Here is the first installment of my 2-part sourdough bread recipe. The starter is made over the course of four days, but other than ‘feeding’ it once a day for about ten days, there isn’t much to it.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 days |
| Total Time: | 10 days 15 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 700 grams bread flour
- 700 grams filtered water, divided
Instructions
- Day 1: Mix 70 grams flour and 70 grams water together in a container with a lid. Container needs to be large enough to accommodate another 70 grams water and flour. Cover loosely so gases can escape. Leave for 24 hours at 70 degrees F.
- Day 2: Add 70 grams flour and 70 grams water. Stir. Cover loosely and leave for 24 hours at 70 degrees.
- Day 3: Remove half (140 grams) of the starter. Add 70 grams flour and 70 grams water. Stir. Cover loosely and leave for 24 hours at 70 degrees.
- Day 4 through about Day 10: Repeat Step 3 each day until starter smells fruity, yeasty, and is beautifully fermented. You can test this by seeing if the mixture doubles within 2 to 3 hours of feeding.
- Refrigerate until needed. Most people recommend you feed the starter once a month or so (Step 3).
- To make bread using a refrigerated starter: feed it at room temperature for two days. Use your refreshed starter to make bread on the third day. Remember to set aside 140 grams of starter and feed it again before returning it to the fridge.
- The exact number of grams seen here doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re using exactly the same amount of flour and water, by weight.
- I use gram weights for flour and water to ensure I’m using exactly the same amount for each. 700 grams of flour equals about 5 1/2 cups; 70 grams is a scant 1/2 cup. But I do recommend using a kitchen scale to measure grams.
- For best results, use bottled water; chlorine can kill the yeast/bacteria. You can also use boiled, cooled water.
- You can use different kinds of flour. I like half spelt and half bread flour, but this recipe will work with pretty much any combination, including all wheat flour.
- Get the recipe for
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Reviews
Easy and came out perfect!
It took about 12 days for my starter to really expand. I kept it in a warm room, but it just didn’t rise much. Reading around on other web sites, I got the idea to use warmer water when I fed the starter, and what do you know? It poofed right up and out of the jar! It reeked the first five days, like the worst smelling, sweaty feet you can imagine. Ugh! I have to admit, I didn’t use a scale. I just fed it half a cup of flour each day with a half cup or less of water. I mixed in just enough water to get the right consistency. It seems to have worked and now I’m ready to try the bread. The video has great instructions, but I definitely think the warm water was the trick that really made it rise.
Several years ago I attempted sourdough… and, of course, we all know real/authentic/primitive/whatever you want to call it sourdough begins with a starter. I’ve seen starters that call for commercial yeast (which kind of defeats the point in my opinion) and I’ve seen starters that call for all sorts of extra or special ingredients to make it rise (which.. also kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion). I really just wanted a basic, plain starter – flour and water. Years ago when I tried creating a starter I went to a very well known, popular flour manufacturer’s website for the instructions. Every batch I tried ended up going rotten. Fast forward a few years and my husband innocently asks me “Hey, do you think you can learn how to make sourdough bread? Like, real sourdough bread?” Since my previous attempts had been so awful I decided to look elsewhere for the instructions for a basic, authentic starter. I followed Chef John’s instructions and based on the advice of a reviewer here ended up taking some of the “discard” and feeding it too. I ended up with three starters (just in case). It look my starters a LOT longer than the 10 days (I know that’s an estimate) to get them where they needed to be. We’ve had a spring this year though where it was summer (with tons of humidity, low 80s) during the day and winter (low to mid 30s) at night…. so I am sure that was partially the reason it took them so long. Gradually the weather began to stabilize and then we finally found some unbleached whole wheat flour. I swapped from feeding them unbleached white bread flour to unbleached whole wheat and really saw a huge increase in activity. I noticed that several reviewers on Chef John’s Sourdough bread complained about the dough being too runny or too watery. Had I gone by the estimated (I know that he had to put something down for timing and that it varies wildly and he stresses this in his video) 10 days on the starter mine would have been an utter failure as well. (And I’m not saying that’s what happened in their cases…. I don’t know the details.. I am just stating a thought that I had while looking at my starter about two weeks into this…that the resulting dough would have been too thin and watery). As long as the starter was good and developing I didn’t see any point in being impatient so I didn’t really want to attempt the bread until I was happy with the starter. I had read elsewhere that really a starter needs a full month of feeding before using…. I’m sure that’s entirely subjective.. but even after several weeks my starters all looked too thin and runny (even though they were doubling in size). So, I kept at it for a full month before attempting to bake anything. Basically… I waited until larger bubbles were visible on the sides of the clear containers in the starters themselves and once the starters felt like biscuit dough and were very thick when trying to stir (the whole wheat helped here too with getting a thick starter… I use white unbleached bread flour in the bread recipe itself). Since ultimately I decided I wanted bigger starters what I ended up doing was just combining two of the three starters, mixing it together, discarding half and then feeding back at those adjusted proportions. So, I went from three to two starters. I then did the same thing with the other starter (took the discard from the smaller starter and fed it for several weeks until it looked good, combined the two starters, discarded half and feed again using adjusted proportions). What I’ve ended up with are two large starters. I just decided it would be better to have a backup (just in case something happens to one of them) and I also wanted enough starter to be able to use in recipes that call for a larger quantity. I could have just began my starter (from the very beginning, day 1) using more flour and water obviously however…. I just wanted to explain that you can do this even if you began/started out with a smaller quantity as I did. Chef John’s simple yet detailed instructions on sourdough starter creation were simple enough but he made sure to include some key points. The first time(s) I attempted sourdough starters I was using instructions from that very well known flour manufacturer. They didn’t seem to think it important that things like water that had been dechlorinated and unbleached flour were important to mention. They also advised to use a “scant cup of flour” to begin the starter with. I get trying to keep it simple but I also think maybe, just maybe they should have stressed or at least just mentioned how vitally important keeping everything balanced and in proportion is to creating a successful starter. Thank you, thank you, thank you Chef John for explaining things in a way that makes sense. I’ve literally gone from feeling like this form of bread making was completely out of my reach to having enjoyed several loaves from your fabulous sourdough bread recipe in just over a month!
