A popular side dish at picnics and potlucks, this one is small, colorful, and straightforward. It is tasty, healthful, and simple to prepare!
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 1 cup starter |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups whole meal rye flour
- ¾ cup filtered or spring water
- 1 ½ cups bread flour
- ¾ cup filtered or spring water
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup rye flour with 1/4 cup water to make a thick paste. Cover with a damp cloth, and set aside at room temperature for 24 hours.
- Stir well, and discard 1/2 of the rye flour paste. Stir 1/2 cup rye flour and 1/4 cup water into the remainder. Cover with a damp cloth, and set aside at room temperature for 24 hours. Repeat for day three.
- Some activity should now be noticeable: the starter should be bubbly. Stir well. Measure starter, and transfer to a 1 quart glass jar. Stir in amounts of water and bread flour equal to the amount of starter. Add more water until the starter resembles a thick but pourable batter. Set aside for 24 hours.
- Starter should be very active with lots of bubbles in the batter. Stir well. Measure, and return 1 cup starter to the jar. Begin feeding regularly, every 4 to 6 hours, doubling the starter each time. For instance, if you have 1 cup starter, add 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup water.
Reviews
I’m off now day two but I’m confused when can I actually start using it in a sourdough recipe? Does anyone have one for a bread machine by chance?
I love this starter. This is the very first I’ve ever made it and I used this recipe as my guideline. It’s been going 5-6 weeks now and I use it every week or so. Like another reviewer I find the recipe to be a bit pickier than I am. I feed it using equal amounts water and rye flour. One day I accidentally grabbed the wheat flour. I dont want gallons on hand so if I take a cup I only add back 1/2 cup water and flour. It depends in the amount i want on hand for my jar. It’s very forgiving. My house is on the cool side 68 degrees is the warmest, so I leave it out after feeding for about 8 hrs. If I want it to rise quicker i put it in a warmer spot or set my oven to proofing for 10 minutes turn it off and leave starter in the oven. Great stuff.
I have used this recipe many times using Red Mill rye flour from “Sprouts” grocery store. The rye flour is essential to get a good and fast starter going, as well as an amazing sourdough bread. This is the only starter recipe I use. This was my 3rd attempt at making sourdough, and I used a covered clay baker to bake it, uncovering it halfway thru baking. This came out wonderful. Just like Pioneer Bakery Sourdough from Southern California!
Glad to see a recipe for a real sourdough starter on here. I did the same thing and it worked great, but I used organic whole wheat flour for the first few days, and switched over to unbleached flour after that, exact same process though. If you want to store your starter you can feed it and immediately put it in the fridge, then just feed it again once a week.
Good recipe but imho a bit overcomplicated. You do not need to be so careful about the whole process – on day 1 just put some rye flour (just grab it from the bag using 1 hand) into glass container add enough warm water (if you boiled patatoes in unsalted water – use the water when it cools down) to make consistence of thick soup. Cover with a cloth and put somewhere near cooking range. On day 2, 3, 4, 5 … n, once a day, preferably same time, just add some flower (again, just grab some from the bag) and stir-in warm water (no patatoe water this time) just enough to keep the thick soup consistence. After 5 to 7 days it’s ready to use.