This is how you make the best sourdough starter including all the tiny but very important details to master making delicious sourdough bread. The information has been updated in 2022 to include another 2 years of knowledge since making the first video.
You can also get my free ebook where all the details of making a sourdough starter are covered. It is free because I believe information like this should be free to everyone. Link:
Resources:
Difference between liquid, stiff, normal starter:
Fixing your moldy starter:
My default sourdough bread recipe:
3 minute sourdough bread:
All flowcharts:
Join Discord:
Usages of discard starter:
Make a bread:
Crackers:
Sourdough spice:
Images:
Yeast/bacteria:
Egyptian lady:
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:05 History
1:42 What is a starter
2:40 Making a starter
4:30 When is the starter ready?
5:24 My favorite trick
7:35 Making your first bread
8:14 How much starter?
8:55 Starter maintenance
9:46 Helpful resources
10:48 Special surprise
#sourdough #bread
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You can read about this in detail in my free book called “The Sourdough Framework”. You can get it here: https://breadco.de/book. You can support the project with a donation, but there is absolutely no knead. I believe information like this should be free and accessible to everyone. The book is made for everyone who wants to understand the important details when making sourdough bread. Thank you!
Why do you need to discard while preparing atarter. Why not just let it get bigger and bigger as you wait and feed for the 5-10 days? I don't understand why everyone says to do that.
Hi Hendrick. After months of unsuccessful sourdough baking because of sticky dough, I decided to follow your YouTube video and make my own starter. After 7 days, the starter was much too slow to double in size and showing no day-to-day improvement, so I started again with better quality flour. In my latest work I've been using a 50-50 wholemeal-Rye flour mix for the daily feeding. The specific flours are Marriages very strong 100% Canadian wholemeal with 15.8% protein and Bacheldre Watermill organic stone ground rye with 8% protein. After 17 days, the results are hopeless. Still slow and weak – nothing whatever like the starter shown in your video. Gas bubble generation is never vigorous and it takes 10 – 12hr to just about double in size. There is an acetic smell. For many days, there has been no improvement whatever and I know I'm wasting time to continue. Do you have any idea what might be wrong and can you suggest what I might do next? I've tried days with bottled water and days with tap water. It made no difference.
May I ask do regular starter and stiff starter share the same recipe when making the bread? I have two…but i wonder if i shd use the same quantity of stiff starter in the recipe which calls for regular starter. Thank you!
So confused to make starters. More then 10 time failedake starter
Software developer getting back into sourdough. Following the instructions. Only 4 days in but my starter now triples in volume in 12 hours. For kicks I refreshed it last night at 12 hours. 12 hours later it had tripled again. Doesn’t have the smell I expect yet. However, at day 6 I’m going try baking a loaf with it. I will be turning this into a stiff starter.
What is your opinion for the float test to see if your starter is ready?
I had to laugh at your use of condoms to monitor stiff starters 🤣
This hasn't been going well for me. I am using whole wheat flour. After a week and a half of feeding, I was getting no expansion. I ended up adding a small pinch of Fleischmann's yeast and finally got some expansion. Even though I feed it every day, the initial expansion I got after adding that pinch of yeast has slowed down. It only increases in size by about 25% over 24 hours. Doubt you'll see this on a 9 month old video, but just in case…any ideas?
Meinst du mit einem stiff starter sowas wie denn Lievito Madre ?
So… do you start the starter in the fridge or on the bench?
Fkn degenerate using condoms to prep food…
Well, I got a successful loaf of bread, but it isn't sour at all. It even tastes almost exactly like the poolish breads I did. No clue as to why it is not more sour. It did take 4 to 6 hours to double in size. Not sure if that is normal or not. House temps were about 70 to 72. Still a good tasting bread, and I did get better crumb and spring than I did with the poolish breads.
Can I do this with almond flour? Which gluten free does this work best with?
The end was one of the best YouTube moments I've ever seen.
My stiff starter dries out on the top. Is that ok?
I actually watched this whole video without skipping haha. Loved the video, thank you!
Can I change the scale of these measurements? Like halving it or doubling?
First attempt, and I had to go back and start over. First batch, no problem, and result was beautiful gluten development. Second feeding, it bubbled up and more than doubled in size, and great gluten development. ^Third feeding, and it went soupy, and almost no bubbling. Wondering if maybe I had a super flour or some thing else happened. Oh well starting again. Interesting to me was that I had better gluten development than I ever had with my attempts at poolish breads….
super. thanks!
Should the hydration not be higher for the bread 400+240ratio is only 60% should it not be closer to 75-80%?
how are you able to travel with your starter?
thank you!
Why not use a pinch of bread yeast to develop a batch of sourdough starter?
Baloons 😎
Hello, I made my first Samantha at January this year based on your recipe and she died one month ago. I then again tried making the starter on my own on Samantha 2, the bread still looked over fermented so I flushed her and started my third try on Marie Claire, now it looks and smells fine but I put it to floating test, it sinks to bottom. I am very sad,…. Can you help please?
I am searching for a family friendly mild sourdough recipe. In One video you said liquid starter was best and in another stiff?
Would you point me in the right direction.
Gluten Tag! Engineer you say? I've been thinking of an "automatic sourdough starter machine". Put flour and water in hoppers. Then use your algorithm to program the intervals… It would have a button "dispense starter", and the discards would have a catch bin. Does using chlorinated water mater much vs distilled water? aka does chlorine affect the bacteria?
This summer I tried to develope my sourdough starter. Many trials with one result: at the end my bread dough turns very sticky, and sour dough itself turns liquid fast, doesn't rise good and doesn't produce huge bubbles. I've learned that this is because of Leuconostoc bacteria, which develope in the starter with other bactetia and yeat, and when temperature is not hight enough, Leucinostoc becomes dominating. It creates acidic environment and destroys gluten. Have you ever had this issue and how can this be fixed ? I'm afraid, then any starter turns this way in my hands. Thank you much, Bread code for your bread work and brrad inspiration!
Can you tell me where I should put the container to grow the starter, in cold temp or warm temp?
I am very excited about this! I will try to do it as soon as possible! thanks so much! You are amazing! Thanks
this a pure gold… thank you so much!
Very easy to follow. One question though. You made regular starter and then converted it to "stiff starter". I'm confused about the 50% hydration of the "stiff starter". 50% seems very low. Why? Does that ratio matter much in starters? Lastly, can I still make bread using the first, non stiff starter before the conversion? Still not sure how stiff starter is superior over the initial starter that you made.
guys can anybody help me troubleshoot my messy starter? it is slightly bubbly, but no rising whatsoever. I followed all the steps, what am I doing wrong?
My husband won’t eat it because of the hard crust. I LOVE sourdough bread !! Is there a way to soften the crust ??
I call mine "Frankenstein". Every Sunday when I feed it, I pull up the old Alice Cooper song and crank it 🙂
Found your channel recently and really love the content.
Great Work! Thanks for the Flowchart link also …
(ps on some of the quick video cuts made it feel too jumpy sometimes)
When feeding starter, I haven't measured the ratio of starter to flour to water in years. It's absolutely unnecessary. Within a fairly wide range, it just doesn't matter. There is zero need for precision. When making bread I empty the starter jar, whatever is left on the sides is plenty. Suggestion, add the water first and thoroughly mix, then add flour to get a thick paste. Forget the scales. Don't waste time measuring anything. If there is more water, that gives the yeast/bacteria more mobility. It will feed faster and will not rise much but it's still healthy. Less water it feeds slower, may take a little longer to get to the same point. It will expand a lot more because the bubbles can't escape. If you want to see it growing a lot, add less water. It's fun to see but sometimes that's a pain if it overflows and makes a mess. It can grow very little and if it's bubbly it's fine. The only thing that needs that needs to be adjusted is time. Same with making bread, I never measure the starter, I don't even know how much I use. I use a lot more water than 240g but it's the same thing, only thing that needs to be adjusted is time. It's all incredibly simple and flexible. BTW, it will live for many months in the fridge without feeding. If you find it in the fridge and you haven't used it in months, don't worry, it's fine. Probably it has separated with liquid on top and it probably doesn't smell good. Don't worry, it's fine. Stir it to mix the liquid back in, then dump out most of it and add water, thoroughly mix and add flour. Check it the next day and you can be pretty sure it will see it bubbling away. Give a feeding cycle then it will be good to go.
so during the first 5-10 days, should i put the starter in the fridge after each feeding?
Hi, what size is the weck jar please
Is it normal to be almost on day 5 and it hasn’t doubled in size?
Hi! For simplicity sake, can I just keep feeding using the 50g/50g/50g method, everyday, all the time…or is there a reason to stop after 10 days. Sorry if you covered that in the video.
Hallochen! Like your videos and approach to explaining all the details of making sourdough starter from scratch. However, in previous videos, you mentioned applying a 1:5:5 ratio to make a perfect starter; on the other hand, you are applying a 1:1:1 ratio in this chapter. Which ratio do you prefer for beginners?
I am new to baking. My sourdough starter has raised up to a level and it again dropped a little bit. Why it is happening. What was wrong.
I hate the taste of sourdough – but my mother loved it. This is very well explained. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience