Golden Sourdough Waffles - Easy Sourdough Starter Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

How do you make enough sourdough starter? ›

If you do not have enough starter, just feed it some more.

Just add some flour and water to your starter the day before and presto, you have more starter. This isn't even usually necessary though, as you can add a greatly varying amount of starter to your bread as it will leaven your dough over time.

A 100% hydration sourdough starter is a culture which is kept and fed with water and flour at equal weights. Like for instance 5 oz water to 5 oz flour. A 166% hydration starter is fed with equal volume of flour and water, which most typically is one cup of water (8.3 oz) and one cup of flour (5 oz).

A 1:2:2 feeding ratio would consist of one part existing starter, two parts flour and two parts water. For example, if you have 30g of existing starter, you would feed it 60g of flour and 60g of flour. The most common feeding ratios for daily maintenance are 1:1:1 or 1:2:2.

All-purpose Flour

It strikes a perfect balance of softness and structure, making it an ideal choice for various recipes. Due to its wide availability and affordability, all-purpose flour is often my top recommendation for creating and maintaining a sourdough starter.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

As with any sourdough recipe, before you start baking bread, you want to make sure that your sourdough starter is as strong as possible. What is this? My basic sourdough recipe uses just 50g of starter for 500g of flour (so just 10% of starter).

Essentially making a sourdough starter is not an overly difficult process, but it does require a commitment of time and patience, as well as some dedicated equipment. Sometimes there are factors which mean making sourdough starter could be difficult. Perhaps you're working long hours or go out of town regularly.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes about 10-14 days to develop a starter strong enough to rise a loaf. Experienced sourdough aficionados may be able to bake with a new starter in as few as five days. And, for less experienced bakers who struggle with the process, it may take up to 30 days.

No, milk should not be added to a sourdough starter. Sourdough starter needs only flour and water to colonise wild yeast. What is this? If you are feeding your sourdough starter twice a day and keeping it at a controlled temperature, it's unlikely that the fats in the milk will go rancid.

If you didn't discard a portion of your starter each time you feed it, two things would happen: Your starter would grow to an enormous, unmanageable size. Your starter would likely become more and more inhospitable to the bacteria and yeast we want as the mixture would become ever more acidic.

How often should I clean my sourdough starter jar? ›

Have you ever wondered whether you have to clean your sourdough starter jar? The simple answer is you don't need to clean your sourdough jar. It's just not necessary to clean your jar all that regularly, unless it's super crusty or you can't get your starter out or fresh flour and water in.

*If making sourdough is new for you, do not be discouraged if you starter takes longer to get active than mine – stick with it, it will happen! *Tap water is usually fine, if you are not sure, use boiled and cooled water, you can use it at room temperature or cool; do not use distilled water.

Distilled water might seem like a good option, but it's actually not great for your little yeasty friends. They need some minerals and stuff that are usually filtered out in the distillation process. So go for filtered or bottled water instead, and your starter will be living its best life in no time.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

Experts recommend feeding a starter twice daily. And at each feeding, you hold onto 1/2 cup of your original starter, discard the rest, and then add its same weight in water and flour. With this schedule, you'd discard almost a cup of sourdough starter every day.

Your starter may have a little bit of a smell if it hasn't been fed in a while, and your cooking projects will taste a little more sour to reflect that. So if you want to avoid the super sour sourdough taste, you might just need to feed it more often and not let it sit out on the counter as long.