Making a quick sourdough starter with minimum discard: A Comprehensive guide

This post covers everything you need to know to create a quick sourdough starter with minimum discard. Let me clearly state that there is no perfect recipe for making a sourdough starter. There is a biological phenomenon behind it and so many factors will affect the outcome. So be flexible and patient and this quick sourdough starter recipe will work for you no matter what.

One thing that we have to realize is that the home bakers who bake one to two loaves a week do not need such a big volume of starters. Plus larger the starter, the more the discard! That means a lot of wasted flour down the drain.

 This is where this recipe comes into the scene. This recipe creates a small volume starter with minimum discard.  Since the starter volume is less, it peaks very fast and you will have to feed it 3-4 times a day. This quick feeding will help to mature and stabilize the starter much quicker than any other conventional recipe( where you feed cups of starter 2 times a day). That is why I call it a quick sourdough starter.

The method that I am sharing works for me and has worked for many of my friends.

There is also an easy way to create a discard-free sourdough. I have written comprehensive posts about making yeast water from fruits and then creating a starter and baking wild yeast bread with it.

Let us start with ,

How would you define a Sourdough starter?

I am a sourdough geek and try to gather as much scientific knowledge as possible behind every phenomenon. So. Let me break it down to you, what a sourdough starter is!

A sourdough starter is simply a mixture of flour and water which has a unique ecosystem of yeast and lactobacilli.  It is used to leaven bread like any of the commercial yeast. Yeast in the sourdough starter causes leavening in the bread and Lactobacilli gives it the unique sour taste and improves its keeping qualities.

From a microbiological perspective, a sourdough starter is considered to be a specific and stressful ecosystem, harboring yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB), that is used for the production of baked goods.

Sourdough starter is an active culture that can be kept alive for ages, by persistent maintenance and feeding activity. And you can bake as much bread you want with one sourdough starter.

You can also create as many starters as you want and for as long as you want by simply backslopping with one starter. Backslopping is initiating a new batch of fermented food by inoculating with a small portion of the old batch.

You might find these sourdough starter resources useful

• Dehydrating the sourdough starter for prolonger storage
  
• A quick way to use up the sourdough discard
  
• Capturing wild yeast from fruits
  
• Yeast water bread

Understanding Rise and fall of a sourdough starter with respect to its life cycle

Let us try to understand the life cycle of a sourdough starter. A sourdough starter is an active culture of wild yeast and lactobacillus bacteria. I often refer to them as microbiomes or microbiota of a sourdough starter. Yeast ferments the carbohydrates in the flour and produces carbon dioxide that makes the bread rise on baking. Lactobacilli feeds on the by-products if the yeast fermentation and produces lactic acid, which lowers the pH of the starter. It gives the characteristic sour flavor to the sourdough. The lower pH means acidic culture, and most of the unwanted pathogens cannot survive in such acidic environment. Hence making the sourdough starter immune to the contamination.

• So, since it is an active culture, the microbes are continuously multiplying. The stage where they have ample food ( flour), will multiply very fast and you will see your starter rising very fast. This stage is called Log or exponential growth phase.
• After a point, there will be a peak in the number of microbiomes and their activity. The starter will be bubbly, with big gas pockets in it and a dome-shaped top (sometimes with numerous dimples left by the air bubbles). This stage is called the Peak. This is the stage at which we should be feeding the starter.
•  If we do not feed the starter at this stage, there will not be enough food for all. Since they will not get enough food, some of them will start to die. And we will observe a fall in the starter. It starts to fall from the sides. This is called the decline stage and a clear indication that the starter is hungry and microbes in it are not growing any longer, instead, their population is depleting.
• Now, when we feed the starter, it will take some time to build the momentum of growth. It simply has to do with the way yeast propagates ( Budding). So, for an initial hour or so, you may not observe any activity in the starter. This stage is called the Lag phase.

What we need to take care of:

• We need to understand that Every starter is going to be different based on the microflora in the flour,  microflora in your kitchen, ambient temperature, latitude, etc. So, do not go strictly by the timeline that I am giving you. After day 3, adjust the feeding schedule specific to your starter. I live in California and we are entering summer here. So, my timeline is not standard by any chance.
• Keep track of time, temperature, and weight. Measure how much refreshment you are giving to the starter, to know how much it is using per hour so that you can adjust the feeding to accommodate your and your starter’s schedule.
• The ideal temperature for yeast activity in the starter is somewhat between 70-80 ⁰F. With 80 ⁰F being the ideal. But anything around 80 ⁰F is great. Also, remember, we do not want to go beyond 85 ⁰ in any case. Give it an ideal environment to thrive
• The amount of water: I have kept the hydration at 100 percent but if you are using flour with larger and more bran increase the hydration accordingly.
• If you have any other fermenting foods in your house like sauerkraut, kimchi,  kombucha, or kefir, etc. keep them at a distance.
• Observe the activity to adjust the feeding schedule according to its need. So that we can get maximum fermentation. You can also manipulate the feeding ratios to suit your starter and your personal schedule.

