I desperately try not to be wordy in my recipe posts but the sourdough posts are throwing that out the window. I promise it won't become a habit!
When the pandemic hit and everyone was making sourdough bread, I decided to hop on the bandwagon. Brad had made some delicious sourdough a long time ago and so we had **some** of the supplies. Disclaimer: I am still learning. I have watched so many youtube videos and blogs and recipes and I don't have it mastered. But from loaf #1 to now (no idea how many!) I have learned a lot. And as stressed out as I was about loaf #1 (my own issues!), the taste is what kept me coming back. Fresh out of the oven with butter, toasted with Tagge's Brigham City peach jam - YUM. (My mom recently sent me a case of it - SO GOOD!)
Any good sourdough starts with the starter. Go figure. I tried to make my own. I T-R-I-E-D. Thought I had it and then it just died on me one day. So here is my advice - BUY one or borrow some from a friend. I've given some to strangers from a facebook group. I promise you there is someone near you that has some starter that they can share. My starter is a total rockstar. I am obsessed with my starter ("Joan of Starch" - Joan for short) because it just always pulls through.
This was my first starter, Layla. These deli containers are on Amazon and I love them so much. I threw out almost all of my other containers because guess what? THERE IS ONE LID SIZE for all three sizes of these containers. Heaven.
This is Joan. I bought this container just for her. I like having a lot of starter and there is a ton of delicious stuff you can make with it. Now that she's healthy and hearty, I don't have to feed and discard on some kind of schedule. When I want to use it, I bring her out of the fridge and feed her. Sometimes I wait a day to use her and sometimes it's the same day. It really depends on the temperature and how she is reacting to the feeding.
Always have an elastic on your starter container so you can see how much it's grown.
Below is generally what it looks like when I first pull it out of the fridge. Soup with a film of liquid on it. Gross.
This is what it looks like when I've stirred it up and fed it. Always do a 1:1 ratio of flour (I use all purpose) and lukewarm water. I know someone who only uses bottled water. You'll figure out what you need. Cold water will take longer for it to activate. Usually between 75 - 125 grams of flour and water. You NEED a kitchen scale. Doesn't have to be fancy but you will have better results if you are measuring by grams and not cups, etc. And most recipes use grams so just cut to the chase. Get a scale that you can zero it out so you measure the flour and the water without having to do math.
Sourdough waffles (delicious) use a lot of starter and I've cut it very close a few times (to completely using up my starter). If you've got even a couple of teaspoons of starter left you can feed off of that. Remember ratios are important -- small amount of starter, feed a small amount and build it up over time (feed twice a day if you need to!) If you have a lot of starter, you can feed more. This happened to me the other day so I just fed it 50 grams of water and flour and now it's built back up really nicely.
BUBBLES!
It may take an hour, it may take four hours, but when you get bubbles and see that it's risen above the elastic, it's working! THIS is when you use it for bread. There are recipes that call for sourdough discard and if it doesn't say to use ACTIVE starter, then you don't have to wait for bubbles. I always use active starter for my bread.
There are a million pics of starters out there with MASSIVE bubbles and I have never had that. However, when I've stirred up my starter, I can see the structure of lots of bubbles. That is what matters. Size of bubbles = not so important. Presence of bubbles = important.
Some places recommend a drop test where you put some of the starter in water and if it floats it's ready but I've never found that to be reliable.
Because of my experience running out of this starter I dried some of this to have on hand. I've given some away, I'll store some. You just take your starter, spread some out in a thin layer on some parchment paper and a cookie sheet and let it dry completely. Stick it on a shelf for a couple of days. Then break it up, put into a blender or food processor - mine didn't get into fine powder and that's ok. Store. Just google how to rehydrate starter. I've had to do this a time or two and it's worked fine.
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