Sourdough Starter Recipe for Beginners | 4 Surprising Things Baking Sourdough Taught Me

There is a trend going around on social media. Everyone I follow was making sourdough bread, and it looked delicious. It looked like a long process, but they were left with these beautiful looking loaves of bread. I decided to give making a sourdough starter recipe a try and this is what I learned….

Baking my own sourdough loaves ended up teaching me a whole lot more about myself, serving my family and life in general. It’s amazing how something as simple as baking bread ended up bringing me a joy I never even knew existed. Already know how to make a Sourdough Starter? CLICK HERE to jump to my easy recipe for Sourdough Loaves.

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This is my starter before I feed it. Notice how there aren’t many bubbles.

1. Serving your Family is a Joy no one can hand you.

I’ve always been proud to be a stay-at-home mom and I’ve always enjoyed making our house a home. The pressure to go back into the workforce never tempted me. I knew what I was doing at home was the most important thing for our family. But baking sourdough brought me a whole new perspective on serving my family. Spending all day in the kitchen, baking bread that would fill their bellies brought me such unexpected joy. Taking the time to carefully craft something for them was a gift no one could give us but me.

2. Slow Down and Live in the Present.

Our days are filled with go go go. Drive the kids to school, pick up the groceries, run to target, throw dinner together, fold laundry, get a workout in, go pick up the kids from school, etc. We live in a world where “busy”, and “hurry” are praised. Multitasking and fitting in as many things in a hour as possible is somehow an accomplishment. Baking Sourdough forced me to slow down. It showed me that spending all day, beautifully creating something can be much more satisfying than trying to fit in 100 things in a day. I also noticed that on days where I’m baking, I rarely pick up my phone. It allows me to be completely in the present.

3. Quality will always be better over quantity.

One of the reasons I wanted to start baking our own bread was because I didn’t want to rely on the store or the options in the store. For a while we were buying only organic loaves of bread and it was getting so expensive. Why was I spending an arm and a leg on bread (that quite frankly tasted only half decent)? For the convenience? Once I began baking our own bread, I enjoyed knowing exactly what was going into it. I could buy organic flour and make tons of loaves myself. It tasted better, was cheaper and the process was FUN! My family enjoys this bread so much more than those expensive loaves from the store. Maybe it is all the extra LOVE I bake into it. 🙂

4. Baking Sourdough is Addicting.

You should go into your first attempt to a sourdough loaf knowing it won’t be right. It won’t rise, it won’t hold its shape, it won’t look pretty. You can still eat it, but it won’t be perfect…. yet. With every single attempt you will get better and better. You will learn so much every time you mix the dough. With time you will be able to feel the difference with the dough and be able to fine tune your skill. And that my friend, is a feeling of accomplishment that no one can hand you! It is a growing confidence in this skill you are crafting. You will be so proud of yourself with every creation and then you will be hooked on sourdough. You will be addicted to this new skill that you are slowly mastering. It is AMAZING!

Ready to Start Baking

Here is how to start your Sourdough Starter

Your Sourdough Starter is the key. You must have a healthy starter. What makes a Sourdough Starter healthy? One that doubles in size and is filled with bubbles after you feed it. It can take up to 7-14 days to get a starter mature enough to bake with. Be patient and feed that starter every single day.

What you need:

Flour: Do not used bleached flour! Use good quality flour because this is the food for your starter. We want to feed our starter with the most nutrients as we can so it becomes nice and healthy!

Water: Use filtered water in the beginning. Again, you want to start your starter with the cleanest ingredients.

Temperature: Make sure you have a nice warm spot for your starter to do its thing. Don’t place it in a spot that will get extreme ups and downs in temp. I found in the beginning that keeping mine in the microwave helped a lot.

Tools: Gram Scale, Large Mason Jar with a lid, wooden or plastic utensil to stir. (SIDE NOTE: I read somewhere that you don’t want to use anything metal when cooking Sourdough. Not sure what the science is behind that, but I read it somewhere and consciously avoid using metal.)

Person holding a mason jar with bubbling sourdough starter inside.

Beginner Sourdough Starter Recipe

50 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
50 grams stone-milled whole-wheat flour
100 grams water

Use a gram scale to measure out your ingredients. Mix together in a large mason jar with a wood or silicon utensil. Place the lid on top. Do not screw the lid on, just rest it on top so air can get into the new starter. Within 2-3 days you will start to see signs of life! When you start to see bubbles, you can begin feeding your starter. To feed your starter remove half and discard (once you have a healthy starter you can use this discard for other recipes- SEE BELOW FOR RECIPE IDEAS). Then mix up more starter using the saved half per the recipe above. You will repeat this (discard half and feed saved half) every day!

Once your starter is rising vigorously you can start baking with it! A strong, healthy starter should have a sweet, fruity smell. If you notice mold on the top or your starter has a sour, alcohol smell throw it away and start over. Don’t worry if this happens and you have to do this. I had to throw my first starter away because of mold ( I was forgetting to feed mine every day). Second time around worked like a charm. Keep trying!

Each time you use your starter for baking, make sure you save a small portion, and continue to feed it.

Tips to Get your Starter Healthy