Ingredients

Physical ingredients: Flour and water

Non-physical ingredient: Temperature

Best flour for sourdough starter

Whole flours are best for creating a sourdough starter. They have more bran, which is nothing but the outer skin of a grain. There is bound to be more microbiome on the surface of the grain than on the interior.

Also, another thing to consider is to use chemical-free flour. Go for organic flour. One, because we do not want pesticide bioaccumulation occurring inside our culture( nor we want to eat them). And secondly, due to exposure to pesticides and other chemicals,  there would be a very little amount of desirable microflora left in the flour to initiate our starter. Though it is not impossible, not recommended.

Best flour for making a quick sourdough starter are ( in the order of my preference)

1. Whole wheat flour: It is very easily available everywhere. It has a rich base of favorable microbes due to the bran. Every flour is going to be different depending on the quantity of bran and other ingredients and the kind and quantity of desirable microflora in it. Some brands of whole wheat flour will have more bran quantity in them. So, if you think that your starter is very dense, add more water. I like to increase the flour to water ratio from 1:1 to 1:1.2.
   
2. Whole grain Rye flour: It has a wider base of naturally occurring yeast and is nutrient-dense. Rye flour has numerous unique characters, but in context to a sourdough starter, these two are key.  The unique flavor profile makes it a desirable flour. It is another ideal flour to make a sourdough starter if you can procure it. The water to flour ratio for rye flour should be 1: 1.25. Rye is much easier to stir due to its low gluten content.
   
3. Whole wheat bread flour: Whole bread flour is also good to make a starter. Use it just like the whole wheat flour in this recipe for making a quick sourdough starter.
   
4. All-purpose flour: If you do not have access to any of the whole flours, you can also use organic unbleached all-purpose flour for making the starter.  Just note that the timelines may vary and it might take a little bit longer. But stick with the schedule and you will be there.
   
5. A combination of any two flours can be used too.

In this sourdough starter recipe, I am using whole wheat instead of rye. I try to keep my recipes approachable and use ingredients that are easy to procure.

 Whole wheat flour is easily available around the world, whereas rye flour is mainly grown in the northern hemisphere( in temperate regions). I recall buying 1 kilo of rye flour for 1200 rupees in India. Now compare it to whole wheat flour which you could buy for 20-25 rupees. The same stands true for many tropical countries. So, stick to whatever you can easily procure.

Pros and cons of Whole wheat over whole rye flour

Pros

• Easier to procure. You can easily find it in your supermarkets around the world, unlike rye flour.
• Whole wheat flour is much cheaper than rye flour.
• Nutrition-wise,  for a starter they are fine.

Cons

• Whole wheat flour collapses on overfermentation, becomes a soupy mass. You will barely see big holes in your wheat starter. But that should not be a problem as we are going to transition to all-purpose or bread flour finally.
• Slightly difficult to stir as it has high fiber and gluten, which makes stirring it a bit tough as compared to rye flour. But that will affect us as we are not using cups of flour to make our starter we are using small volumes, so none of the cons apply to our starter formula.

Water for creating starter

There are only two physical ingredients required to make a sourdough starter from scratch. Water is another component, but equally significant.

• We have to make sure that we use unchlorinated water. Be it chlorine or chloramine, they can hinder the fermentation process. Some cities have a high percentage of them in their water supply and such water might not be ideal for making a starter.
  But if you do not smell or feel that there is chlorine in your water, it might be present in very little quantity. In such cases, it is safe to use tap water.
  But as an extra precautionary measure, I would still start with bottled water and after a week, try using the tap water and see how my starter will behave.

• Also, there could be fluoride in your tap water. If it's due to controlled water fluoridation by the water department to reduce tooth decay, the levels of fluoride are very minute in ppm ( parts per million)and acceptable.
  
  But if your tap water has high levels of fluoride. This could be due to the high quantity of fluoride in your underground water. In such a case make sure to use the filtered water that you use for drinking.

