Starting the Process
It has been nearly a week ago that i came a cross a video of the german creator Jo Semola. His channel is all about baking pastry and bread. But the video I saw was about starting your own sourdough and because I had nothing to do at that time, I thought why not.
Create new life
For growing a sourdough you just need two ingredients and a warm place. The first ingredient is water and the second is flour. Then you just combine both ingredients in an 1:1 ratio. Make sure to use a container which is big enough, because by time your dough will grow and you don’t want it to out grow your container. It will be messy then…
The Components
The container
The choice of the right container is not the biggest thing, but it could ease your way to achieve a sourdough.
At first, the material, so I use something made out of glas. For example like a jar. In my opinion the glas transfers the temprature better than plastic. This could be useful because climate control is a major factor.
If you want to use only one container, you should choose a bigger one. In the beginning there won’t be much inside but, we will add to the mixture daily and it will also grow on itself. So if you are lazy like me and try to avoid cleaning dishes, choose a container, which can take around 10 times the volume of your starter dough.
The Water
You want to use water with out any anti-bacteria agents like chlorine, because it would also harm the bacteria of the sourdough. I personally use german tapwater, because the regulations of it are quite strict. If you are not sure about your tapwater, I would recommend to just use bottled water.
Make sure you use water with room temperature, because then your create a better environment for the bacteria and yeast to grow.
The Flour
So far as I learned it is possible to use any kind of flour to grow a sourdough starter. you only want to make sure, that you choose one sort of flour and then stay with the same flour for this particular sourdough.I don’t know what happens when you mix diffrent flours in to your sourdough. In some other blogs I read that you try to keep your sourdough clean.
I used rye flour, because the flavour should be more intense and more earthy. I haven’t tried normal wheat flour or spelt flour. But as mentioned before it should be possible with those flours too. I think the only diffrences could be the taste and active wise it could also differ.
In terms of quality, I used organic flour, because it has more of the natural bacteria and yeast. Both are essentail to grow an activ sourdough. In Terms of whole flour or normal flour, I only read that whole flour should be less reliable.
So I used organic rye flour Type 1150 in Germany, which is means is a more noutrious rye flour.
How to start
Start with measuring the ingredients. We will need 50 grams of your chosen flour and 50 ml of water. The ratio is important and should stay at 1:1.
Then take your container and throw in your Ingredients. Then combine them with a spoon until you have a mushy consistency.
After that put the lid on the container, but just put it on loosly so your dough can breath.
The last step is to find a nice place for your new friend. The place should be warm and cozy. I put mine on the floor, because we have floor heating and this will keep the temperature consistent. Otherwise I would just put it inside of the microwave or oven.
Now you have to wait until the next day.
You new daily routine
You now have the power to create new life, but you have to comitt to it. As a german saying says „nothing comes from nothing“ which means „Without doing something, there won’t be something happening“.
Your duty now is to feed you sourdough baby around every 24 hours. I would recommend to stay with the measurements from the beginning, which means 50grams flour and 50ml water, just because it is easier to measure. You can also size it down to 30 grams flour and 30 grams water, but it is important to stay in the 1:1 ratio.
The first glimps
After 3-4 days you should be able to see bubbles inside your dough. Now your sourdough is activ. in a lot of blogs they then take some of the activ sourdough and feed it again. The rest will just be thrown away. I am not quite sure why you do that, if somebody knows please comment. So because it was my first try I took 50 grams of my old mixture and added flour and water again. Then you are back on track for 2-3 more days. Now your sourdough will become more active and will be a better baking agent
But I didn’t want to waste the rest so I used some of it to bake my first sourdough bread. If you are curious to find out how it turned out, stay tuned.
Stay'in alive
Now that your sourdough is alive and ready to use, you also have to store it.
Option 1: If you are baking daily you can just leave the sourdough in your kitchen until the next day. You just have to refill the sourdough after taking some of it. Stay with the 1:1 ratio and just add 1 Tbsp of Flour and 1 Tbsp of Water.
Option 2: Your are not a frequent baker. Than you should store the sourdough in the fridge. You have to feed it every week. For feeding take your sourdough out and add 1 Tbsp of flour and water. Than let your dough sit in a nice warm place until it makes bubbles again. Now just screw the lid back on and but the container bak into the fridge.