Sourdough: Starter Pack
Bread Mode d’emploi




How to Take Care of Your Sourdough Starter


What is a Sourdough Starter?

A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeast, bacteria, and microbes. It’s created by simply mixing flour and water and allowing it to ferment naturally—no added ingredients! When you bake bread, a small amount of this starter is added to your dough. It spreads its living cultures throughout the mix, triggering the natural fermentation process. That’s what gives sourdough bread its unique flavor and texture.

How to Keep Your Starter Alive and Healthy

  • Feeding Schedule:
    • If kept at room temperature: Feed daily or every other day.
    • If kept in the fridge: Feed every 4–5 days.
  • How to Feed It:
    • Use a 2:1:1 ratio (starter:flour:water). For example, if you have 100g of starter, feed it with 50g flour and 50g water.
    • Our starter prefers organic whole grain rye flour. If you want to change flours (e.g., to wheat), do so gradually over several feedings:
      • Start with 90% rye / 10% wheat, then 80% rye / 20% wheat, and so on, until you're fully transitioned.
  • Storage Tips:
    • Keep your container covered but not sealed airtight. This prevents insects or dust from getting in while allowing gas to escape.
    • Starters produce gas—if the lid is too tight, the pressure can build up and cause a messy explosion!
What if You Forget to Feed It?

  • A sourdough starter naturally has a tangy, acidic smell. But if it smells off or looks gray, moldy, or dried out—don’t panic!
  • Scrape off the top layer and discard it.
  • Feed your starter as usual. It may take a few days to bounce back. Don’t give up!
  • If, after a week of regular feedings, there’s still no activity, it might be time to start fresh. But more often than not, your starter just needs a little patience and love.




How to Use Your Starter

  • Your starter is ready when it's bubbly, doubled in size, and smells pleasantly sour.
  • This typically happens 3 to 12 hours after feeding, depending on room temperature—the warmer the room, the faster it grows.
  • Watch for the “peak”: when your starter is at its fullest and most active. Just after this peak, it will start to deflate slightly—that’s your cue to use it.

Tip: If the starter has a dome-like (bombée) shape, it’s still rising. Once it begins to relax and flatten slightly, it’s at peak readiness.




Simple Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe


Ingredients:


  • 300g water
  • 90g sourdough starter
  • 9g salt
  • 405–450g wheat flour
  • 45g rye flour


Instructions:

  1. Mix:
    • In a bowl, dissolve the starter and salt in the water with your hand.
    • Add the wheat and rye flour. Mix until no dry flour remains. The dough will be sticky—that’s normal!
  2. Adjust Hydration (Optional):
    • Add a bit more water if you prefer a more flexible dough.
  3. Bulk Fermentation:
    • Let the dough ferment for 4–5 hours.
    • After the first hour, perform folds every 30–45 minutes using one of the two techniques below (folding technique 1, folding technique 2 ) Always make sure your hands are wet before touching the dough to prevent stickiness.

    1. Shaping:
    2. Proofing:
      • Option 1: Let the shaped dough rise for 1–2 hours at room temp.
      • Option 2: Refrigerate it for 6–8 hours (cold proofing).
    3. Baking:
      • Preheat your oven to 230–250°C (450–480°F) with a lidded pan (like a cast iron Dutch oven) inside.
      • Place the dough on parchment paper and into the hot pan. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.
      • Uncover for the last 5–15 minutes to get a golden, crunchy crust.
    4. Cooling:
      • Let your bread cool completely on a rack for at least 2 hours. This allows the internal steam to escape and the crumb to finish setting.





    Final Thoughts

    Perfect fermentation takes practice.
    • Under-fermented? The bread will be dense.
    • Over-fermented? It may be sticky, hard to shape, and collapse easily.

    Learning to “read” your dough takes time. Don’t get discouraged—every loaf teaches you something new. Even imperfect bread is still delicious!

    Remember: These are just guidelines. Adjust them to suit your kitchen, your flour, and your preferences.


    Congrats—you’re now a proud sourdough parent!