If you are not aware of these things, it better to use bottled water. and when using bottled water, use the ones that have no fluoride ( some bottled water has fluoride, so read the label).

Sourdough starter Temperature

Another crucial factor for creating a quick and strong sourdough starter and achieve a desirable level of fermentation is the ideal temperature.

Now let us first understand, why temperature is important.

• Just like we need an optimal temperature for thriving and surviving, microbes have specific temperature requirements. Temperature affects the activity of the yeast and LAB.
•  If the temperature inside the culture ( which is the starter in our case) is low, the microbial activity is going to be reduced. They are going to stay in the lag phase for a longer duration.
•  And if the temperature is optimum for their growth, the lag phase will be reduced and they will quickly enter the exponential growth phase.
• But if the temperature is too high, the yeast activity will increase exponentially in the beginning and then drop steeply as most of them will die.
• At a temperature beyond 110 ⁰ F, the yeast starts to die and by the time the temperature reaches 140 ⁰ F, the yeast present in the sourdough dies completely.
• Every kind of yeast activity has an optimal temperature.
• The desired temperature for creating a starter, i. e for initiating a stable yeast growth, is anywhere between 70- 80 ⁰ F, but 80 ⁰ F is considered ideal.
• Depending on the ambient temperature at your place, you can choose the ideal temperature for your starter.

For instance, if you are living in a tropical climate, the flour, water, and ambient temperature might be high. To bring it down so that you can achieve a stable fermentation, you might want to use colder water to bring down the overall temperature of the starter. Or use warm water if living in temperate climates.

If the temperature range inside your kitchen is between 70-84 ⁰ F, skip to the process of making a starter.

But if you live in any of these extremes, you can use the following formula to determine the temperature of the water.

See, you cannot alter the flour temperature, but you can alter the ambient temperature by using air conditioning or heater, etc. But if nothing works that way, try manipulating the water temperature. To achieve that precisely you need an instant-read thermometer.

We can use a simple average method to determine it.

Final Starter Temp. ( FST)= Water temp.+ Ambient Kitchen temp.+ Flour temp./3

Let us take an example

Final starter temperature (FST): Say, we want to be at an optimal temperature of 80 ⁰F

Flour temperature:68 ⁰F

Ambient temperature: 67 ⁰ F

Water temperature: ? ( To find)

FST= Water temp.+ Ambient Kitchen temp.+ Flour temp./3

(80x3)⁰F= Water temp. + 67 ⁰ F +68 ⁰ F

240 ⁰F = Water temp.+135 ⁰ F

(240-135) ⁰F = Water temp.

105 ⁰F = Water temp.

An example to calculate water temperature

So, simply warm the water to 105 ⁰F and use it in your starter.

If you are like your life simple or do not have a thermometer, just use your instincts and use warmer or colder water as per your requirements.

Feeding ratios

Feeding ratio is the ratio of ratio of starter to flour to water. The standard ratio is 1:1:1. This is what we try to maintain while building a starter. But as the starter becomes stable and mature with time you can always manipulate it suit your schedule. If you keep your starter at room temperature, and want to feed only twice a day at 12 hour interval, you should raise the feeding ratio that suits your needs. You can use 1:4:4 or more of the feeding ratio

But initially when we are creating a starter, we are more concerned about, what the starter needs. In case of a high bran or say high fiber flour we might want to go with 1:1:1.25 ( whole grain rye flour), else the starter will be stiff and all the water would be absorbed by the bran, and very little moisture will be available to assist yeast in its microbial activity.

Sometimes when the starter is very vigorous, and peaks in less than 4 hours, we need to bump up the feeding ratios to 1:2:2 or 1:3:3.

Equipment Needed:

Let's have a look at the tools or equipment that we're going to use.

1. A weighing scale: It is a quintessential piece of equipment for making a starter. We need to ensure that we use the exact amount and hence the exact proportion of flour to water. It is crucial to obtain consistent results and helps to gauge the proportion of modifications if needed.

2. A  glass jar: We want to be able to see the activity that is happening inside the starter, so we must use a glass jar. Any glass jar would work fine, but if you have something with broader edges or edges that do not narrow at the top, makes the cleaning and mixing easy. Having a jar with marked measurements can be really helpful. Also do not get fooled by the 5g of starting flour, we do need enough headroom in the jar. Anything bigger around 450 -500 ml would work.

You can always use a ceramic, plastic, or stainless steel container if you do not have a glass one.

