Golden Sourdough Waffles - Easy Sourdough Starter Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

How much sourdough starter to keep? ›

I keep 1 ounce of starter and feed it with 1 ounce of flour and 1 ounce of water because I rarely need a massive amount of starter on hand, but various other sourdough luminaries advise different amounts. If you don't have a scale, go for 1/4 cup starter to 1/2 cup of flour to 1/4 cup water.

To a clean jar, add 100g whole rye flour and 125g warm water. Mix ingredients and keep somewhere warm for 24 hours. To clean jar, add 75g of the mixture from Day One (discard the rest), 50g whole rye flour, 50g all-purpose flour, and 115g water. Mix ingredients and keep somewhere warm for 24 hours.

My starter is very acidic. How can I de-acidify it? Try feeding your starter a high feeding ratio (e.g., 1:5:5) and discard and refeed right after the starter rises and peaks. This is known as the “peak-to-peak” method.

To limit acidity: Refresh the mother culture when it has just risen to its final height. Similarly, use the pre-ferment when it has just peaked or even before the peak, and limit the initial rise (bulk fermentation) to a doubling of volume.

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.

It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

Due to its wide availability and affordability, all-purpose flour is often my top recommendation for creating and maintaining a sourdough starter. In fact, I've been feeding my own sourdough starter Central Milling's all-purpose flour for the past 4 years.

All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose flour, which is a blend of hard and soft wheat, is a popular choice for feeding sourdough starter. It provides a good balance of protein and starch, which promotes a healthy fermentation process.

Typical signs of food spoilage and mold include pink, orange, or green colors, white fuzzy spots, or sometimes areas that are darker with white areas on top. If you see any of these signs, I would recommend throwing your starter away and creating a new one.

There are two main acids produced in a sourdough culture: lactic acid and acetic acid. Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.

How to make your sourdough starter super active? ›

Flour with more protein and nutrients make sourdough starter more active, so consider feeding your starter with bread flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour (or a combination of these) to increase fermentation activity and rise. Thicken the starter (lower hydration ratio).

The age of the sourdough culture

A fresh starter will produce milder bread while a more mature sourdough starter will create a more sour dough.

The key taste compounds include salt, which is directly added to the dough, as well as acetic and lactic acid, produced during fermentation. After these experiments, they applied a technique called “unified flavor quantitation,” which was previously developed by Hofmann's team, to the sourdough bread.

And you guessed it..the more starter you use, the faster your dough will ferment - resulting in a less sour loaf. Using less starter in your recipe will help slow down the fermentation process.

How often do you change or clean your sourdough starter container? Use the same jar daily and keep it as clean as possible. During a feeding, discard part of your starter per usual and then scrape down as much residual starter as possible, reincorporating it back into the mixture.

Take ¼ cup sourdough starter from the refrigerator and add ½ cup flour, and ¼ cup water to a clean glass jar with a loose fitting lid. Give it a stir. Feed the sourdough this way every 12 hours until it is bubbly and active, then it is ready to use.

Daily Feeding: If you maintain your starter at room temperature (around 70-75°F or 21-24°C) and want it to be ready for baking within a day or two, daily feedings are recommended. Discard a portion of the starter and feed it with fresh flour and water every 24 hours.