Pips Guide to Sourdough Starter 

Sourdough is wonderfully versatile, and each recipe/variation/experiment can be fun or frustrating at times. So get ready to roll with it as some experiments flourish and some lie a little flat. You can feed your starter more depending on how you need to use your starter.  You can adapt these recipes and make it your own.

Feeding Instructions/recipe:

Starter approx. 100g

100ml water (1/2 Cup)

100g flour (1/2 Cup) – Use a high protein or “strong” flour

Combine ingredients to make a slurry;

Leave at room temperature for approx. 2 hours (more in winter) or until small bubbles appear on the surface and it grows in size.

If straight from the fridge, this will take longer.

Tips:

• Add Water first: This helps prevents the flour from clumping.
• Avoid heavily chlorinated water: Leave exposed over night or boil and cool. Rainwater is ideal;
• Dealing with discard: if you are feeding your starter regularly but not using it, you may need to dispose of some starter. Many uses for the discard – crumpets, crackers, cakes or feed the chooks;
• Refrigeration: Once fed, it can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days and be ready to use. Monitor this.

Storage

• Infrequent Use: Keep in the fridge in a sealed container. If it hasn’t been used often, I encourage a 2-3 regular feeds before using;
• Regular Use: If using regularly/daily leave on the bench at room temperature;
• Feeding Schedule: Feed it as you use it or feed once a week (every fortnight is also fine) to keep it alive.