How to clean and sterilize the glass jar

• Clean the jar and lid with soapy water and rinse thoroughly to remove all traces of soapy water.
• Place the jars on a clean tray lined with parchment paper in an oven preheated to 320-340 ⁰ F. Let them dry for about 15 minutes.
• Alternately you can quickly sterilize the jars in the microwave if you feel confident in doing so.

3. An instant-read thermometer: It is an optional tool, but does make your job easy and helps to get consistent results. The success of a baker lies in understanding the various factors affecting the starter, dough, or bread baking and using ways to manipulate them to obtain optimum results. Having a thermometer helps to track many of these factors. In our case, it is crucial to measure the temperature of the flour, ambient room temp. and water.

Step by step process of making a sourdough starter from scratch.

This method is based on a simple understanding that the starter does not have to be large. Even with 1 tablespoon of starter you can make 200-400 g of levain and bake two loaves of bread. Then, why the hell are we using cups and cups of flour to make a starter. And discarding loads of flour!

After months of trial and error, I have developed this recipe for creating a starter. A lot of my friends have successfully created starters by using this method. Now that I am sure that this quick sourdough starter recipe works, I am ready to share it with you all.

Day/ Feeding	Discard	Starter left in the Jar	Flour	Water	Total starter
Day 1	-		5g	5g	10g
Day 2 Feeding 1	-	10g	5g	5g	20g
Feeding 2	-	20g	20g	20g	60g
Feeding3	50g	10g	10g	10g	30g
Day 3 Feeding1	20g	10g	10g	10g	30g
Feeding 2	20g	10g	10g	10g	30g
Feeding 3	20g	10g	30g	30g	70g
Day 4 Feeding 1	60g	10g	10g	10g	30g
Feeding 2	20g	10g	10g	10g	30g
Feeding 3	20g	10g	30g	30g	70g
Day 5-10 Feeding 1	60g	10g	30g	30g	70g
Feeding 2	60g	10g	30g	30g	70g

The key benefits of using this method to make a quick sourdough starter recipe :

• Very little flour is required and there is little discard as compared to any other recipe.
• The starter develops strength very faster as there a small amount of starter is involved. The fermentation happens faster. You might need to feed 3-4 times a day, but by the 7^th day, you have a stronger, stable, and predictable starter.

Day 1

Start in the afternoon. About 3:00 p.m.

This is the warmest time of the day, hence it is ideal to initiate a starter. But if you live in a warmer climate, you might want to start early in the morning.

On day 1 we will start by creating a mixture of flour and bottled/ filtered water. We are keeping the flour to water ratio at 1:1. It can be raised after day 3, but for the first 3 days, we stick with 1 part water to 1 part flour.  Use colder or warmer water to adjust the temperature of the starter to 80 ⁰F ( read temperature section).

Take a clean and dry glass jar, preferably sterilized. We start by mixing 5 grams of flour in 5 grams of water. If you are using whole grain rye flour, increase the water to flour ratio to 1:1.25.

Place the lid on the jar properly, ensuring that no air enters the jar. The thing is that it is a very little amount of flour and water mixture. We do not want it to dry due to being exposed to the air.

We want to let it stay like that for about 24 hours.

Day 2

Feeding 1:Next day: (9:00 am)

Place the jar on a weighing scale and tare it. Now add 5 g of water and mix well, to obtain a batter-like consistency, now add 5 g of whole wheat flour (or whichever flour you are going to use). Mix well so that there are no dry patches of flour left. Scrape down the sides and even the top. Cover with the lid. Please note we are not going to discard anything until the starter starts to double up in volume.

In the first 24-48 hours we want to initiate maximum microbial activity in the starter. It will only after a substantial fermentation has kicked in, we will try to clean your starter and try to strengthen the desired microbiota.

Place a rubber band around the jar to mark the level of starter or use a marker. Now observe the fermentation activity in the starter.

Please note that you might observe an enhanced activity in the first 24-36 hours which might slow down by the end of the second day or so. This is due to all sorts of undesired microbiota in the starter. It will get cleaned up in due course and will cause a temporary slump in the activity. But as we keep on feeding and discarding, the desirable microbiota will become stronger and resume growth by the end of the third day or fourth day in some cases. Just stick to the feeding schedule.

Feeding 2: (2:00 pm - 3:00pm)

 You should start to see good activity in the starter by this time. Do not discard anything, just add more flour and water. 20g of flour and 20 g of water this time. Starter: flour: water ratios will be 1:1:1for this feeding and onward. Though you can modify it if your starter is very vigorous. ( read the maintenance notes)

Place a rubber band or maker to measure the microbial activity.

 Feeding 3: (9:00 p.m.)

The starter would have doubled or tripled in some cases. If this is not the case for you, do not worry. Just follow the schedule, it will kick in eventually.

Now discard 50 g of the starter and retain only 10 g. Add 10 g of water, mix well and then add in 10 g of the whole wheat flour. Mix well, mark, and cover the starter.

If your starter has doubled or triples in less than 30 hours, you should certainly discard a part of the starter and start feeding it.

Day 3

Feeding 1 (9:00 am)

In 12 hours your starter would have doubled or tripled. And there are chances that it might have already fallen, which translates that the starter is hungry now.

Now discard 20 g and retain only 10 grams of the starter. To do that you can simply place the jar on the weighing machine and tare. Now start removing the starter from the jar. You know that there was 30 g of starter in the jar last night, so just keep removing it till the scale reads -20g.

(Alternately note the weight of the jar before starting, it makes all measurements easy.)

Now you will be left with 10 g of the starter. Feed it with an equal quantity of water and flour, 10 g of each. Cover the jar and mark the levels. Observe how much time is it taking to become double or more in volume. Based on the feed the starter.

The ideal time to feed is when the starter is at its peak.

Observe the larger bubbles on the sides and especially at the top surface you would be seeing some dimples left by the bubbles. When the starter would be rising or in its exponential ( log phase) you would observe a dome-shaped top surface. But when it has peaked, the top surface will start to become straight and then fall eventually. The perfect time to feed is before it starts to fall or when it has just begun to fall.

Feeding 2 ( 2:00 p.m.)

Discard 20 g and feed the remaining starter with 10 g of flour and water each.

If your starter starts to fall much before say in 2-3 hours, modify your feeding ratio to 1:2:2. i.e. for 10 g of starter, feed 20g of flour and water each.

Feeding 3 (9:00 p.m.)

For the night we have to scale the volume of the starter as it will be staying at room temperature for 12 hours. So, discard all and retain only 10 g of starter. Add 30 g of water, mix well, and then add 30 g of whole wheat flour. ( feeding ratio 1:3:3) Please note that is no one size fits all recipe for making a sourdough starter. Your starter might not be peaking in even in 6 hours or 12 hours. In such cases don't increase the feeding ratio. Stick with 1:1:1.

Day 4

By now, you will have an idea about how much time does your starter actually takes to peak. So schedule your feeding ratio and timing according to that.

And it might be the day to change the flour if you want to. Start by using half the volume of bread flour or all-purpose flour ( whatever you want your starter to be).

Feeding 1 (9:00 am)

I start by retaining 10 grams and discarding the rest. I will first dilute it with 10 g of water and then feed it with 5 g of whole wheat and 5 g of all-purpose flour.

By feeding 2 or 3, completely replace the whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour.

Day 5

Repeat your last feeding schedule. If you want to test if your tap water will work, this might be the time to test it. If everything looks well, you could use this starter to leaven some pancakes or make a fried starter flatbread. Give it at least 10 days before you use it to leaven bread. But you can start to collect the discard instead of throwing it away.

Day 6-10

Repeat the process. You can limit the feeding to 2 times a day placed 12 hours apart, by simply scaling the feeding ratios. You can conveniently go up to 1:6:6 ( in the case of very vigorous starters) But 1:3:3 will just work fine for most of the cases.

If you always retain 10 g of the starter, you will have a stable starter of 70 g by the end of the 10^th day. After that, if you want to scale your starter, just retain more. You would have got the hang of it by that time.

 I would wait for up to 2 weeks before baking with the starter, but many of my friends have baked bread with it much before that ( at about 10 days stage)with satisfactory results. One thing to note is that the sourdough starter at this stage will not have much flavor, but it will be good enough to leaven and give textural boost to the bread.

Over time sourdough starter will develop it flavor and strength.

Once the starter is stable, (we take 2 weeks as a rough timeline ) you can start to refrigerate your starter and feed it once a week before baking.

And, there you have it.. a sourdough starter… to bake bread for the rest of your life!

How to confirm that the sourdough starter is ready?

• If your sourdough starter is rising and falling in a predictable timeline, you can be sure that it is a stable starter now. The standard timeline is around 4-8 hours for reaching the peak at 70-80 ⁰ F. This is a very vague timeframe. It may take up to 12 hours in some cases, especially in lower temperatures.
• The starter should rise at least double in volume if not more, before starting to decline.
• At peak, you should be able to see large air pockets in the starter.
• The ripe starter should be airy and pass the drop test. If you test your starter at its ripe stage ( peak) and its drop does not float on water, you need to work on the feeding ratio to help your starter reach its maximum potential. Do not worry, with time, your starter will continue to become better and stronger.
• By 2 weeks a starter is ready to bake in most cases. It may be a few days earlier or late in some cases.
  
  

Name your sourdough starter

Now that your sourdough starter is ready, have you decided any name for it? A sourdough starter is an active culture of living microbes, that will give you delicious bread every week, hopefully for the rest of your life. And don’t tell me that you have no name for it.!

I call mine Lizzy ( it was lazy starter, so…) She is my bread buddy.

Share your starter’s name in the comment section down below.

Some common problems

You might encounter some common starter problems that may hamper your starter success

• Contaminated rims or lids of the jar. Sometimes the soap debris stays intact to the rims and lids of the jars, which can cause contamination in the starters in due course of time. So ensure to use a clean, dry, and preferably sterile container for making a quick sourdough starter.
• Some kinds of flour are more contaminated than others. So, in case you have a starter spoiled due to mold growth in the early stages of making, try changing the flour next time.
• Using corrosive metals like copper, aluminum, and iron spoon or forks to mix, a plastic or silicone spatula or stainless steel fork or spoon will work just fine.
• Highly chlorinated or fluoridated water can hamper the microbiota growth in your sourdough starter. So ensure that you use filtered water or chlorine-free tap water.
• Bleached flour: Choose to use unbleached and whole organic flours. Bleach and other chemicals kill a large portion of the naturally occurring microbiota, hence there will little to no natural yeast in the flour. That is the reason to use organic and unbleached flours.
• Negligence in feeding and maintenance during the initial few weeks of starter development. In the initial stages, we need to pamper our starter. Unlike new starters, mature starters are complex mediums that are very stable and resistant to invading microbes. But the new starters can be easily infested with foreign mold and bacterial colonies. So feeding it on time and giving it the ideal temperature for growth is very important.
• Water temperature: Not adjusting the temperature of the water according to the ambient environmental conditions can hamper the starter growth. If you live in a place with very cold weather, you must use warm water to initiate the starter. How much warm, calculate depending on various factors. ( find the formula in temperature section)
  
  
  My Sourdough starter not rising?

There is no need to worry in case you do not see any considerable or quick rise in your sourdough starter. It might just be a matter of time. Patience and flexibility are two crucial tools for sourdough baking. Some people might have their starter rise in 4 hours and for some, it may take 14 hours. But it will happen eventually. And with time your starter will get better and better.

If your starter is still not rising, check if you are doing any of the below mentioned things:

• Using bleached flour
• Using highly chlorinated flour
• Using chilled water

If any of the above is true, fix it right away.

Approximation, in case you do not have a scale.

These measurements are not perfect or exact but a rough guideline in case you do not own a scale and want to initiate a starter ungently.

• 10g water =2 teaspoon (approx..)
• 10g whole wheat flour=1 tablespoon (approx..)
• 10 g starter=1 tablespoon leveled (approx..)

Making sourdough starter with yeast

You can also make a sourdough starter with commercial yeast. You can use either instant or active dry yeast. Starting a starter with the commercial yeast is much reliable, but takes a little longer to develop a typical sourdough flavor. I have experimented with that, will share the recipe soon.

Managing and maintaining a sourdough starter

Initial few weeks we pamper it. Feed not according to our schedule and convenience, but on the cues given by the starter as of when it needs the feeding.

Making a small amount of starter means 3-4 feeding on the 3^rd and 4^th day, and by the 5th day, your starter would be strong enough and have a stable growth curve. That is the sole purpose of this quick sourdough starter recipe. The large volume starters take more time to ferment and you will barely need to feed 2 or maybe 3 times a day.

To ensure that the starter does not become very acidic or vinegary, ensure to feed when it is at its peak. Once the starter has passed the peak and is on its way down, it starts to get acidic.

A few popular sourdough bread recipes on the blog:

• Sourdough brioche recipe
  
• Sourdough hot dog buns
  
• Sourdough Hokkaido milk bread
  
• All-purpose flour sourdough bread
  

Frequently asked questions

If you found this comprehensive guide to a quick sourdough starter useful, do not forget to share it with your friends. We would highly appreciate a comment and a rating! It helps me create more resources like this.

Happy baking!

Quick Sourdough starter recipe card