Sourdough is simple, but it takes time and some nurturing so now could be the perfect time to start your sourdough adventure. This is our simple recipe to get your own starter going, using only two ingredients!
We are not experts but this method is straightforward and works...
Fresh sourdough loaf
Ingredients:
- Flour
- Water
Rye flour seems to work the fastest and is easy to maintain but you can make your starter with almost any flour: bread flour, spelt flour, wholewheat flour, einkorn flour, rice flour...
Simple sourdough starter: only 2 ingredients
Method:
Make and keep your starter in a container that can be sealed air tight - but never completely seal the container: always leave the lid on loosely. You could use a kilner jar or a tuppaware container and store it out of direct sunlight in a dry and stable temperature (no draughts or cold spots).
- Day 1: mix 25g of flour with 25g of room temperature water. Leave overnight.
- Day 2: add 50g of flour and 50g of room temperature water to your container and mix. Leave overnight.
- Day 3: mix 50g of your starter mix (i.e. remove 100g of the mix) with 50g of flour and 50g of room temperature water. Leave overnight.
- Day 4 - 7: keep repeating the ratios for Day 3. By day 3 or 4 you my start to see some bubbles in your mixture and by day 7 you should see a good amount of activity (bubbles throughout the starter mix and it should rise up in the container) and the mixture should have a sweet, slightly fruity/hoppy smell.
If you are baking with it regularly continue to refresh it daily (this will happen naturally as you use some of it up with each bake) and store it in the same place. However, if you prefer to cook with it less frequently you can just pop your starter in the fridge, to slow down fermentation, and then you only need to refresh it once a week.
Sourdough start discard...
If, like us, you hate waste then the thought of throwing away sourdough starter mix each day may be alarming - especially at this time when flour is even more precious than usual. Thankfully there are lots of great ways to use up sourdough discard from pancakes and waffles to cakes and even animal feed!
Note: discard from the early days of creating your starter will not be very active so don't use this in recipes that need the wild yeast activity to help with rising.
Sourdough discard chocolate brownies
Sourdough discard greek yoghurt pancakes
Once your starter is established and you are baking sourdough loaves regularly, you can work it out so that you don't end up with too much discard. Every time you have some discard just add it to a jar in the fridge!
Here are some of our favourite sources of recipe inspiration for using up sourdough discard:
If you are interested in learning more about this amazing craft there are a great range of courses available, including ones you can do online without needing to leave the house - take a look>
Please share your own sourdough discard recipes, successes and failures (we've all had a frisbee come out the oven!) with us on social media @craftcourses.
For other recipes and foraging articles click here >
