• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Joe Eats World
  • Recipes
  • How To
  • Test Kitchen
  • Events
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Home
  • About Joe Eats World
  • Contact
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • ×
    You are here: Home / Test Kitchen / Sourdough Bread Starter For Beginners

    Sourdough Bread Starter For Beginners

    Published: Apr 24, 2020 · Modified: Apr 24, 2020 by Joe Morales 890 words. About 5 minutes to read this article. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases through the Amazon Affiliate program and other affiliate links at no additional cost to you. Disclaimer Policy

    Facebook31Tweet0Pin1
    freshly baked sourdough bread

    I followed a recipe for sourdough bread that turned out so amazing! Once the sourdough starter is ready for baking, you get this super crusty loaf of bread. For some reason, freshly baked bread never seems to last for long. Which is why it's good to have a starter on hand.

    a fresh baked loaf of sourdough bread on a white napkin.
    Freshly baked sourdough loaf

    I told my friend and fellow chef, Baker Bettie that I wanted to make sourdough bread. I tried it years ago when living in San Francisco but it didn't work properly. She gave me her sourdough bread starter recipe and I went to work. According to my records, it took me 14 days for the sourdough starter to be ready for bread making. (Mostly because I forgot about it a day or two. Oops.)

    Baker Bettie's recipe was pretty simple to follow. You just feed, feed, feed, feed, and feed. It's as easy as following a specific set of feedings for a few days, then you move on to another, then you move to the maintenance stage.

    Key ingredient

    One key ingredient is the whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour is less refined and has a better chance of creating the best living environment for wild yeast and (good) bacteria. You can catch the sourdough bread starter series that Baker Bettie has over on her YouTube channel. I've posted an image of the steps down to it's simplest form below.

    process shot of what sourdough starters look like. They are brown, bubbly, and overall fermented.
    The steps of sourdough: 1. Mixed 2. Fermenting 3. Activated

    I had a hard time remembering to feed my starter so I placed it on my calendar (on repeat) so I didn't forget. When I finished one stage of the sourdough recipe, I just updated my calendar for the next stage and so on.

    All I needed was my scale, the flour, and I used a bottle of purified water. After the first day, I noticed that it started working, or fermenting, right away. It was pretty exciting. It reminded me of the time I made beer and watched all the activated yeast dancing around. In the case of making sourdough bread from a starter though, they don't dance as much as they bubble and expand. It's still pretty impressive when you realize it was a success and you're on your way.

    Oh. I almost forgot the most important part. You have to name your sourdough starter, Baker Bettie's rules. I so aptly named mine Lazarus because well, TBH, this was my third time around making a starter. The first as I said was when I lived in San Francisco and I had no idea what I was doing. The second was a couple of months ago. I didn't set a reminder and so I forgot about it a few days and by the time I remembered, it was moldy.

    As they say, third time's the charm. So, Lazarus lives!

    Baking bread

    After all the feeding and maintenance, I reached the point where my starter was ready for baking. Again, I used Baker Bettie's recipe for sourdough bread. The recipe itself is only a few ingredients but it describes what the process is like, why you do what you do for the bread to take shape. Since I followed her other recipe on sourdough starters, I skipped to the recipe part because my dough was ready for baking that day.

    different stages of bread baking from dough, kneading, proofing, scoring, and baking
    The different stages in the bread baking process

    As you can see from the image above, you start with your all-purpose flour dough, then you add in your sourdough starter, mix it according to the instructions, then proof, stretching, shaping, proof, score, and bake. Remember, these are not the complete instructions for baking your sourdough bread, I'm paraphrasing. You should really follow a recipe precisely.

    I didn't have a dutch oven so I used my stockpot. Once the initial baking was complete, I took the lid off and baked it further so it would have a deeper rich color. You can go as light or as dark as you want. Give it a good thump and that hollow sound means it is baked properly.

    Let the bread cool for as long as you possibly can before cutting into it. I know it's tempting to want to eat it right away but if you cut into it before it is completely cooled, the inside will be gummy and not airy like bread should be. So, just wait!

    What to do with leftover sourdough starter

    Every day you feed your starter, you'll have some discard. In the beginning, you won't be able to use the discard for anything because the yeast and bacteria aren't really strong enough. Once you move into the maintenance stage, you have some options on how to use the product you would normally toss out.

    sourdough starter drying on parchment paper, dried starter chips stored in a glass airtight jar
    Drying sourdough starter for storage

    One of the options I chose was to dry out the discarded sourdough starter. I found a tip from King Arthur Flour's website on how to dry and store sourdough discard for later use. So, Lazarus will live on and on and on. When I make more sourdough, I will save the discard and he will become the new "mother" so to speak.

    Let me know what you think about the recipe for sourdough bread by leaving a message below. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter. Tag me with #joeeatsworld

    « Boneless Skinless Chicken Scarpariello
    Chicken Pozole »
    Facebook31Tweet0Pin1

    Reader Interactions

    Did you make this recipe? Let me know how it turned out! Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Hey there! I'm Joe


    Thanks for visiting Joe Eats World! I'm Joe, a trained chef and chef instructor. I'm excited to share some fun and easy-to-follow recipes with you. The How To section will help you with basic steps and that you can build on. read more about me!

    Food Advertising by logo

    Join our email club!



    Food Advertising by logo

    Some of my Favorites

    Using preserved lemons in your dishes

    Cured egg yolk recipe

    Strawberry Lemonade Mint Shrub & Cocktail

    The best marinade for beef shish kabobs

    A Quick Marinara Sauce Recipe

    Food Advertising by logo

    Footer

    Joe Eats World developing recipes and teaching cooking techniques

    Stay Connected

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

    Did you see these?

    students making pasta in my first cooking class
    failed blueberry muffins
    Local Foods The Butcher and Larder logos

    Other Important Things

    • Home
    • About Joe Eats World
    • Partner with me
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer

    Copyright © 2017–2022· Joe Eats World powered by food, drink, and the Foodie Pro Theme