Did you jump on the sourdough bread baking bandwagon when Covid hit? Now that the initial excitement and newness has worn off what’s going on with your starter? Has it been pushed to the back of the refrigerator, forgotten for weeks or even months on end? Don’t despair, I’m going to let you in on an easy little secret to revive it and get it going again. Remember what it looked like when you were feeding it regularly? How its was all bubbly, frothy and happy?
Don’t toss out your starter even if it looks like the picture below. It can be revived and it’s not hard to do. It just needs a little TLC and food.
Do you see that layer of black liquid on the top of the starter? That forms when your starter no longer has any nutrients to feed off of. It’s forms what’s called “Hootch”. Your first instinct may be to pour it out, it looks pretty gross. But if you save some of it, it will give your starter a more sour flavor, and let’s face it, that’s the best part about sourdough bread, that delectable sour flavor in the loaf.
The weather is cold and dreary, prefect weather to stay home, nurture your starter back to healthy and bake some bread right? Start by getting your tired, neglected starter out of the back of the fridge and pour off most of the Hootch, but not all of it.
Using a digital scale measure out 30 grams of all purpose flour and add it to the jar with your starter.
Next measure out 20 grams of Rye flour and add it to the jar. You should have a total of 50 grams flour that you have added to your starter.
Next measure out 50 grams of filtered water and add it to the jar.
Stir together the flours and water with the starter in the jar. Place a rubber band around the jar, marking the level of the contents. This will give you a visual of how much your starter is increasing in size once it becomes active. Don’t worry if you don’t see much of anything happening at first, that’s totally normal. Actually, it probably won’t do much of anything for several days.
TIP: For best results you want to keep a ratio of 1 part starter, to 1 part flour and 1 part water. It doesn’t have to be exact, but if you have significantly more starter than flour you may not be giving your starter enough food and it may not get as active and bubbly as you want. The goal is to have an active bubbly starter for the fluffiest loaves of bread.
At first nothing much will happen. Just keep feeding it twice a day, 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water, once in the morning and once in the evening. Pour off any excess starter once your jar starts to get full.
TIP: Instead of pouring discard in the trash or down the drain, dissolve the discarded starter in some water and use it to feed your plants. All the yeasts and microbes will give your plants a real boost. They’ll love you for it! Thanks to my girlfriend Iesha for this fabulous tip!
After a few days of regularly feeding your starter you should start to notice some frothy, bubbly activity like this.
Using rye flour to feed your starter has a couple benefits. It has a higher nutrient content that will really help to get your starter going, and it will add more sour flavor to the loaves you bake up.
TIP: Once you have a healthy, bubbly, active starter going you can play around with the ratio of wheat flour to rye flour. If you don’t like the rye flavor in your loaves, reduce the amount of rye flour to 5 or 10 grams and increase the wheat flour grams. You just want a total of 50 grams of flour.
After a few days of regular feeding you should start to see an abundance of activity. Your starter will get all bubbly and rise significantly during the day. Patience is the key. It took 8 days of regular feedings (twice a day) to revive my starter to the point where it was active enough to bake a loaf of bread with it.
When you have a strong, fully active, starter you will be able to bake up airy sourdough loaves like this one. I baked this lovely loaf on the 8th day.
- If you’ve been struggling to keep your starter active enough to bake with, consider adding some rye flour to your starter. The extra nutrients in the rye flour may just be the boost it needs to get going for you.
- Place your jar of starter on a coaster, dish towel, or pot holder, not directly on a cold granite countertop. This isn’t usually an issue in the summer months since it’s warmer. The yeasts in the starter prefer a warm, cozy environment, not an overly hot or cold environment. Place your jar in a warmer area of your kitchen, like near your oven or stove.
- If you’re not going to bake right away, place your starter in the fridge when it’s at its most active, about 3-4 hours after you feed it. A healthy starter will wake up and get all bubbly again when you take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature within the next couple days.
Once you get your starter going you will most likely end up with some discard. Use some of it to make these delectable, Fluffy Pancakes Using Sourdough Starter Discard.
Or maybe your’e in the mood for a flatbread. Learn How To Make Sourdough Starter Discard Flat Bread. It’s perfect for Chicken Gyros, or these Mediterranean Meatball Gyros, use them for scooping up this Tantelizingly Tasty Tzatziki or with this Heavenly Hummus. There are so many delicious ways to use discard, you’ll rarely need to toss any out again.
Are you ready to get your sourdough adventures back on track? All it takes is a little patience, and regular feedings for a few days to get back into a bread baking routine. What are you waiting for? Christmas? LOL!
Please share pictures of your sourdough loaves.
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John 6:35
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