Sourdough Starter & Recipes

During this quarantine sourdough bread has been so popular and since we had been wanting to try it for awhile, we decided now was a great time to give it a go! There are ways to make it completely on your own but we took a little shortcut and increased our chances of success by purchasing a dehydrated sourdough starter from lauralivesthegoodlife on Instagram. 

The starter cost $10 and has about 2x the amount you need for a starter in case something doesn’t pan out right with the first try. Luckily, we were successful on the first go around and now have a wonderful starter! The starter comes with all the instructions to get it going plus some recipes. Apparently it can take up to 10 “feedings” (water and flour added in) to get it to grow but ours took 5 feeds to take off good. 

A feed consists of adding equal parts filtered water (chlorine and other chemicals in tap water may kill the starter) and unbleached flour (bleached flour may kill the starter also) to the starter. We do this in a large mason jar and let it sit in a dark cabinet. It takes 2-4 hours to see the starter get bubbly indicating that it’s happy and ready to use. The starter can be left out if it is used several times a week and if there is going to be down time in using it, then it may be stored in the refrigerator. When we know we want to use it again we get it out of the fridge for at least a couple of hours or even overnight before using it again to that it will be active and ready to go. 

It has taken some research and experimenting to find recipes we like that work well with it but we’ve been really happy with the results. The top 3 things we really have nailed down to make are pancakes or waffles, our usual bread maker loaf and Parmesan artisan bread. 

The pancake/waffle and breadmaker recipes are ones we have been using for a long time and we altered to work with the sourdough starter. When you alter a recipe like that you have to change the amount of water and flour to account for the sourdough. If you want it to rise without active yeast (like the breadmaker bread) then you need to allow time for it to rise, 6-8 hours. I just keep an eye on it around hour 6 to get the height I want.  Our breads have a mild sourdough taste that the kids don’t seem to be bothered by.

Sourdough Waffles/Pancakes

1 Cup Sourdough Starter

4 Tbsp Sugar

1.5 Cups White Flour

1 Cup Filtered Water

2 Tbsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix ingredients and let batter rest for at least 5 minutes before using

Parmesan-Olive Sourdough Bread (from culturesforhealth.com)

1.5 Cups Sourdough Starter

1.5 Cups Lukewarm Water

1 tsp yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

2.5 tsp Salt

5 Cups Unbleached Flour

1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan

1/3 Cup Sliced Black Olives

Combine all ingredients, turn dough onto floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes. Allow dough to rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled in size (90 minutes). Divide in half and shape into 2 oval or round loaves on greased baking sheet, slash the tops and cover with a towel. Place the pan in a warm place for an hour or until almost doubled in size again. Lightly mist loaves with warm water, dust with flour and bake 425 for 25-30 minutes or until crusts deep brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack.

Breadmaker Sourdough

1 Cup Sourdough Starter

1.5 Cups Filtered Water

4 Cups Flour (we usually do 3 Cups white, 1 Cup wheat)

2 Tbsp Ground Flax Seed

2 Tbsp Oil

4 Tbsp Sugar (cane, honey or maple syrup)

2 tsp Salt

Let bread maker mix for 10-15 minutes until thoroughly combined, reshape dough as needed and let rise for 6-8 hours in bread maker. Bake for 75 minutes.

We love our breadbox too, its big enough to hold more a loaf of bread plus extra bread items we may have around. It also has a cutting board lid which is handy, don’t have to get out yet another item when you want to slice a piece.

Products used are linked below