If you prefer sour dough or if you do not have any yeast and want to make bread, you can make a sour dough start in 6 days and use it instead of yeast to make bread. It takes effort and work to make your first sour dough start but after made, you can keep and use it for years with little effort.
I found this excellent website with instructions and videos to make this process easier.
https://www.feastingathome.com/sourdough-starter/
I have copied the basic instructions but it is worth looking at the link. It begins:
“How to make your own Sourdough Starter using simple ingredients with no special equipment in 6 days that can be used in crusty sourdough bread, baguettes, pizza dough, waffles, banana bread, pancakes, crackers, sourdough buns, sourdough tortillas and biscuits. Sourdough Starter is often referred to as wild yeast, made from flour, water and the wild yeast in the air around us.”
Think of sourdough starter as yeast. You are making your own living “wild yeast” by fermenting flour and water. Only 2 ingredients. Once it’s alive, it is like a very low-maintenance pet.
You must feed it (stir in a mixture of flour and water) once a week to keep it healthy and happy. You know it’s happy when it bubbles.
FEEDING: Feeding your sourdough starter is basically adding a mixture of flour and water to your existing starter to keep it happy and nourished. Starter is full of wild yeasts that get hungry, just like we do. These yeasts need ‘food’ in this case more flour to stay healthy and active.
How often you feed depends greatly on the temperature. The starter will metabolize the flour more quickly in warm environments, and more slowly in cold environments (like the fridge). If you keep your starter in the fridge, you will only need to feed it once a week. If you keep it on the counter, you may need to feed it 1 – 2 times daily and sometimes more if you live in warmer climates.
HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH STARTER: This recipe for Sourdough Starter takes 6 days (or up to 12 days if cold) and is very easy.
DAY 1: STARTING IN THE MORNING OR AT NIGHT (using a wide-mouth 4 cup mason jar or crock or glass measuring cup) mix 1 cup whole grain flour with ½ cup filtered water (without chlorine) making sure you’ve incorporated all the dry flour. It should be like thick paste (consistency like peanut butter). If you need to add a little more water to incorporate the flour, that is OK. Place a lid lightly on top or a wet towel (or plastic wrap) to keep moisture in and let sit at room temperature (70ish degrees) on the kitchen counter for 24 to 48 hours.
DAY 2: After the first 24 hours, there may or may not be a bit of bubbling. Let this rest until you see a tiny bit of bubble activity and sometimes this takes 36 or even 48 hours. When you see bubbling, discard all but ½ cup of the starter. Add to the starter 1 cup of flour and ½ cup filtered water mixing well with a fork. Cover again and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for another 24 hours.
DAY 3: By the third day, you should definitely see some bubbling and if not, let it go a bit longer. Depending on how warm your house is and how active your starter, you may need to begin feeding more often or move to 2 feedings a day (like in the morning and at night). In a nutshell, you want to feed the starter only after it has peaked (metabolized all the flour from the last feeding) and has started sinking down or gets liquidy. THIS IS WHEN IT IS HUNGRY! This might be 12 hours. It might be 14. It might be 18 or 24 depending on the temperature in your house. In very warm climates, it may only be 6 to 8 hours. In winter, this may take 36 hours. It is better to underfeed rather than overfeed. For each feeding, like before, discard all but ½ cup of the starter (keeping roughly ½ cup of starter in the jar). Add 1 cup Bread flour and ½ cup non-chlorine water to the ½ cup starter and let this rest at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours or until the starter looks “hungry” again before repeating. Feed the starter only when hungry. This can vary in time greatly so even though there is a loose schedule laid out for you here, understand that your starter has a schedule of it’s own. It is a living thing so watch it and pay attention! Over feeding a starter makes it lethargic.
THE KEY HERE IS TO WATCH IT. Don’t feed the starter until it looks hungry.
Look for the signs of ‘hunger’! You’ll see watery bubbles at the top or even a layer of liquid. The starter should rise and fall. If not, look for consistency. As it metabolizes the flour and gets hungry, it will get runny and liquidy (to the point where you can pour the liquid out of the jar). If it is still thick like paste, it is not done metabolizing (eating) the flour so wait.
