How to Feed Sourdough starter
A simple tutorial for how to feed sourdough starter to keep it active and ready for baking.
Ingredients
- Sourdough starter
- Filtered/chlorine-free water
- Flour
- Digital scale
Instructions
- Weigh sourdough starter. I do this by weighing an empty quart jar, zeroing out my scale, and then putting my identical quart jar with the sourdough starter in it on the scale. This tells me how many grams of starter are in the jar
- Zero out scale again, and add equal amounts of flour and warm water. For instance, if you have 200 grams of starter, add 200 grams of flour, and 200 grams of water
- Stir together well, and scrape down sides of jar with a rubber spatula
- mark starter level with a sharpie or rubber band placed at the same level as the starter. This will allow you to see how much the starter rises
- Cover, either with a cloth, or loosely with the lid and let sit at room temperature for 2-4 hours
- Starter should become bubbly, and rise at least a little bit
- To test whether your starter is ready to bake with, test it by placing a teaspoon of starter in a bowl or cup of water. If it floats, it’s ready.
- Remove the amount you need for your recipe, and refeed the rest and place in the refrigerator for next time.
Notes
You can use all purpose flour, bread flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour, or a blend of your preferred flours. I usually use all purpose flour for my basic weekly needs.