I’ve been playing with sourdough breads the last several weeks. I found a recipe for a sourdough starter in Lauren Groveman’s I Love to Cook Book, (which I checked out from the library and loved so much that I immediately ordered my own copy from Amazon.)
This sourdough starter appears in Lauren’s recipe for Pane di Casa, which I haven’t made yet. I just wanted the basic starter, so I could play around with other recipes calling for it. Here’s the starter:
- 2 c. warm water
- 1 teaspoon, plus a little of mild honey
- 2 TBSP yeast
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
In a large mixing bowl, combine the water, honey and yeast. When the yeast is dissolved and bubbly, stir in 2 c. flour until smooth. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 c. at a time, stirring until well-mixed each time. Cover the bowl securely with plastic wrap and let it sit. It will initially balloon up HUGELY, and then settle down. (Once it settled, I transferred it to a plastic ice cream bucket and put the lid on.) Let it sit and ferment for 4 days in a warm spot.
After 4 days, uncover the mixture and stir well. You can either store it in the refrigerator, in which case you have to “feed” it once a week, or on your counter, in which case, you feed it every day.
To feed the starter, take out 1 cup (after stirring it well) and either discard it or use it in a recipe. Then add 1 c. each of warm water and flour. Mix well and cover again. Note that, since you are removing 1 c. and adding 2 c. each time, the starter does grow gradually. I periodically take out more than 1 cup. Last night I gave 2 cups of it to a friend who was visitng, so that SHE could have her own little kitchen monster to feed.
I’ll soon be posting some of the recipes I’ve made using this starter–my family has been delighted by the unexpected abundance of fresh-baked bread recently. 
LB
PS: Visit our related sourdough links:
I have been using and creating my own sourdough starters for several years. I also use regular ‘domestic’ yeast to start a new brew. I have found every starter will end up developing it’s own character. Sometimes you will have a starter the ages into very fruity yeast, while others have a totally different smell. The breads made from the different starters will also have a subtle difference in smell and flavor. Every one is good but once in a while you can get something very exceptional.
I chuckled at your description of a “little kitchen monster” because years ago, your cousin Cheryl gave me a couple cups of her starter with a recipe for a fruit bread. I couldn’t keep up with that starter, and started to feel like a gardener who went a little overboard with planting zucchini. (You know how when it all starts ripening at once people start to avoid you?) I couldn’t give the starter away fast enough and my family got sick of the bread recipe too. Have fun experimenting with new breads.
Joan
(came from instructables.com)
I just started my first starter, I’ve always like the taste of sourdough bread and currently buy mine from a bio store (expensive, but great taste).
I could only find “instant yeast” and “rye flour”, and had to convert everything to metric, so I hope it works – it’ll save me a lot of money if all goes well and I can keep it up.
I remember my dad started one a few years back, but that got moldy after 2 days…
It’s sitting on my counter with a tablecloth on top of the bowl.
4 more days to go. I’d better read up on what to do with it once it’s done – do I take part of it and use it to make bread, and just keep stirring/feeding what’s left once a week if I put it in the fridge – and continue to take part of it to make a loaf of bread?
How long does the loaf stay good for (I’m on my own, not sure how big a loaf to make?)
Wow! I will try it right now. Thanks!
I’m giving this a shot. Anything that can save me so much on tasty bread and give me major street cred is worth the effort!
Thanks for the info
I am 50 and can’t remember the last time I had home baked bread. Over the past few years I’ve told myself I was going to learn to bake bread. Sure, I know it can be done and done easily but I want to really learn to bake some amazing breads!
So I’m going to try sourdough and make my own starter too! I have no idea what I’m doing but I figure I can follow instructions! lol
Stumbled upon this website and just wanted to say thanks to everyone.
G
I’m going to give it a try. My family absolutely loves sourdough bread, but I’ve never been daring enough to try it. I think it was the caring for and feeding of the Amish Friendship bread I received recently (and your website) that gave me the courage. Thanks!
I just fed my starter for the first time. It smells strongly of vinegar. I remember when I was little we got a “friendship bread” starter that smelled much sweeter and more yeasty. Did I do something wrong or is vinegar one of the possible flavors?
Jason, a healthy sourdough starter is going to smell really sour. I’m guessing that that’s the vinegar-y smell that you’re getting. I think it’s okay and should bake up into beautiful bread.
I’m confused to why you take one cup out and put two cups back in? Wouldn’t it make sense to put back what you take out, so the mixture doesn’t continue to grow? Also, refrigerating the stater after the 4 days will pause the fermentation so you won’t have to feed it that often. Just let it warm for a day before using in a recipe.
Is this recipe supposed to make for a rather doughy starter? I don’t know much about baking or starters, but from what I’ve seen, starters seem to be quite soup-like. Is it meant to be like this, or is the consistency supposed to change over the course of a few days?
I really hope so … I just made it according to the directions and I have a big ball of dough on my counter.
I had the same question. The Intructables.com on this sourdough, the starter looks much thinner. After four days, I still have a really loose dough.
Amber, in the last few years, my sourdough starter strategy has evolved somewhat from this, and now I tend to use more a 1:1 ratio of water and flour, because I do want my starter to be more soupy. If I was starting a starter for one batch of bread, I’d maybe use this. But these days, when I feed the starter that lives in a crock in my fridge, I dump in water and flour in roughly equal amounts (without measuring very carefully, just eye-balling the amounts, and adjusting them if the resulting texture of the starter is too thick or thin.) I feed the starter once or twice a week.
I followed the directions and had to add a little bit more water. It looks a little like a ball of dough, some water but not much. Will this change? Please help!
took one cup water one cup flour teaspoon of yeast and a half teaspoon of sugar and three days later had this soupy yeasty, beery smelling starter that seemed close to what the recipie said would happen and made the most wonderful bread ive ever tasted, cant believe i made it. i throw in 4 or 5 good shakes of italian seasoning into the bread mix and rub butter on the top of the loaf when its done. amazingly good and im a 53 year old man who never baked a day in his life. its easy and the house smells great while im cooking. I tried whole wheat flour and its not so good heavy and hard but with all purpose flour or bread flour its wonderful