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Homemade Sourdough Starter in a glass jar.
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Easy Sourdough Starter

Easy Sourdough Starter makes fluffy and crusty breads and sourdough baked goods. Use white all-purpose flour for Italian style breads. Wheat and rye flours makes more traditional sourdough breads. Once completed, makes sure to check out How To Maintain Sourdough Starter for decades of successful sourdough baking.
Course Baked Goods, Bread
Cuisine American
Keyword Easy Sourdough Starter, Sourdough Starter
Prep Time 7 days
Author Heather

Ingredients

  • 700 grams white all-purpose flour
  • 700 grams filtered water

Instructions

Day 1

  • In a  medium sized glass bowl mix together 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. Stir well and cover. Let sit at room temperature.
    See Note #1 and Note #2 below.

Day 2

  • To yesterday’s mixture add 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. Stir well and cover. Let sit at room temperature.

Day 3

  • Throw away half of the Starter. To the remaining Starter add 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water. Stir well and cover. Let sit at room temperature.
    See Note #3 below.

Day 4

  • Throw away half of the starter. Add 150 grams of flour and 150 grams of water to the bowl and stir well. Cover and let sit at room temperature. 
    See Note #4 below.

Day 5

  • Similar to the previous days, throw away half of the Starter and add 150 grams of flour and 150 grams of water. Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature. 
    See Note #5 below.

Day 6

  • Throw away half of the starter and add 200 grams of flour and 200 grams of water. Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature. 
    See Note #6 below.

Day 7

  • On day 7 the Starter should at the least look like photo B above if not like photo C. If it has a similar appearance to photo C, it is ready to use. If it looks like photo B, let it sit at room temperature for one additional day.

Notes

Recipe Notes
Note#1- To accurately weigh the flour and water start by making sure the scale is weighting in grams vs ounces. Place the bowl on the scale and turn on. The scale should read zero with the the bowl on top. Add enough flour to equal 50 grams. Tare the scale back to zero again and repeat with water.
Note#2- In the making and feeding of this starter there will always be equal parts of flour and water added to it. 
Note#3- The discarded Starter from day 3- day 7 is not fully developed enough to have any uses. Simply throw it away. 
Note#4- Day 4 is the day that you will notice the mixture starting to take on the personality of a Sourdough Starter. There should be small bubbles and a slight sour smell will start to take shape. 
Note#5- The Starter should begin to look very similar to picture A featured above in the post. If not do not worry, it will very soon.  Also, feel free to transfer to the glass jar once the new flour and water its mixed in on day 5. 
Note#6- By day 6 the Starter should look similar to photo A above and very possibly look like photo B.