tried it twice both times no rise at all , followed the recipe gospel but no luck . advice welcome !!
I love this very easy starter. It’s what I use now. The only changes I did make is using whole wheat for my flour. Make sure you follow the weight requirements.
poor directions!
I have to say that the combination of the flours that Chef John used in the beginning of his video threw me off, however I did use all purpose flour only and so far – day 3, it ‘looks’ OK. Hey, if it doesn’t work, whats the harm, I’ll just start all over again, until I get it right! Thanks to Chef John, I am on my way to making sourdough bread!
Great recipe! I was very frustrated with a different (well known) method that was just not taking off. After going through half a bag of flour, I pitched it and tried Chef John’s method with great success. Just a few days to go before it will be strong enough to bake my first loaf, but after about 6 days, it’s well on it’s way.
Makes a wonderful starter!!!
This makes a lovely starter! It took me a while to get rising properly, probably because my thermostat is set at 62 degrees. To fix this, I added a little rye flour (about 10-15%) to my bread flour and increased the time between feedings. I did a three day rotation: feed in the morning, feed at night the next day, skip the third day, feed in the morning again, ect. After a few days, my starter was doubling and tripling in size between feedings. Just some hints for those who are trying to decrease their electrical bill!
I have had experience with sourdough before, and I decided to try out this recipe when my other starter went bad. I made a whole wheat starter and one with AP flour (this is what I had used previously). The AP was ready to use the next evening (starter is ready if you spoon a little bit into a cup of water and it floats) while the Whole Wheat took a couple of days. This is a good recipe and I will definitely use again.
I must be doing something wrong because my starter doesn’t rise at all after feeding, even after ten days. I’m pretty good in the kitchen, used a scale to measure the flour and water, and used bottled water. Super bummed. My scale is not digital, so maybe the amounts I added weren’t exactly equal.
Very robust sourdough starter. It actually took 12 days to be ready for bread. I initially used unbleached white flour, but now feed a white/ whole wheat equal portions blend.
Easy to follow instructions with excellent results. I saved the discard to make something savoury or sweet.
Took me at least 3 weeks to get this thing going! I was getting bubbles & hooch but not enough rise. Once the weather warmed up that really helped. You need to keep this warmer than the recipe calls for.
This worked perfectly and the bread from this starter is delicious!
I made this with smaller measurements and didn’t actually take any out – I figured flour is cheap so I experimented. Still worked great and I used our well water. I started this process about 2 weeks ago and I’m baking my second batch of bread right now.
I literally just started my starter, with 1/2 whole wheat & 1/2 AP flour. I’ve decided to name him ‘Seymour’ because I want to remember to “FEED ME SEYMOUR”. (OK… I know it was Audrey’s line but if it helps me remember!) More later… Day 3: He’s making bubbles & smelling funky, like Chef John said. It was hard to throw out 1/2 of him, but…
I just started making this. I have been using half whole wheat half all purpose flour. I did notice that doing the weights that the consistency wasn’t quite right. Too thick. So I added more water so it looked like the video. Was up to 85-90 g water and 70g flour mix
This is my first attempt at anything NOT in a bread machine. hahaha! I was a bit intimidated, but I just followed the steps and never missed a feeding of my “Yeast of Burden”. There were a few times where I thought I messed up and it wasn’t going to work…but kept pushing along. My starter took an extra day or 2 to finally start rising nicely. I made my first loaf of sourdough bread using Chef John’s Sourdough Bread recipe on this site. OHMYGOODNESS – I DID IT!!! It’s AMAZING! I got a little over-anxious and took it out of the oven a couple of minutes to early..AND I sliced it still warm —because after 15 days…I couldn’t wait an extra 20 minutes! Oh – and I just used regular all-purpose flour because not any store ANYWHERE has any other type right now. Seems EVERYONE is baking. I didn’t have the banneton so I followed the alternative directions provided.
I just finished the starter, and it’S bubbly and smells wonderful after ten days. Ready to make bread today.