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Austin Claire's Sourdough Starter

A recipe to create your very own Sourdough Starter. This will take you all the way from day one to bake day!

Equipment

  • 2.8qt plastic, airtight, food storage container with lid
  • silicone bowl scraper
  • 4C. Pyrex measuring bowl

Materials

Starter Ingredients

  • 145 grams Bread Flour
  • 145 grams Water warm

Instructions

Day One

  • Mix 145g bread flour w/ 145g water, just warm to the touch, in 4C. Pyrex measuring bowl. Once thoroughly mixed, pour into a 2.8qt plastic container and set the lid on top, but don't seal down. Let it sit at room temp for a day.

Day Two

  • Pour 145g of the mixture from the container back into the clean 4C pyrex bowl and add in 145g bread flour, and 145g warm water.

Discard what is left in the 2.8qt container and rinse it out. You don't need to wash or dry the container. After it's thoroughly rinsed out, tip upside down in the dish strainer to drain excess water while you're stirring your new mixture.

Once you're done mixing in the pyrex, transfer the starter back to the now cleaned out 2.8qt container, loosely cover, and leave it on the counter at room temp.

Days Three - Seven

  • At this point, your starter should be bubbling some. We're going to up the feeding schedule to twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.

Twice a day, for the next five days repeat step two, discarding all but 145g and feeding accordingly. Soon, you should be able to watch your starter rise and grow hours after it's been fed. You can mark the container by wrapping a rubber band around it, marking the starting level, to then have a  comparison of it at its peak height. It will rise up all bubbly and then fall back down again. This means it's almost ready to make bread!

Day Eight

  • Your starter may strong enough by now to bake a loaf of bread, but it may also take a couple more weeks of feeding it. You can try the water test to check! After you've fed your starter and you've given it 4-6 hours to rise up and get bubbly, take a scoop out of it and drop it in a cup of warm water...if it floats it's ready to make bread! If it sinks, don't worry, you can still create some tasty sourdough recipes with the discard as you continue to grow the starter. Once your starter is strong enough it can be stored in the fridge and fed once a week.