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bubbly sourdough starter in glass jar

Easy Beginner Sourdough Starter Recipe

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5 from 24 reviews

Flour, water, and time are all you need to make a beautiful, bubbly sourdough starter that you can use to make delicious baked goods for years!

  • Total Time: 7-14 days
  • Yield: one sourdough starter

Ingredients

ingredients:

1 5lb bag of organic, unbleached all-purpose flour

water

equipment:

glass jar with lid - (the jar should be able to hold about 2 cups, 16-ounces, 470 ml)

additional glass jar for discard if keeping

wooden spoon

silicone or rubber spatula

rubber band or wet-erase marker

Instructions

  1. Day 1: Place 1/2 cup (60 grams) of flour and 1/4 cup (60 grams) of water in a glass jar and mix very well. Cover and let sit in a warm room temperature spot for 24 hours. In the oven with the light on is my go-to spot when I want a warm environment for my starter or for rising doughs. On top of the refrigerator is a great spot too.
  2. Day 2: Remove half of starter mixture from jar and replenish the starter with 1/2 cup (60 grams) of flour and 1/4 cup (60 grams) of water. Stir well, scrape down sides, cover and leave in a warm room temperature spot for 24 hours.
  3. Day 3-7: Repeat the same process as Day 2 each day. 
  4. Day 7-14: Continue with the same process and monitor for doubling in size after 4-12 hours (a rubber band or marker can be very useful for this and fun if you have kids helping) and for a pleasantly tangy, sour smell. 
  5. Once your starter doubles in size after feeding, has a pleasantly sour aroma, lots of bubbles and webbing when you stir it at peak, you can begin to experiment with sourdough baking! For long term feeding and maintenance head over to my How to Feed and Maintain a Sourdough Starter post and when you are ready to start baking, give my Artisan Sourdough Bread for Beginners recipe a try.

Notes

If you want to speed things up, you can replace about 1/2 of the flour amount with whole wheat flour for the first couple of feedings. The fermentation will happen a bit faster but you should still plan on waiting until day 7-14 to see results just in case.

Find it online: https://wildthistlekitchen.com/how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter/