flour ones. I do believe when starter is still this young, it may need time to continue to develop, but I think I was baking with mine by 10 days or so….
I’ve watched your excellent videos on sourdough baking. I’ve made my own sourdough starter along the lines you describe using citrus, and I also bought a San Francisco starter from my food coop. However I can’t get it to rise, in either case, even though I maintain my starter in an enclosed furnace closet where it is at least 80 degrees. I have also tried it on my countertop at room temperature and nothing happens. The starter looks bubbly and foamy in both cases. What might I be diking wrong?
Ok I am new to baking bread let alone to making my own sourdough.
I really want to do this right. Love speltbread and it just tastes and feels right to do it with sourdough starter. Now I find myself on an adventure while trying to make spelt souerdough bit I cheated and cheated on the recipe as given by Eric;)
I don’t know maybe it’s bakerblasphemy but I had no pineapple juice in the house so I just used some maple syrup and a pinch of lemonjuice and waited to see what happens. Left the ‘yeastbaby’ in a warm room and sure enough just after 24 hours I have sour(smelling and tasting) bubbly dough.
Step two, speltbread has been stretched and foulded as instructed and now I will leave it to rest overnight. I understood that spelt in general should not be treated as much as wheatbread. I prefer this old grain over any other anyway. I can’t believe I could have my own speltbread
Thank you Eric!
I have made this starter both with whole wheat and white flour and it worked great both ways. I made them both in the winter and had to move the starter to a warmer location than my kitchen. It also took almost a week before I saw any signs of life, but once it started to bubble – WOW!
ok it didn’t work out the first time, but now I am trying once again. Wish me luck.
warm hello everyone,
i have been taking out a tablespoon of my starter from the fridge
and adding by feel… flour and water to strike a wet dough consistency
totally about a 1/4 of a cup which is all i need for one loaf of no need spelt bread…
i let it sit on the counter for about 5 hours
you can use it once you see if full of bubbles and it says
use me with a smile face
i still have a question however for eric or others
once my starter doubles in size
am i to be careful to not allow the air bubbles to escape
while i measure a 1/4 of a cup of it?
i also wonder when adding it to the water and honey
its loosing air bubbles at this point
im being silly right?
the air bubbles are just an indication that its ready
obviously the bubbles with dissipate upon stirring
sorry here is my question
how do i know once i take out my starter that is full of bubbles
how do i ensure that im getting the best use of my yeast
as i use it in the recipe
i have this fear that im ruining it by adding the water
and honey so i end up adding flour too in the hopes that im not killing the yeast
i also heat up the water to just a slight warmth for my hands
to enjoy while i use them to stir
i love that feeling
Hi Eric,
Kudos to you on your amazing website! So much knowledge and assistance just a click away to breadtopia. I have had amazing results with your whole wheat sourdough starter and have even made a white bread flour sourdough starter – both are in my refrigerator anxiously awaiting their next loaf of bread. Since I have so much of this healthy sourdough starter, I would like to share it with my son who lives in Vermont. What is the best method for me to ship this to him (in most instances delivery times are pretty fast)? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Again, thank you for creating and maintaining breadtopia.com.
Hi Chickie,
I would just put 1/8 or a 1/4 cup of stiff, freshly fed starter in a zip lock bag and mail it in a sturdy envelope. It will get all smooshed in transit but will survive just fine.
omg i did it i made a whole wheat sourdough starter .now to feed it a couple times then ill try to make some bread.i live in tracy ca. about 75miles from S.F. so hopefully it will be close to that style but just whole wheat….
Hello Eric, I called your 800 number while you were in NH recently. I did what you suggested re my WW starter which was to discard all abut an 1/8 and feed it again…I have done this twice on successive days…It looks good then most bubbles go away but is a better consistency overall …not soupy, more like my good white flour starter that was given to me. And today it remains foamy and bubbly…looks good …is it ready to use or need I continue to feed it ? Do I refrigerate it at this point? How do you know when it is ready? I have been cooking this batch since early January….!
carol in NH
Hi Carol,
Bubbly and spongy is good. If it rises fairly well (at least 50%) when well fed, then it’s ready. When your starter rises, so should your bread dough. Once it’s healthy like this, keep it in the fridge and feed it at least once a week.
This was my first time making sourdough starter. Much to my surprise I actually did it right and I am making spelt bread as I am writing this
Yay, another convert
.
