Welcome to my latest obsession. Have you heard of this thing called…sourdough starter? Yes, I am aware I’m late to the party, but did you know…did you!?…how cool a sourdough starter is? Because I didn’t. I confess, I didn’t actually know anything about the science and practicality of it. I knew that you needed to feed it and you made bread with it, and that’s it. In my defense, maintaining one is a pretty enigmatic process for the uninitiated.
I never had any intention of acquiring a starter, but when my friend Darlene offered to give me a one, from Gwen (her starter), I said yes without processing the fact that I would be gaining a third child. Because once I took Stella (as I later named her) home, a whole new world of baking and care opened up to me. You might be rolling your eyes at me for naming my starter, but if you have your own you know that a healthy starter is quite literally always alive—so it made sense to me that Darlene named hers, and so I named mine. She hangs out in a mason jar on the counter, usually bubbling away, and honestly I find her pretty magical. Sometimes I look over a couple hours after feeding her and she’s exploded out of her jar making a mess, and that’s my cue to begin a loaf of sourdough or throw together some muffins.
Which brings me to one of the many things I didn’t know about starter. You can choose how much to feed each day, leaving the “discard” to bake with (or just throw out as the name suggests). If I know I’m not going to have any time to bake in the coming days, when I’m feeding it I’ll pour only about 25-50 grams of starter into a smaller mason jar, and use or discard the rest. You feed it with equal parts flour and water, so the greater the amount of starter the more flour you’ll need. And it follows that the amount you feed will dictate your yield. If I’m hoping to bake muffins and a loaf of bread, then I should probably go ahead and feed all or most of my starter. It’s best to use the starter at its peak (when it’s most alive and bubbling), so it took me a few days to find a rhythm. If I wait too late in the day to feed her, she might peak overnight, but feeding her in the morning or afternoon is safe for baking or preparing a loaf that night.
After many years of intermittently trying and failing at bread baking, I’m now improving, because starter actually makes it easier. Baking bread from a packet of yeast has always been rife with problems (for me). Sometimes, if the warm water doesn’t activate anything in the yeast, you can tell off the bat that the packet is dead, but it can be hard to tell. Now, with a base of sourdough discard, you get to skip a step, since you already have the bubbly thing ready to go—needless to say it’s more reliable than the packet of dried yeast. As long as I properly knead the shaggy dough before that long overnight rise, the gluten should develop and rise. If it doesn’t I can usually figure out why. A few of my early efforts were sabotaged by forgetting to whisk the starter with the warm water and olive oil before adding my flour and other dry ingredients. Another time it failed to rise because I actually forgot to knead it before its first rise. Timing can also thwart me. Today I underestimated my timing in the morning and had to wait an additional couple of hours to get my loaf in the oven. It deflated in the meantime, failing to rise in the oven.
In the short time since I’ve embraced the starter life I’ve realized that there is no motivator to bake quite like Stella bubbling away in her mason jar. I’ve baked five loaves of sourdough bread (I’ve tried it with AP Flour, Whole Wheat, and Bread Flour—bread flour is best), a loaf of Chocolate Chip Sourdough (!!!), Scallion Pancakes, Blueberry muffins, Blueberry-Zucchini Muffins, and Morning Glory muffins. You must have a kitchen scale, and lots of King Arthur AP flour on hand, and I strongly recommend muffin tins because muffins are the easiest thing to quickly make if you have discard to use and the time to bake. I’d like to get into the habit of prepping and freezing pancakes, with vegetables and fruit added (good for toddlers, and very convenient for sleepy parents come morning).
Now, I wouldn’t say I’ve made excellent bread—maybe one loaf felt legit—the others tasted good, but the density and the rise takes time to get right. It’s a real process of learning and trial and error, but everything I’ve made has been better than bread I attempted from a packet of yeast. If you’re into baking and cooking but do not have your own starter, I suggest you try it out. I’m betting you’ll be hooked. She’s like this little angel on my shoulder nudging me to bake, and I love her.
xo AV
Sourdough Starter Notes
Feeding the starter: Equal parts starter, AP flour, water. First, weigh your starter in a mason jar large enough for it to double in size. I use a medium size mason jar and usually weigh out 150 grams, then add 150 grams flour, and then 150 grams of water. I mix it up thoroughly, until all flour is blended. But if I know I’m not going to be baking much I only weigh out 25-50 grams.
Discard vs. peak starter: Initially I was very confused by the “discard” concept—overthinking it. I thought it was unusable and had to be thrown out because it’s called discard, but actually it simply is whatever you do not feed, so discard is perfect for baking with. I had no idea there was a whole world of sourdough discard recipes out there. To prepare to bake a loaf of bread, ripe starter at its peak is what you want (when it’s really growing and bubbling), but the discard at varying levels of bubbling (or not at all), is great in muffins, pancakes, cookies, etc.
Counter vs. Fridge: I choose to keep my starter on the counter (or in my oven—off of course—if my kitchen feels cold) because I want to be able to use it at a moment’s notice, rather than bring it up to room temperature before each use. My current lifestyle doesn’t support planning ahead. If stored on the counter it must be fed each day. If stored in the fridge, each week. That latter is a good option if you know you’re not going to be baking that often.
Essential tools & ingredients: at least two medium mason jars for housing your starter, a kitchen scale, King Arthur AP flour (which has more protein than other brands), salt (I use kosher but some recipes call for fine sea salt), olive oil, and cornmeal are musts. I bake my bread in a Le Creuset Dutch Oven. The cornmeal is for dusting on the buttom of your Dutch Oven. AP Flour works well in baking a loaf of sourdough, but bread flour is nice to have. Not as essential, but highly recommended is a muffin tin. If you have kids it’s fun having a mini-muffin tin too. I usually have extra batter for some reason so I always end up filling both tins.
Further reading: Emilie Raffa’s beginner sourdough recipe is what I’ve been using, so I’m excited to acquire a copy of her book Artisan Sourdough Made Simple. If you have favorite sourdough discard recipes please send them my way!
Now you’ve entered this world we can talk about sourdough cookbooks too ha! The one I learned how to bake with and baked with for yearrrrs is Josey Baker Bread who has the Mill in SF. This one might be the easiest book to learn sourdough from on the market. And it’s fun! My newest favorite is The Long Loaf! A little book with some poems and musings as well as very instructional bread info!
I love that you name your sourdough culture! I've been making sourdough bread since 2019, when my mother-in-law died. Before her death, she made me promise to track down her cultures and keep them going. Now my father-in-law is living with us, and he has a slice of sourdough made from cultures cultivated by his deceased wife. It s a good way for him to remember her.
There's a pretty good book out there : "Sourdough: or, Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market: A Novel", by Robin Sloan. The sourdough in the book is not only alive, but sentient!