Unlock the secrets of artisanal sourdough baking with this comprehensive Pro Sourdough Starter Jar Kit. The 24 oz (700 ml) glass jar provides ample space for your sourdough starter to thrive, while the breathable cloth cover allows air to circulate, fostering a healthy fermentation process. The included scraper ensures easy handling and maintenance of your starter, while the thermometer helps you monitor the ideal temperature range for optimal fermentation. The feeding tracker band takes the guesswork out of maintaining your starter’s feeding schedule, ensuring consistent results every time. Complete with an aluminum lid for secure storage, this kit has everything you need to embark on your sourdough journey like a pro. Elevate your home baking game and create artisanal loaves bursting with tangy, complex flavours. Embrace the art of sourdough with this essential kit.
How to create your own Sourdough starter
Sourdough baking is as much art as science. There are lots of methods for making sourdough starter at home. We will share our method of starting your own starter from scratch. All it requires is flour, water and patience. But if you would like to jump start your sourdough starter journey and get baking quickly, you can purchase our very active and mature starter in a dehydrated state. You can purchase our sourdough starter products on Amazon clicking here…
What you need to create your own starter from scratch
- Our sourdough starter kit,
- Clean, lukewarm water – Use bottled spring water or filtered water (unchlorinated water)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour and Unbleached all-purpose flour
- Patience & Love
The advantages to purchasing our dehydrated starter is that you can have a very lively and mature starter ready in 4-7 days if you follow our reactivation instructions and get baking right away. Your starter is guaranteed to have great flavour and fermentation that we have cultivated over the years. Beginning a starter from scratch tries to utilize and nurture the natural yeast and bacteria in your environment, which is time consuming and can be frustrating if it doesn’t go right. It takes time to get your starter to have good activity and maximum sourdough flavour. By using our mature dehydrated starter, we transfer our strong and lively sourdough bacterial and yeast culture directly to your starter. This is especially helpful if you are having trouble getting your own starter going from scratch.
Day 1: Mix ½ cup whole wheat flour with ½ cup room temperature water in the jar included in this package. Mix well and make sure there’s no dry flour in the jar, make sure to wipe the flour from the edges of the jar while mixing. Cover the container with the cloth cover. Let it sit in a semi-warm place (70-80oF).
We want a thick starter with a pancake batter like consistency. Going forwards from step 2, slowly mix in the water second to end up with a fully hydrated mixture and a thick consistency.
Day 2 (24 hours later):Discard about half the starter that is in the jar and add ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour and up to ½ cup water to get pancake batter like consistency. You may see no activity in the first 24 hours or may see some bubbles. Mix well and cover with cloth cover. Use the feeding band tracker to mark the starter level in the jar.
Day 3: You might see some activity now, may be a little bubbling, some growth. From now on we need to start feeding the starter every 12 hours.
Day 3-7: Discard about half the starter in the jar and add ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour and up to ½ cup water. Mix well and cover and mark the starting level with the feeding tracker band. Repeat this step every 12 hours for days 3-7. Overtime you should start seeing more and more activity: more bubbles, starter expanding and rising and distinct sour smell.
Your starter is ready to go when it at least doubles in size within 6-8 hours after feeding it with flour and water in the above steps. After it doubles, it will start to shrink again. This is normal, don’t panic! If you are seeing activity but it is not quite doubling by day 7, continue feeding twice a day for a few more days.
If you are still having difficulties getting your starter going, it may be something in your environment or water that may be interfering. If that’s the case for you, you can head on over to our storefront to kick start your baking journey.
If all goes well and your starter is ready to go : You have to decide how much starter you would like to keep, this would depend on your baking needs and recipes that you follow. We tend to keep a minimum of 50 grams (you can use cups if you prefer using measuring scoops) of starter so that we can feed when we want to bake and make sure that we have at least 50 grams of starter remaining after baking for future use.
Your starter will like to be fed a 1:1:1 ratio of starter flour and water. For example, assuming you will also like to keep 50 grams of sourdough starter in reserve. Transfer the starter to another container temporarily and clean the glass jar.. Pro tip: weigh the empty jar and note down the weight, this will make your life easier when you have to discard excess starter when you are feeding. We are using grams because that’s what your recipes will likely use.
- In a clean glass jar, add 50 grams of your activated sourdough starter, 50 grams of all-purpose flour and 50 grams of water.
- Let it sit in a semi-warm place (70-80oF). It should double-triple in size over the next 6-8 hours and then will contract.
- The starter is ready to bake when it has at least doubled in size.
- After you take out the starter you need for baking, make sure you have the minimum amount you have chosen remaining.
Maintaining your Sourdough Starter
- If you bake a lot: Keep it on the counter and feed daily
- If you bake infrequently: Keep in the fridge and feed at least once weekly or right before baking (allow it to be fully activated).
How to discard, feed and maintain your starter:
Now you have a jar of super active starter and you want to bake again. Since we know you will need to feed in a 1:1:1 ratio, discard all but 50 grams of starter from your jar. This is where knowing the weight of the empty jar helps.
Weight of empty jar + 50 grams of starter = what your jar with starter should weigh (after discarding excess).
Then add 50 grams all-purpose flour, 50 g grams water and mix; let it sit in a semi-warm place. It will at least double in size over the next 6-8 hours and will be ready to bake.
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