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quick sourdough starter

Quick sourdough starter recipe with minimum discard

Meenakshi
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.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Fermentation time 5 days
Total Time 5 days 15 minutes
Course Sourdough
Cuisine American

Equipment

  • A glass jar
  • A weighing scale
  • An instant-read temperature(optional)

Ingredients
  

  • 200 g Organic Whole-wheat flour (for the first 5 days)
  • 200 g Filtered water (for the first 5 days)

Instructions
 

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.( For more clarity on the schedule, refer to the schedule table in the post)
  • Take a clean and dry glass jar, preferably sterilized. We start by mixing 5 grams of flour in 5 grams of water. Mix well to ensure that no dry flour patch is left. If you are using whole grain rye flour, increase the water to flour ratio to 1:1.25.
  • Use colder or warmer water to adjust the temperature of the starter to 80 0 F ( read temperature section).
  • 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.
  • Let it stay like that for about 24 hours.

Day 2

  • Feeding l: 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. Depending on the weather and climate in your place, it may take longer. So wait till some fermentation activity kicks in.
  • Feeding ll: 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 in the starter.
  • Feeding lll : 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.
  • Then, 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.

Day 3

  • Feeding l: 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.
  • 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 again is before it starts to fall or when it has just begun to fall.
  • Feeding ll: At 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 lll: At 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 there 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 the starter takes to peak. So schedule your feeding ratio and timing according to that. Feed it at the peak, preferably before it starts to fall.
  • 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 a.m.
  • Start by retaining 10 grams and discarding the rest. 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, 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. Give it at least 10 days before you use it to leaven a bread.

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 10th 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 with satisfactory results.

Notes

Maintenance Notes

  • 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.
  • 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 and develops a more sour flavor and aroma. So to maintain the pH and flavor of the starter, it is ideal to feed it at the peak.
  • If your starter has doubled or triples in less than the first 30 hours, you should certainly discard a part of the starter and start feeding it.
  • If you are using whole grain rye flour, increase the water to flour ratio to 1:1.25.
  • You can certainly use a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour to initiate the 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 3rd and 4th day, and by the 5th day, your starter would be strong enough and have a stable growth curve. The large volume starters take more time to ferment and you will barely need to feed 2 or maybe 3 times a day.
  • 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.
  • If you have any other fermenting foods in your house like sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, or kefir, etc. keep them at a distance.
  • Give it an ideal environment to thrive
  • 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.
 

Things that can 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 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.
  • Water temperature: Not adjusting the temperature of the water according to the ambient environmental conditions can hamper your 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)
  •  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 sourdough 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.
Keyword dehydrated sourdough starter, quick sourdough starter
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