What you need

  • A clean glass jar or bowl. 
  • Clean, lukewarm water – For best results, use filtered or spring water. 
  • Whole Wheat flour
  • Patience & Love

The dehydrated sourdough starter is currently in hibernation, we need to feed it with flour and water to bring it roaring back to life. The starter is ready when it at least doubles in size within 6-8 hours after a feeding or you can follow foolproof instructions below for 7 days and it will be ready by the end

Day 1: Mix ¼ cup lukewarm water and your package of starter powder in a bowl or jar. Mix for 2 mins and let it sit for 15 minutes to allow it to dissolve and then stir.. If you have small flakes remaining it is still okay to proceed. Then add ¼  cup of flour and mix. Cover it with cling wrap or loose lid and put it in a semi-warm place: oven with the light on is a safe bet and works all year long; just don’t turn on the oven accidentally. Kitchen countertop may work if your AC is not set too high; avoid direct sunlight. 

Day 2: Just stir vigorously, re-cover with cling wrap and back to the semi-warm place. 

Day 3: You might see bubbles or even a bit of sour smell. Add ¼ cup of flour and ¼ cup water, mix everything well and back to the semi-warm place. 

Day 4: Add ¼ cup flour and up to ¼ cup water and mix well. Back to the semi-warm place. 

Day 5: Your starter should be showing signs of life now. To avoid your starter growing exponentially with each feeding, dump half of the starter into the garbage. Then add ½ cup flour to the bowl and up to ½  cup water, mix well and back to the semi-warm place. If your starter doubles in size within the next 6-12 hours, it is ready to use (skip Day 6/7 steps). If not, continue to Day 6 

Day 6: Add ¼ cup flour and up to ¼ cup water, mix well and back to semi-warm place. 

Day 7: At this point, you probably have a full active starter. You can tell by the bubbles, the smell and after discarding and feeding the starter, it should at least double in size over the next 6-8 hours. After it doubles, it will start to shrink again. This is normal, don’t panic!

Now you have to decide how much starter you would like to keep, this would depend on your baking needs and recipes that you follow. I tend to keep a minimum of 50 grams of starter so that I can feed when I want to bake and make sure that I 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, we will assume you will also like to keep 50 grams of sourdough starter in reserve. Get a clean jar that you will be using to store your starter long term. 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. I am using grams because that’s what your recipes will likely use.

  • In a clean glass jar, add 50 grams of sourdough starter, 50 grams of  flour and 50 grams of water. 
  • Let it sit in a semi-warm place. It should double-triple in size over the next 6-8 hours and then will shrink. 
  • 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
  • If you bake infrequently: Keep in the fridge and feed before baking and at least once weekly. 

How to discard and 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. Empty jar weight + 50 grams = what your jar + starter should weigh after discarding excess. 

Then add 50 grams flour, 50 g grams water and mix and let it sit in a semi-warm place. It will at least double in size over the next 6-8 hours and is ready to bake. 

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or you are having issues. 

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