Have you seen those gorgeous loaves of sourdough bread on Instagram? Perhaps you’ve taken the plunge and you’re ready to have your own starter, but now it feels like a lot of work and waste. I’m here to disagree. Maintaining a sourdough starter can be very simple and should take only minutes.
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Sourdough to the Rescue
In high school, I started breaking out in hives for no apparent reason. We had been to every doctor in town and nobody knew why I was so itchy. I eliminated foods and eventually discovered that gluten set off the hives. I changed my diet to permanently remove gluten. It was a hard breakup. Tears were shed.
I had never enjoyed cooking, therefore I didn’t know much about it. Cooking just about anything required a research paper first. During that research I stumbled upon sourdough. I read all about the benefits of fermented food, how to make it, and amazing looking recipes.
Then I found something interesting about gluten in connection to sourdough. The article stated that people that are sensitive to gluten can oftentimes handle sourdough because of the fermentation. I was immediately curious and did what any nerd would do. More research!
That led me to creating a sourdough starter. After a week, I set out to make all things sourdough. I failed a lot. But I also learned a lot. I eventually mastered sourdough waffles. They became my breakfast staple. I kept waiting for the hives to show up or my stomach to hurt, but I never had either. So I kept practicing recipes so that everything could be sourdough.
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Why Sourdough?
Sourdough was used by people to leaven bread before they were able to go to the store and by those little yeast packets. Sourdough is the old-fashioned yeast packet.
Grains contain phytic acid, but our bodies don’t really process it well. Phytic acid prevents our bodies from absorbing the nutrients from our food. Fermentation gets rid of most, if not all of the phytic acid, in the grains before we eat them. The fermentation process also helps break down some gluten, so although the bread isn’t gluten free it does have a lower gluten content. This allows people like me, who are sensitive to gluten, to eat sourdough. It also acts like a probiotic, which makes it great for gut health. Sourdough has prebiotic characteristics as well, which simply means that the good bacteria in your gut enjoy eating the fiber.
Maintaining a Sourdough Starter: Daily Use
Think of your sourdough starter as a bunch of tiny yeast animals that need to be fed. The more of them you have, the more you will need to feed them. As a rule of thumb, maintaining a sourdough starter requires that you double it at each feeding.
If you are using your starter daily, it can sit out on the counter. The yeast will need to be fed everyday. This means you will have a lot of sourdough discard. Despite the name, do not discard anything. Discard makes great waffles, biscuits, pancakes, and muffins. Sourdough discard simply means that the yeast are no longer active, so you will need a leavening agent to make the baked goods rise.
Once you are done baking, feed your starter. This will require less flour than if you did it prior to baking. It is ok to wait until morning to feed it, if you know that you will need an active starter the next day. Active starter is one that has been fed in the last 4-12 hours. You’ll see lots of bubbles and the starter will grow. How long that takes will depend on how warm your house is.
Maintaining a Sourdough Starter: Weekly Use
I work during the week and do not have time to bake sourdough goodies everyday. Therefore, I only feed my starter once a week. This method works well for vacations, illness, busy seasons, or weekend warriors.
The yeast animals slow down when kept in cooler temperatures. That is why it takes longer for sourdough bread to rise in a cooler house. Maintaining a sourdough starter becomes much less work by keeping it in the fridge.
Feed your starter, making sure to double it, after you are done baking. Then pop the jar in the fridge. I’ve left mine for up to a month and still had a usable starter. It may get a black liquid or a funny looking thing on the top, but that’s ok. Those simply indicate that the yeast are hungry. You can dump it off or mix it back in, whichever you feel comfortable doing.
When you pull your starter out of the fridge you will have sourdough discard. So make up some banana bread, pizza crust, or sugar cookies. Then you can feed it to get an active starter going or put it back in the fridge until next week.
The site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As a Revive EO Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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