Easiest Way to Prepare Perfect Bread (Sourdough) Starter

Bread (Sourdough) Starter. A homemade sourdough starter is a bread baker's pantry staple — though it does take some tending. Here our method for getting one going from scratch; though it'll take a few days longer to get to. When you use starter to bake, always replace with equal amounts of a flour and water mixture with a pinch of sugar.

But where does the path to sourdough bread begin? Right in your own kitchen, with your own homemade sourdough starter. A sourdough starter is a collection of wild yeasts naturally found everywhere, from the air in your home to the flour you're using. You can have Bread (Sourdough) Starter using 11 ingredients and 11 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of Bread (Sourdough) Starter

1. It's of ◆Sponge 1.
2. It's 50 grams of Starter liquid.
3. It's 50 grams of Bread flour.
4. You need of ◆Sponge 2.
5. Prepare 1 of the whole amount Sponge 1.
6. Prepare 50 grams of Starter liquid.
7. You need 50 grams of Bread flour.
8. You need of ◆Sponge 3.
9. Prepare 1 of the whole amount Sponge 2.
10. It's 50 grams of Starter liquid.
11. Prepare 50 grams of Bread flour.

Whole-grain flours contain more of the wheat kernel, so they tend. To use and replenish your sourdough starter, stir to blend in any liquid. Remove the amount of starter needed and bring to room temperature. For each ½ cup starter removed, add ½ cup flour and ½ cup warm water to the remaining starter and stir until smooth.

Bread (Sourdough) Starter step by step

1. Day 1: Make Sponge 1 by combining the starter liquid and flour. Mix together lightly, and mark the liquid level with a rubber band. The liquid can be a bit floury..
2. Leave in a warm place for 8 to 12 hours to ferment..
3. When the sponge has doubled in volume and there are air bubbles in the bottom, it's done. Rest for 12 hours in the refrigerator..
4. Day 2: Add the entire amount of Sponge 1 that was made in Step 3 with the Sponge 2 starter liquid and flour, mix lightly, and mark the liquid level with a rubber band..
5. Leave in a warm place for 8 to 12 hours to ferment..
6. When the sponge has doubled in volume and there are air bubbles in the bottom, it's done. Rest for 12 hours in the refrigerator..
7. Day 3: Add the entire amount of Sponge 2 that was made in Step 6 with the Sponge 3 starter liquid and flour, mix lightly, and mark the liquid level with a rubber band..
8. Leave in a warm place for 8 to 12 hours to ferment..
9. When the sponge has doubled in volume and there are air bubbles in the bottom, it's done. Rest for 12 hours in the refrigerator..
10. Use the completed starter sponge to make delicious bread or waffles..
11. Use up the starter sponge within 2 weeks. If the sponge loses its oomph, use in pizza dough or waffle batter..

What we call sourdough "starter" is a mixture of flour and water that naturally collects yeast and bacteria. It's part of the bread making process known as a preferment. (To read that word correctly, think of it as pre-ferment, as in, what happens before fermenting.) Any preferment can leaven (raise) and flavor bread. It seems that home bakers everywhere are showing off their sourdough loaves. These breads, with their burnished, dark crusts and chewy crumbs, were made with a live starter, a wet paste of flour and water that it is bubbly enough to create the leavening needed to bake a loaf of bread. The existing wild yeasts and bacteria in flour can be encouraged to thrive through regular feedings of warm.

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