At my first attempt I got great looking whole weat starter!!!! very glad. I also want to make all-rye bread (like Russian rye bread and Borodinsky bread – childhood memories). In the recipe from “bread matters” by Andrew Whitley he suggest to use rye started. What do you think if it is possible to use whole weat starter as well?
P.S. I am new to baking and still need to learn much more to that process.
Hi Natasha,
You can definitely use whole wheat starter. But if you want to be true to the recipe, it’s easy enough to convert some of your whole wheat starter to a rye starter by just giving it a couple feedings of rye flour.
Now that I have some good starter to work with, I need a little help using it with another recipe calling for semolina flour and regular bleach flour. It calls for a total of 6 1/4 cups of flour and 2 packets of dry yeast. I want to use my starter instead of dry yeast. How do I do that?
I am using a half-gallon size mason jar with cheese cloth on the top and held down with the ring. I have been doing the amish starter for a month now and have had great results with growth. I have to say that I do not care too much for the sweet bread that comes from amish starter so I am looking here for an actual sour starter. I have read multiple recipes and watched plenty of videos! I have learned also that using a rye flour in your starter is not going to result in a rye/caroway seed flaver in your bread. What is your experience with the different flours and which works the best for the strongest sour flavor?
@Amber, I recently tried the whole wheat flour and pineapple juice method described in this posting on Breadtopia. The results were very good. The starter had a lot of action and the bread had a terrific sourdough flavor.
Regards,
Sal.
—
Salvatore Saieva
Thanks for your comment Sal, do you use wheat flour for the whole process, including making the loaf? How is the sour taste? I guess I would like to know which flour has the best flavor. I know that really ends up to be a matter of opinion but I have spent some money buying a few different types of flour including rye, wheat, spelt, (all organic and prepared/grown locally-and hopefully fresh); along with a bread flour from the king arthur brand(?). I am really determined to do some experimenting!
Yes, so far I am only using whole wheat flour for the starter. I buy King Arthur and haven’t really experimented with other flours yet. The smell and flavor is very good and I am very happy with the results.
The only problem I have, and I’m trying to improve, is that the resulting bread is “doughy” after baking, it almost seems undercooked, although I’ve experimented with longer bake times and that hasn’t helped. The inside temp reaches 210 degrees so I don’t think it’s raw. My current guess is that I’m using too much starter (approx 1/4 cup). Next week I will try two tablespoons to see if that helps to improve the texture of the bread.
Sal.
I saw this reference to ‘doughy’ bread and I have been thinking back on my bread making because this sounds very familiar. I started making bread in Dec 2009 using this sourdough starter recipe and instructions on this website. I’ve been baking rye bread almost every week since, but my technique has evolved ever so slightly over time. I use the Almost No-Knead recipe from this site and when I first started my proofing times were very long 18+ hours. Someone here commented “wow, that’s long”. I started re-evaluating my proofing and finally learned what the difference between over-proofing and just-in-time proofing. Now I proof for about 12 hours and my dough is no longer over-proofed. The dough is much easier to shape and my loafs come up much higher with pretty holes in them. I believe that when my dough was over proofed the resultant loaf was rather doughy inside. I’m not sure about this because my loaves have evolved over time, but I can say that my loaves are not doughy now. So my suggestion is to evaluate your proofing. Perhaps your dough is a little overproofed and reducing the proofing time may eliminate the doughiness, but that’s just a theory.
Finally after baking artisan bread for two years with SAF instant yeast, I made bread with my own starter using a garlic and potato bread recipe, Eric’s no knead method and my new Cloche… Both this bread and a subsequent sour dough rye ( Eric’s recipe) turned out really well – excellent taste, rise and crumb!
This starter was given to me last May and I froze it not really knowing what to do with it. However, thanks to all the good info on this site, I was able to wake it up, feed it, figure it out and bake with it!
Thanks Eric!
I have played with sourdough before (purchased dry starter culture) and had fairly good results. I tried the pineapple juice method of collecting your own started and was amazed. I haven’t been baking, but it started up nicely using whole wheat and bread flour. It’s the best starter and the most active I’ve had. Made my first loaf day before yesterday. Slightly modified no knead method, I don’t have a container to bake it in, I used a mixing bowl and sprayed some water in the oven. This was the best bread I’ve made yet!!!!! No pictures, it’s already devoured.
Eric, I made my own starter using whole grain flours wheat,oat buckwheat. Added some h2o 1 teaspoon sugar & a pinch of cinnamon. mixed it all together & put the bowl outside under a colander all day. I will be making caraway rye bread tomorrow with it. The reason I added the sugar & cinnamon to it is the cinnamon makes yeast more active. the sugar was to help feed the yeast. We are having a mild winter in Minnesota this year . It was in the 40s all day when I left the starter out. I put it out when I went to work & brought it in when I came home. My sister works at a research library she told me about the cinnamon.
I had bad results the first time I tried to make a starter, no activity at all. The second time got off to a slow start but then I had the idea (based on your comment above about yeast floating around the house) to leave the starter jar open near some proofing bread. That seemed to be the trick, lots of activity in my starter and it’s looking better and smelling more “sour” each day. I need to feed it for a few more days and then I’ll try a sourdough loaf.
I have been experimenting with no-knead methods and having great results with bread baked both in cast iron pots and on baking sheets. A pic attached showing four different types of no-knead breads: Flaxseed (round loaf bottom-left), Wholewheat with Course Grain Organic Cornmeal (top-left), Rosemary-Thyme (long loaves in the center), and Sandwich Bread with Olive Oil and Sea Salt (four loaves to the right).
Regards,
Sal.
—
Salvatore Saieva
It says to NOT put starter in the fridge with a sealed lid but you don’t want fridge smells going into it so what’s the deal? Looks like on the videos the starters he pulls from the fridge have been kept closed? What is recommended?
You just don’t want the container sealed so it is air tight because the starter needs room to expand and the air needs a place to go if the starter is expanding. I kept my starter in a container that was sealed too tight and it turned into a hissing oozing mess on my counter and it literally exploded when I send hubby in to investigate. It was a learning experience I’ve shared here which is why Eric warns against air tight containers. Funny, but messy. Like starter all over the kitchen messy. I love my starter, but want to keep it IN the container!
Define “airtight”. I bought a nice wide mouth jar online and it has a seal with is and the clamp. I took the seal off and wonder if i just clamp it is that too airtight? Just don’t know how to keep smells out and not airtight but yet covered….so any more thoughts on how people store their starter would be great… thanks
Anita,
For more than two years I store my starter in the fridge with sealed lid while every week I took out a portion to bake and feed it back. I let it out of the fridge for about 2-3 hours depend on the temperature to start ferment and than put it back in the fridge to slow down and wait for the next time.
thanks! pulled mine out last night and fed it….maybe i screwed something up but it’s not growing. So took some out today to make pancakes, and then fed it again and am waiting for some rise before using it for bread. Very new to sourdough but made bread with this twice this past weekend and then fridged it over x-mas but the bread disappeared and the natives are demanding more! So do i need to wait for it to double to use again? No one seems to be very clear on this process of taking it out, using it, and the whole cycle I am now into. Suggestions?
Just exactly what do you mean by feed it back? The fridge starter or the part you took out to use. My starter is excellent but am just not exactly clear on how to care for it (even after reading pages of directions on various sights) when i want to bake with it. As in, do I take out the portion i want to bake with and try to double that to make my next bread? or do i take out the whole starter and mess with the whole thing again? AND….if i take some out of the fridge starter, do you feed it and put it right back into the fridge or wait till it starts to bubble a bit first? SOme say you can kill it by just feeding it and sticking it back in the fridge. I know this is a little fritzy but wondering what’s the best and easiest way to care for it if you want to bake once a week or so???
Made the sourdough Spelt recipe yesterday. It turned out well i think although not having the right containers for baking, it got a bit over brown and crunchy on the bottom (I used an iron skillet with parchment in the bottom. I only cooked it at 420 (parchment isn’t supposed to be above that temp) and covered it with foil when it started to brown too much and pulled it when a meat thermometer read over 190 at about 40 minutes? or so. It seems done and is quite sour. Maybe i can post pictures some other day. NOT today.
THe bread rose well but the starter is a bit finicky. I used a 100% spelt starter and it gets a little of the hooch on top and quite foamy between feedings. Any thoughts on what’s going on with that? I also used some of that starter to branch off into a more white starter and that is very healthy looking and doubling nicely each time I feed it.
