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It Feels Overwhelming at First

I know that overwhelming feeling of starting sourdough. I developed HORRIBLE allergies in my 20s. I was sick all the time. I had an endoscopy and a colonoscopy done to try and narrow down what on Earth was going on! The results came back: you look sick and inflamed inside, but you don’t have celiac disease.

Then came research time! I got my hands on every type of nutrition information I could find. Trust me – I ate my vegetables. I ate fruit. If it had a good amount of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins and minerals, I was eating it. I still wasn’t getting better.

Fermented Foods Help Digestion

Fermented foods help your intestines produce and maintain the right kinds of bacteria. Whatever you put into your body will trigger different kinds of bacteria to flourish. Here’s where my sourdough journey started!

I tried sauerkraut. Guys, I had that stuff in my fridge forever. My plan was to eat a spoonful before each meal. The only problem was – I hated it. I could not get myself to stomach it.

I tried pickles – but the more pickles I consumed the sicker I got. (Found out most pickles have sodium benzoate in them and I CANNOT have that.)

Someone suggested sourdough bread. I hated sourdough growing up. I thought it was tangy and disgusting, until I tasted a good, homemade sourdough.

Sourdough Has Changed My Cooking (And My Gut)

Life changing! I didn’t think I liked the taste of the sourdough but hers wasn’t overly sour! It was so light and fluffy and so satisfying. I absolutely loved it. I waited like 2 years after I tried that sourdough to actually start making it because I was so intimidated by it.

A food that needs FED. That just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Do I do it everyday, multiple times a day? Do I put it in the fridge? Can I leave it out? Does the temperature really matter? What if I forget it!?

Sourdough is Incredibly Forgiving

Once it’s alive – it lives! It can stay alive for a long time. You can put it in the fridge for a LONG time. Even if it gets hungry it doesn’t die. And it grows pretty quickly!

I left mine in the fridge for MONTHS and it didn’t die. Because it keeps on living, I named her Franken-dough 🙂 She’s happy now and I love her very much! I felt like a mad scientist who accomplished something life-altering, even though it was really more like – stirring.

Buy a Sourdough Starter

I started one from scratch. It smelled so so so bad for a few weeks! I have no idea what I did or why it died! It was awful! Someone gave me a starter and it was all downhill from there. So skip the hassle of building one, get a good, bacteria loaded, happy starter and name your own!

What You Need to Start Feeding A Sourdough Starter

Wide Mouth Mason Jar/Sourdough Jar
- I prefer the wide mouth jar that I linked on Amazon. I also love my sourdough jar that I linked. If I had two of those, that’s what I’d use all the time!
Spurtle/Silicone Jar Spatula
- The sourdough jar link has a silicone jar spatula in it and that’s what I use. I really do love them for jars.
Flour
Filtered Water
Starter
Scale
- This is the scale I use – it’s not very big and very light so I can store it anywhere!

1 Part Water: 1 Part Flour: 1 Part Starter

All you need to do it add a 1:1:1 ratio! If you have 100 grams of your starter, add 100 grams of water, and 100 grams of flour. Mix it all up and you are good to go!

Don’t tighten the lid. This baby wants to expand! Give her room. She will be producing lots of gas so you want to let her breathe properly.

How to Feed Your Sourdough Starter

How to feed refrigerated sourdough and use the same day!

Prep Time5

Course: Baking, Sourdough

Keyword: artisan loaf, bread, easy sourdough

Yield: 1 starter

Materials

1 mason jar
1 silicone jar spatula
150 g flour
150 g filtered water
150 g starter
1 kitchen scale

Instructions

Pull your starter out of the fridge. See notes below about the fridge!

Put 150 g of starter into a clean mason jar.

Add in 150 g of flour into your starter.
Add 150 g of water into the starter and flour.
Mix together until smooth.
Do not tighten lid. It will explode! Put some kind of cloth on top or gently put the lid on and make sure some air can get in and out.

Notes

Pulling the Starter out of the Fridge:

Don’t worry about your starter being cold! It will be just fine. Once your starter is happy. It’s really hard to kill. I left my starter in the fridge from April until September of this year and pulled it out and it’s been completely fine! IF you have any liquid on top when you pull it out (called hooch) just drain it in the sink and proceed to the next step! It’ll be just fine.

sourdough starter with hooch ***pour into sink!

Clean Jars:

They don’t really need to be clean. I have a weird thing about how the top of the jar can get so crusty and feel like cement. I hate that. I tend to wash my jar each time I pull it out to use it. Sometimes that’s only 1-2 times per week. Washing the jars isn’t too much of a pain! BUT if you don’t want to wash the jar each time, it totally isn’t necessary.

I really like watching my starter rise! When I have a clean jar I can see what it’s doing better. This is the jar I use! It’s the perfect wide mouth jar to get into all the edges. I honestly use it all the time. I also love the spatula that came with it!

150 g of Everything:

I CHOOSE 150 grams. That’s a ratio that works well in my jar. It seems to make the right amount of dough for me. I use a 1:1:1 ratio. The amount of starter will equal the amount of flour and water that I am adding to my starter.

There are also other time frames and ratios you can try! Don’t be afraid, as long as you are giving it flour and water, it will do it’s thing!

Put it Back When You’re Done:

When you’re done using the starter for the day, you have used everything you need to bake – stick it back in the fridge until you need it again. It will slow down the metabolic processes and helps it last a long time. If it ever develops that liquid hooch, just pour it out. Some people just mix it in and move on.

For me, if there is more than 2 mm of liquid above my starter I will pour it down the sink. If there are less than that 2 mm I will mix it in. Is there a real, scientific reason I do this?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! I just feel like it will work better.

Purchasing a Starter:

If you buy a starter, you can start your feedings immediately. Or you can put it in the fridge for a while and decide to use it later. Like I said earlier, it is pretty hard to kill!