How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter (2024)

Once your sourdough starter is established and active, it can be used to make a wide variety of sourdough recipes from classic rustic sourdough loaves, to pizza crust and focaccia, to cinnamon rolls and muffins, even bagels, biscuits, and tortillas! The options are endless!

You can check out all my favorite sourdough recipes here!

Key Terms

• Sourdough Starter- A culture of wild yeast and bacteria that leavens and flavors sourdough bread. I use what's called a "liquid starter" versus a stiff starter. This means the starter is made with equal parts flour and water and should be aconsistency similar to cake batter.
• Sourdough Discard- The portion of your starter that is discarded when feeding your starter (can be used in tons of recipes likesourdough discard blueberry muffinsorsourdough discard pancakes).
• Ripe Starter- A starter that's ready to be used in baking. Your starter is ripe roughly 6-12 hours after feeding and will have doubled in size, have lots of visible bubbles, and a fresh acidic aroma.
• Feeding - When you add flour and water to your starter.
• Room Temperature - For the purposes of making sourdough bread, room temperature refers to 70-74°F.

The only ingredients you need to get started is:

• 50 grams whole wheat or rye flour
• 50 grams lukewarm filtered water

You can also use a combination of different flours! The beauty of sourdough is that every starter is unique and there is no perfect formula. I personally start out with a little bit of rye and whole wheat flour and then do regular feedings with all purpose flour plus a tiny bit of whole wheat.

Also, make sure you're always usingunbleachedflours!! The process of bleaching can kill off any natural yeast found in the flour, aka you'll have a lot of trouble getting to an active starter.

If you're curious about what type of flour to use to make sourdough, I wrote a whole post all about it!! Click here to read all about flour!

Glass or Ceramic Jar - My favorite jars to use for sourdough starter are the 1 liter Weck tulip jars or the 1 liter Le Parfait Jars. They both have a very wide mouth and removable seal. You want to store your starter with a very loose fitting lid so that air can enter the jar.

I recommend having at least 2 jars for your sourdough starter and swapping them out once a week while feeding. So transfer your starter to a new jar and feed, then throughly clean the old jar. This helps prevent mold from forming on your starter.

Tip:Weigh your jar while it's empty and mark the outside of the jar with the weight. When it comes time to weigh your starter for feedings, this will make your life much easier.

Day 1:Combine 50 grams of rye flour and 50 grams of lukewarm water in a glass jar. Cover loosely and let rest at warm room temperature (70-74°F) for 24 hours.

Why do I loosely cover the starter and not keep it in an airtight container?Since your sourdough starter is a living organism, it needs to breathe and also allow gas from fermentation to escape. Simply place the lid on top of your container instead of sealing it or cover your jar with cheesecloth and a rubber band.

Day 2:Discard all but 50 grams of starter and feed with 50 grams of whole wheat flour and 50 grams of lukewarm water. Cover and let rest for 24 hours.

Why do I have to discard most of my starter everyday?Since during feedings we use equal weights of starter, flour, and water, discarding excess starter helps keep the volume from getting out of control. But you don't have to throw your discard away! There are lots of recipes that use discard (more on that below).

If you aren't seeing any bubbles after 5 days, don't get discouraged!! It can take up to two weeks to start seeing any activity with your starter.

Even once your start is active, it can take several weeks to months to get a very strong starter that is ready to bake with.

This is how I build up my starter if I'm only starting with a small amount out of the fridge:

Remove your starter from the fridge, weigh out 50 grams of starter, and feed with 50 grams of all purpose flour and 50 grams of lukewarm water. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

Discard all but 100 grams of starter and feed with 100 grams of all purpose flour and 100 grams of lukewarm water. Cover and let rest for 6-12 hours or until your starter is ripe.

If you need more starter (like making a double batch of bread etc.), repeat as needed increasing the amount of starter each time. [For example the third feed could be 200 grams of each starter flour and water.]

Use your ripe starter to make homemade sourdough bread!

How do I know when my starter is ripe?Your starter is ripe and ready to use when it passes the float test. Simply drop a small piece of starter into a glass of water and if it floats, it's ready! Starter is typically ripe 6-12 hours after feeding.

Why is there a layer of dark liquid on top of my starter?

Sometimes you might get a thin layer of clear or slightly brownish liquid on top of your starter (especially if it hasn't been fed recently). As long as your starter still smells normal and isn't showing any other negative signs, you can pour off the liquid and continue to feed as normal.

Why is the top of my starter dried out and forming a skin?

This means the starter is getting a little too much air and is drying out. You want your starter to get some airflow but not too much. I like covering the starter jar with a loose fitting lid as opposed to a cloth to help prevent this. You can scrape off the dry bits and continue feeding as normal if there are no other negative signs.

What do I do if my starter has signs of mold?

If your starter starts to look moldy, has spots that are pink/orange/red or black, or looks furry/fuzzy, then it has probably grown mold and unfortunately needs to be discarded. To prevent mold, make sure you're keeping you jar clean (I like to switch jars once a week), using filtered water, and using unexpired flour that is stored properly.

Can I buy a sourdough starter to jump start the process?

See more Sourdough Recipes →