It’s Christmas so i just threw the 100% spelt starter in a jar in the fridge. Will see what happens. The other is still on the counter as it’s easier to feed…
My husband thought it was rye bread and it had no rye in it. Hmm…
At what point does one put their starter in the fridge in the process? Just wondering what is recommended…thanks.
I kept mine on the counter for a good 2 weeks before putting it into the refrigerator.
Help! This is my second time starting a starter. The first one laster for months. This time when I made the sponge all looked well and fermenting. But the next day when it was time to bake it wouldn’t rise. After almost 2 days of rising it never actually rose. So, I tossed in some commercial yeast cause my big fam needed bread now! Of course it worked, but it is the most sour tasting bread ever! My starter was just over a week old and hadn’t been refridgerated yet. Did I kill my yeast? Is it still safe to eat? I do recollect eating a batch this sour. Does the flavor mellow out just a bit after more time?
Jennifer
Do you continue to stir the starter for the whole amount of time you are building it up?
Hi Joyce,
Most of what you need to know about managing a sourdough starter can be found here: http://www.breadtopia.com/sourdough-starter-management/
But to answer your immediate questions, the stirring thing is useful, but not critical during the early stages of starting it from scratch. Once it’s going, you just stir it when you’re mixing in fresh flour and water (feeding it).
Once you have a starter going, you use a portion of it to bake and keep a remainder for next time. Feed your remainder periodically to build up the quantity keep it healthy.
so….have been playing with a spelt sourdough starter for the past 5 days. First it seemed very very runny, and did bubble a bit when stirred but then nothing much. So i started playing with adding more flour remembering that spelt needs less water and/or more flour than regular flours. Today I was up to adding 1/2 cup flour and it was SO thick that I did end up adding a full 1/4 cup water. nothing seems to be happening much in terms of growth, but it still will bubble a bit after stirring and also has a definite buttermilky sour smell to it. Is it alive or dead? Do I start over or keep going? I did stir 3 X a day and followed the directions above, except for playing with the flour increases. I also started a rye starter 2 days after the spelt. Actually they both have like 2-3 bubbles on top of them currently. How do i know if they are dead or alive? Any ideas?
im new to breadmaking.
I intend to try your suordough suggestion as it doesnt look complex
this is a silly question perhaps. but once the starter is complete, for how long and where do you store it?
I keep mine in the refrigerator and it has been in there for a couple of months (I’m also fairly new to this). I have a friend that has had a starter for years in hers.
Please explain what to do after day 5 , assuming my starter turns out…What is the process of feeding all about ? I bake every few days, sometimes every other day…
thanks
Hi Carol. One thing to remember is you will always want to double your existing starter (eg. 1/2 cup starter, 1/2 cup flour and a little less than 1/2 cup water) to get to the quantity you need/want. I always keep a one cup starter in the refrigerator (it is fed on a weekly basis) and when I’m getting ready to bake with it I’ll take it out and divide it into 2 jars and feed both and return one to the refrigerator and the other will stay on the counter for daily feedings until I reach the amount I need. Hope this helps a little, I’m not very good at explaining!
Thanks for this recipe. Have been making my own bread for a little while but am completely intimidated by sourdough. I’m going to try it “starting” today!
Hi, Eric!
I have Peter Reinhart’s book, The Breadbaker’s Apprentice, and followed his Seed Culture recipe and Barm recipe to the letter. Seemed like every step actually took another 12-24 hours (and more) than directed. I’m thinking the ambient “room” temperature had a lot to do with it. It did finally wake up and appear lively, but never doubled in size and I never got the pungent gases he said would be there. The barm had a very tangy “sour” flavor, but the firm starter I made with it didn’t. Frustrating, but that’s when I decided to try YOUR recipe above. I figured one way or another, I was going to get sourdough bread, even if I had to buy the starter from you.
Your starter recipe has done everything you said it would. I did the last step yesterday evening and this morning, it had doubled and there was definitely a party going on in that little container. I can’t wait to make a bread with your starter as soon as I can.
I’m thinking it would probably be best to feed it a couple of times at least before I make the bread. Do you advise this? Your instructions don’t mention any maintenance or feeding after step 4.
By the way: The bread I made from the starter I made from Peter’s book was amazing, just not a “sour” sourdough. Maybe after a few feedings it will.
So, what do I have here? After twelve hours and another hefty feeding, I have a container of something doubled in size, tons of bubbles, thick and clinging, just like the real thing!
The juice “spoiled” so I decided to just add some wheat flour to it and then six hours later, when it appeared like the real thing, added another half cup of flour and a few tbspns of water. It’s alive! But what is it?
Can anyone help me understand what’s going on in my kitchen?
well, I’ve tried the pineapple juice thing and didn’t quite get it – threw a batch out and started over again, but a funny thing happened on the way to the oven. I left the pineapple juice in the cupboard, and after five days it started producing it’s own odors, similar to the yeasty smell I’m supposed to get in the starter. or so i think. I kept the starter and the bottle of juice in the same closed cupboard.
Then I decided, what the hay, and took the “spoiled” juice and mixed it with wheat flour and voila! within six hours I had bubbles galore. That was this morning. I’m keeping an eye on it.
Any thoughts?
Could you give specifics for making white starter from the whole wheat? I am NOT a baker, but love making no-knead breads and would love to have a batch of both in my stash. I’m afraid though, since I’m not very savvy about baking, that I don’t quite trust myself to “wing it” and add ” a bit of white” here and there to bring it up to snuff.
Hi Brooke,
You would just replace the whole wheat flour with unbleached white flour. It’s as easy as that. Eventually your wheat will be basically nonexistent and no need to keep adding whole wheat flour to the one you want to be white. HTH!!
If you are inquiring about making white flour starter from whole wheat starter, for simplicity’s sake just divide your WW starter in half and begin feeding half with nothing but WF. It’s as easy as that. You could also try making a batch of white flour sourdough first, using your whole wheat starter, and see if you like the results. It will leaven an all white loaf just the same and the amount of actual whole wheat in the loaf would be negligible. If you really want to start afresh without making starter from scratch, you can follow the directions found on this site, probably just up and to the right of the text, “Amanda on Reviving a Dried & Live Sourdough Starter”.
Hello
I’m just getting my self ready to bake at the weekend. After iv fed my starter do i need to leave it out at room temp?
I am a sourdough “virgin” and just happened across your blog looking for no knead recipes. I’ve always wanted to acquire a started but have never known anyone that keeps one. I had the supplies needed to start my own and it looks great. Now, I just need to find a recipe and put it to use. Thanks so much for your informative site.
Thank you so much!!!
Iv been making bread for a year now but never thought of making sourdough until i found your website. I made my own starter 2 weeks ago and it was ok but nothing special. After the first week i fed it the day before i made a loaf and it livened up a bit and the bread was ok but not a triumph but still very tasty. The week since then my starter has gone absolutely bonkers!!! Can’t wait to try it out this weekend
I just this week began my first Sour Dough Starter. I found the recipe in a book my wife got me. 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour and 2 cups whole milk (78 deg.). Mix it together than stir every day with a wooden spoon. It started rising the second day and grew to the top of the bowl by day 3. Day 4 I thought it had died. It was deflated but smelled very sour so I covered it up again and set it aside. Not knowing if I had something wrong I began search for those wiser than I, not that that is a difficult thing for me to do. That led me to this sight. I’ve watched a couple of videos and think that it’s working. Tomorrow I hope to make my first loaf of Ciabatta Bread. You guys have given me so many ideas! Thanks! John
I was dying to try this but all I had on hand was whole wheat pastry flour so I just used that. I also didn’t have any pineapple juice so I just used water out of the filtration system in my fridge…..and it was a success! I was totally surprised that it worked.
Great example of how easy it can be. Flour, water, a little time, a little luck and you’ve got a leaven for making bread. It’s pretty cool, yes?
When you say purifed water, is boiled tap water good enough? The water tastes great here, but I assume I’d want to boil it to get rid of chlorine and whatever else it might be treated with. (?)
But wow! I started a batch of starter in a clean jelly jar with pineapple juice and organic rye flour 3 days ago.
I just fed it yesterday (at 48 hours) and today it’s jumping, almost doubling in height (1.75″ to 3″) every time I stir it down and let it sit for a few hours. I know I have to bring it through 1-2 more feedings, but I cannot wait to taste this in bread.
Thanks for all of your videos and guidance.
That’s great, Inga. Boiling works well, as does just letting the water sit for a while. Chlorine is easy to get rid of. Anyway, nice going. Let us know how your bread turns out.
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