Ingredients
What you need:
- Bread flour
- Clean drinking water
- Glass jar
Instructions
- DAY 1: Combine 50g bread flour with 50g water and mix in a large jar until smooth, the consistency will be thick and pasty. Then cover with plastic wrap and let rest on the counter for 24 hours.
- DAY 2: Add 50g water and 50g flour to the starter from day 1. Mix thoroughly, cover and let it rest for 24 hours.
- DAY 3: The starter will probably be thin and start to smell. Measure out 50g of your starter from the previous day (discard the rest) and add (feed) 50g water and 50g flour. Mix, cover, and let rest for 24 hours.
- DAY 4: Repeat the process you did on day 3 by measuring out 50g of starter, and feeding 50g water + 50g flour. Mix, cover, and let rest.
- DAY 5 & ONWARDS: Repeat the process that you started on day 3 twice a day, so ~12 hours apart.
- DAY 7: You might start to notice that your starter is doubling after each feed, there are big and small bubbles, and it has a good sour smell (and it’s okay if not)! Keep doing the feeding process every ~12 hours.
- DAY 8: Your starter may now be more than doubling after each feed. If not, keep calm and repeating the feeding process!
- DAY 9 & BEYOND: Continue to feed twice daily to strengthen your starter and get it ready for its first bake!
- Once your starter starts doubling every feed, it’s ready to use! To check if it’s definitely ready to use, you can test it by taking a cup of room temperature water and adding 1 tsp of the starter to it — if it sinks, it’s not ready, but if it floats, it’s ready!
Maintaining your Starter
- Once your starter is ready, you will need to maintain it!
- If you bake often, you can store it at room temperature and feed it once a day at a 1:1:1 ratio of starter to flour to water.
- If you bake less often, you can store your starter in the fridge and feed it once a week at a 1:1:1 ratio of starter to flour to water to keep it strong and healthy!