How To Care For Your Sourdough Starter

To refresh your sourdough starter:

Take your starter out of the fridge. Take 25 grams ( 1 big tbsp) of sourdough starter and put it
into a new jar. Put the discarded sourdough starter back in the fridge with a loose lid so it can
breathe and use it for recipes that do not require a significant natural rise, like waffles,
pancakes, and green onion cakes.

Add 100 g (100 ml) of water to the new jar and whisk together until no clumps remain. I like to
bottled water or use tap water that has sat out overnight to let the chlorine gas off

Add 100 g (about 2/3 cup) of white flour (or wheat flour depending on your starter) to the jar
and mix until no clumps remain.

Cover the jar with a loose lid. Place the jar somewhere that stays consistently around 21 c. Your
starter will be ready for baking when it has risen significantly, is bubbly, and smells sweet (this
will take about 5 hours). If you are not baking, put the starter back in the fridge when the
fermentation is at its peak.

Please note:

Remember never to use all of the refreshed sourdough starter up, because you will need to
keep some to build a new starter back up.

The starter can live in the fridge while you are not using it, but it should be refreshed at least
once a week, even if you aren't b aking. It will be ready for a feeding when it looks overly
deflated and/ or develops a hooch (liquid on top). The hooch is harmless, just pour it off before
feeding it

If you want to speed up fermentation when you feed the starter (for instance if you want to use
it to bake sooner), take the starter out of the fridge a few hours before you feed it to let it
warm up. You can also use warm water (between 21-30c) to feed your starter.

You can save your discarded starter to make waffles, pancakes, green onion cakes,or other
items that do not require a significant natural rise. Simply keep the older starter refrigerated
and either use it within the week or feed it equal parts by weight of flour/water (around 60 g
flour/60 g water) to keep it alive until you use it up. Aim for feeding the starter about}'; of its
volume.

1
All flour, baking environments, and sourdough are unique; use your best judgment and
intuition to ultimately decide what your starter needs

I recommend the book The Sourdough School by Vanessa Kimbell.

You can also find great sourdough recipes, tips, and inspiration on line at The Sourdough Blog
and at The Perfect Loaf Blog
The beginner sourdough loaf from www.theclevercarrot.com is a very easy one loaf recipe to
get you started