The 7 Day Sourdough Starter Recipe
You can get a Sourdough Starter happening well enough to make bread in 7 days or less. The trick is feeding the fresh starter the right amount at the right time.
The measurements start small, but grow quickly. This is because sourdough starter is a living thing, and as it grows, so too does its appetite. You'll be doubling the size of the sourdough starter every couple of days, so make allowances for this with your storage container.
I use a clear plastic container, ideally about 1.5 litres or more, with a clip on or loose fitting lid. If it's 'clip on' type, leave it loose at all times when storing sourdough starter, so it can breathe.
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Stop Press: We have durable food grade storage containers right here at the SourdoughBaker Shop in theUtensils and Tools Section.
Sourdough starter is a careful balance of enzymes, bacteria, wild yeasts (funghi) fuel (carbohydrate), moisture and trace elemnts.
A useful article, if you've tried this recipe and are not having success, is 'healing your starter'. Perhaps, after a few attempts, you'll start to see how resilient sourdough starter is, and that all you need is patience, and possibly faith, to get sourdough starter going well.
Above all, don't throw it out! You're probably almost there! Often, you are just waiting for the correct enzyme balance to occur.
That's where unsweetened pineapple juice comes into it. This has the right amount of acidity to promote the early stages of sourdough fermentation, and I recommend its use ahead of plain water. I have also used 'raisin water' (which is water that raisins have been mascerated in overnight), and had great success with this too.
Full information follows, though I'm adding this little Quick Summary for you. Follow these steps, and you'll have a workable starter in 7 days.
After a few uses, your new sourdough starter will improve and give you better rises each time. I suggest trying out yours on what I believe are 'neverfail' semi leaven recipes first. These recipes have a tiny amount of yeast, which is added only to the dough. Your starter remains entirely pure and free of refined yeast. Semi Leaven sourdough recipes almost always work, and in the process enable your virgin sourdough starter to get a walk around the block without fear of failure.
While you are building the 7 day sourdough starter:
- remember to feed at the sourdough starter at the same time each day, so you know where you are in the cycle.
- room temperature is the 'ideal' in this process. If your kitchen is really cold, look for somewhere a little warmer for better fermentation action.
- consistency is king. Same food, same time, same place, same temperature every day.
- keep notes with dates, times and observations. It all helps!
- feed with 'clean' utensils and ingredients. Use Wholemeal flour (organic, if possible), filtered or spring water (if you use water, but pineapple juice is probably better if you're game..)
- Your container for sourdough starter should not have detergent residue. It hampers the growth of the sorts of greeblies we want to encoueage as well as the baddies, so either rinse the starter container thoroughly before use with very hot water, or wash in super hot water only a few times prior to use. You would be amazed at the effect detergent residue has on the establishment of any kind of culture. Not surprising, I guess!
- if you really are stuck, you can contact me. I'll get back to you quicker than you think I will..
- if all else fails, buying some will get it happening straight away. Then all you have to do is feed it!
Quick Summary of the 7 Day Sourdough Starter Recipe
 Day 1: 25 grams fresh flour, 25 mls water, or unsweetend pineapple juice. Mix to a paste.
Day 2: Repeat. Add to mix.
Day 3: Add 50 grams flour, 50 mls water or unsweetened pineapple juice, mix.
Day 4: Add 100 grams flour, 100 mls water or unsweetened pineapple juice, mix.
Day 5: Rest, (you and the starter) observe, take notes. Activity? Bubbles? Smell? Times? You want Details! This procedure can really make the difference between many griefs and few.
Day 6: 100 grams flour, 100 mls water or unsweetened pineapple juice.
Day 7: Use, if you have observed that it's ripe!
You should end up with a total volume of 600 grams (approximately) of sourdough starter. If your first batch of sourdough bread uses half this volume, then you will have 300 grams left to feed and maintain as a 'wet' starter.
For your first use, I strongly recommend trying one or more of the semileaven recipes on the site. These utilise the starter you have now created, but add yeast to the dough, making your first attempt a surefire success. Once your starter has established, move on to the sourdough recipes, which have no refined yeast (cerviseae yeast).
Have a quick look at 'feeding your starter' for more information about how to keep a 'liquid' starter. The landing page for the liquid starter section is here.
Or, if you want to have a go at the 'old dough' method, have a look at the article on this.
Now read on for the detail. You're on the way to making great home made sourdough bread.
Sourdough Starter Day 1:
Take 25 grams (about a heaped tablespoon full) of fresh organic wholemeal flour, and mix it with enough filtered luke warm water or even better, unsweetened pineapple juice to make a paste. You'll need to use a small plastic, glass or ceramic container with either a loose fitting lid or a cloth to cover it. This will make a bit more than a tablespoon of paste in total, so a small container will do for now. Bear in mind, however, that this volume will grow once you start to feed it, so a larger container will be needed soon.
Leave out for a day.
Sourdough Starter Day 2:
At about the same time as yesterday, feed with exactly the same amount of flour (25 grams) and add enough water or unsweetened pineapple juice to make a thick paste. There might be a little bit of activity, like some bubbles in the batter - which means that there are airborne yeasts beginning to attach themselves to the batter you have made. Don't worry if there isn't though. I usually leave these young ferments out of the fridge to do their stuff naturally, though in mid summer I look for a cool place out of the fridge to store them and keep an eye out for faster times.
Sourdough Starter Day 2: Bubbles starting to form. You might be able to detect a very faint smell of Bananas.
Sourdough Starter Day 3:
Have a smell of the mix. If it smells vaguely like bananas, you know the process is beginning. If you get a slightly tangy smell, a bit like vinegar, it's going well. Feed with 50 grams of flour and 50 mls water or unsweetened pineapple juice to continue with a 'thick paste' texture. Mix it in roughly with a plastic or wooden spoon. Don't worry about lumps - these will be eaten as the yeast begins to form.
Sourdough Starter Day 3: More Bubbles, and you can smell bananas and maybe a slightly tangy smell now.
A word on Sourdough Yeasts
I should mention here that this particular sourdough starter is one that encourages wild yeasts which thrive in cool conditions. Different types of yeasts live at different temperatures. Winemaking yeasts, for example, like temperatures below 10 degrees centigrade.
Generally, breadmaking yeasts like to multiply rapidly at above 25 degrees C, but are almost dormant below 15 degrees, so can be stored for quite a few hours. We home bakers are going for yeasts which do quite well below 15 degrees C - they are retarded, but continue to reproduce. These yeasts breed in cold and warm conditions, so when they get warmed up, go absolutely crazy with reproductive zeal. Thus, they make great tasting bread which also rises well. You can control them easily, once they are established, using your refrigerator.
Sourdough Starters tend to take a while to get their enzyme balance right. When this can be done, the sourdough starter will make consistently good bread. That's why I suggest the use of unsweetened pineapple juice in the early days of establishing your sourdough starter. It will help give the ferment the right ph balance to promote certain beneficial bacteria early on in the sourdough cycle.
Sourdough Starter Day 4:
By now you will start to see quite a few small bubbles in the still relatively unripe sourdough starter. You should also be able to easily smell something - the smell will be quite like ripe bananas, with a tanginess reminiscent of alcohol. The texture will be changing too - you'll see a progression from what looks like bubbles in batter to something resembling a sponge. Feed with 100 grams more flour and enough water or unsweetened pineapple juice to make it a paste, as you have been doing. There is not much activity while the starter is young, so keep an eye on it, and leave it to do it's thing!
Sourdough Starter Day 4: Quite a few bubbles, and the smell of ripe bananas.
Sourdough Starter Day 5:
There will be more bubbles, and more banana smells. If things are going well, there will also be a slightly tangy smell too. The texture could almost be slightly spongy by now, though don't concern yourself if it isn't yet - it will. This tangy smell indicates that a secondary level of fermentation is occurring. Allow the mixture to come to room temperature again, and return to the fridge if the weather is hot.
Sourdough Starter Day 5: It's beginning to look a lttle spongy, and the banana smell will be getting slightly tangy now.
Sourdough Starter Day 6:
The smell will now be becoming quite tangy. If you have kept the temperature quite low throughout the process, the smell of bananas will still be there, but the tanginess will be steadily increasing.
There will be bubbles on the surface of the mixture, and some throughout too. You can give the mixture a final feed of 100 grams of flour and about the same of water - same thing, mix with a fork or whisk to a paste consistency. It will respond from this feed quite rapidly.
Sourdough Starter Day 6: Tangy and Spongy now.
Sourdough Starter Day 7:
Your starter should be used now - so refer to the basic sourdough bread recipe for a simple sourdough recipe!
I also strongly recommend visiting the articles on SemiLeaven Bread Recipes. These combine your new sourdough starter with a little yeast in the dough, allowing you surefire success first time.
Once your starter is established more, try some full sourdough recipes too!
Other Sourdough recipes you might like to try from this site include:
Basic Sourdough Recipe
White Spelt Sourdough Recipe
Basic Sourdough Variation (Baking By Feel)
Wholemeal Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
White Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
Light Rye Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
Medium Rye Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
Continental (Semi Leaven) Bread Recipe
Light Wholemeal (Semi Leaven)Bread Recipe
Light Rye (Semi Leaven) Bread Recipe
Stop Press: You might want to have a look at the SourdoughBaker Bookshop for more information about sourdough breadmaking. You can also purchase Breadmaking Kits and Ingredients right here. We keep supplies of very fresh organic stone ground and roller milled flours.
We now have supplies of Powdered Sourdough Starter available, which comes with a special printed instruction book. This Sourdough Starter can be established in only three days, and provides the strength of 20 years of Sourdough Culture right away - making it an excellent way to get you baking great bread very quickly. We can get any of these things to you anywhere in Australia in only a working day or three from your payment being received by us.
One thing - owing to a website glitch that's a bit lengthy to fix, you might navigate to these pages and think there is nothing on them. Just scroll down, and you'll see the content!
 There are also a range of specialist Sourdough and Artisan Bread Books available through this site. Remember, every book you buy through SourdoughBaker helps me to build this free Home Sourdough Breadmaking resource bigger and better for you!
Note: I have amended these measurements over time thanks to everyone who has tried this method and found that the weights were larger than the 'spoonfuls' I had indicated. The principle used here still applies, no matter what the weight is. But digital scales lead to greater accuracy, and I thank everyone who has pointed this out. If, as a result of following my earlier measurements (i.e., twice those shown here) you have created too much starter, the quick fix is to simply use more, and make more bread for friends and family!
Here's a complete list of articles in this section:
Here are some of the sourdough recipes which work the best with liquid sourdough starter:
Happy sourdough baking!
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