Sourdough Feedings
Ingredients
- 30g sourdough starter
- 125g water (distilled or osmosis)
- 140g organic unbleached all-purpose flour
Feeding the Starter
- Keep your starter in a large mason or Weck jar, this allows for room to grow. Loosely lidded and in a warm, cozy spot in the kitchen is the best place to store the jar.
- Sourdough starter is a LIVE, wild yeast, which means it needs regular feedings for best results. I feed mine once per day when I’m making bread habitually. Between 12-24 hours after feeding is when you’ll have the most active bubbles.
- Discard! You will discard the starter with each feeding. You only need 30 grams of starter every feeding. The excess can be discarded into the fridge. If you do not discard a portion of your starter at each feeding, your sourdough starter will require larger and larger quantities of flour and water at each feeding to provide food for your ever-growing starter.
- What to do with your discard? There are countless recipes to bake with your sourdough discard. If throwing away, I suggest not putting down your sink as dry starter is like cement.
- You can refrigerate your sourdough starter for long periods of time. Cold temperatures slow yeast and bacteria activity and will naturally extend how long your starter can sit between feedings. I usually push it about 2 weeks before needing a fresh feed or using the discard.
- Depending on how long it has been refrigerated, your starter may require an additional 2 to 3 regular feedings at room temperature before it has resumed regular activity levels and is strong enough for baking sourdough bread.
- Sourdough is wild, so it doesn’t always go perfectly to the plan. That’s okay! This is an ancient form of bread, let nature take its course.