Ready, Set, START! Every classic loaf of hearth bread begins with a simple sourdough starter.  Although sourdough starters only contain wild yeast, flour, and water, no two sourdough starters are the same. This is because the flavor varies depending on the environment. When our founders opened the first Kneaders, they sourced their starter from one of the best sourdough cities in the world – San Francisco. The San Francisco Baking Institute shared their 1,000 year old starter with them, and Kneaders has been using it ever since!

Whether you’re a sourdough expert or this is your first time creating a starter, this method will have you fixated on baking bread. Maintaining and feeding your starter is such a personalized, hands-on experience, and some experts go as far as naming it. Have fun with it!

Getting Started

1. Combine 100 g of flour with 100 g of room temperature water (¾ c each alternatively).
2. Pour the mixture into a glass or thick plastic container and loosely cover it with plastic wrap or a cloth.
3. In the first few days, you will start to see bubbles and your starter will become sticky.
4. After 2 days, discard half of your starter and feed it  ½ c flour and ½ c room temperature water once a day continually to keep it alive. This allows the lactic acid in the wild yeast to build and eat while preventing mold from growing.

Helpful Tips and Tricks

• Flour: Choose an unbleached flour. Whole grain flour will give you best results because it still contains traces of wild yeast that aid in helping your starter. Bread flour or all-purpose flour will work, but the growing process will take longer. 
• Water: Ideal temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees. Chlorine kills the starter so be sure your water has filtered out chlorine.
• Storing and Containing: Glass or thick plastic products are the best containers for starters. Mason jars are used often; plastic containers are more durable compared to glass containers. Keeping your starter in the refrigerator is a great option if you want to hit pause on the process, otherwise you can easily store it on a countertop at room temperature.
• Temperature: For optimal growth keep your sourdough starter between 70-85 degrees. 
• Fermentation:
  • Alcohol is produced as a byproduct of the yeast fermentation. If there’s a gray-like liquid sitting on top of your start, that’s a sign that it needs to be fed more water and flour. Make sure to drain the alcohol before feeding your start.
  • Bubbles are good! It’s evidence that the starter is alive and well
• When it’s ready: At the earliest, it’s ready for use 18 to 24 hours after the initial mixing of the water and flour. It will double in size and have bubbles of fermentation throughout the starter. 
• How to feed your starter: Once your mixture has sat for a day or so, discard half, then add ½ c flour and ½ c water. After a couple days of this, your starter is likely bubbly and yeasty scented. Feed your starter once a day, still discarding half every time. About a week in your starter should have doubled in volume.

HOT TIP: Use the discarded starter to make pancakes, waffles, cake, pizza, or flatbread.