DAY 4: Feed 1 to 2 times, discarding all but ½ cup of starter EACH TIME. Feed 1 cup bread flour and ½ cup water. Look for the hunger signs. Hopefully, you’ll begin to see some rising and falling. It is helpful to put the starter in a clean jar and mark the beginning level (with a sharpie, string or rubber band) so you can easily see where it starts. If for some reason your starter looks like it is still rising at the time of second feeding (at night) and there is no evidence it has fallen or no slide marks, skip this feeding and feed first thing in the morning. AGAIN, FEEDING IT WHEN IT IS ‘NOT HUNGRY’ WILL BASICALLY DILUTE ALL THE GROWING YEAST AND MAKE IT LETHARGIC. BETTER TO STARVE THAN OVERFEED!
DAY 5: Feed again 1 to 2 times roughly 12 hours apart discarding all but ½ cup of the starter EACH TIME. Add 1 cup bread flour and ½ cup lukewarm water. The starter should look visibly active, bubbling, rising and hopefully close to doubling in size.
DAY 6: Give it one last feeding. Discard all but 1/3 cup. Add 1 cup flour and ½ cup water and place it in a clean jar so you can see the action clearly. You can use a sharpie or place a rubber band around the jar to mark the beginning height. The starter should hopefully double in volume within 4 to 6 hours of feeding. Then DO THE FLOAT TEST. To test the starter, place a teaspoon of starter (just from the top, don’t stir it down) in a glass full of water. It should hopefully float. If it does, it is good to make bread. For the next 8 hours, let the starter rest at room temperature allowing it to fully metabolize the flour, perhaps sinking a little before making your dough.
At this point, if your starter does not double in size or pass the float test, don’t give up! Often it just takes longer. Continue feeding one to two times a day for a few more days until you see a consistent, predictable, rise and fall and it floats. If you need to take a break, put it in the fridge and try it again up to a week later. Don’t toss it.
DAY 6 EVENING: Use 1/3 cup of the starter to make bread and transfer the remaining starter to a clean crock, mason jar and store the starter in the refrigerator and feed it at least once a week mixing in any liquid at the top. Always reserve 1/3 to ½ cup starter before feeding it the usual 1 cup bread flour and ½ cup water. If you make bread in the evening, you can bake it in the morning. If not making bread, transfer all of the starter to the refrigerator and follow above instructions.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
SMELL: Starter should smell sweet and tangy and not ‘bad’. If it really smells unpleasant, you may have used an unclean jar or somehow introduced other bad bacteria. You should start over.
NO ACTION: If your starter was doing great, then fizzled out, try adding a little whole grain flour (whole wheat or rye) mixed with the bread flour into the feedings and really monitor amounts making sure you are feeding the ½ cup starter a full heaping cup of flour. Check the temperature using a thermometer and give it a little extra time to ‘digest’ the flour. Sometimes it takes longer than 12 hours for starter to need more flour – especially when cold. It is OK to skip a feeding at night if it looks like it is still peaking or rising.
FLOUR: Try to use whole grain flour to start, then organic bread flour. The more wild yeast in the flour, the better your starter will do so smaller brands like Bob’s Red Mill seem to do better than bigger conventional brands that have been overly processed. It is totally ok to mix flour and to switch them up. This adds different kinds of wild yeast which is a good thing.
DO NOT OVERFEED: For example, maybe feeding 1 x a day at 12 hour intervals is too often. You want to feed after the starter has peaked, then deflated. If you feed the starter before it has had a chance to metabolize or eat all the flour (before peaking) and then you discard part of it and feed it again, you are actually diluting all that amazing bacteria - weakening your starter. So it is all about watching your starter. If you are not seeing rising and falling, but notice the starter just gets liquidy, this too is a sign of ‘hunger’. There are lots of variables here. Just be patient, pay attention and watch. This is a living thing. It doesn’t care about time schedules. It will ‘eat’ when it is ‘hungry’ and sometimes it likes to eat slowly.
TIME: IT MAY TAKE LONGER THAN 6 DAYS IN COLDER ENVIRONMENTS. Use a kitchen thermometer to take a temperature. Is it over 65 degrees F? Find a place where it can be warm - not in direct sunlight. Sometimes it takes 10 to 12 days. Be patient; keep going. If it is doing absolutely nothing, leave it out on the counter for 24 to 48 hours and see what happens. If you run out of flour or need a break, don’t just toss it. Put it in the fridge and see if you can get it going a few days later.
ACIDITY: If you still can’t get that starter going, some people recommend substituting pineapple juice for the water for one feeding which raises the acidity level.
LIQUID: If you see any liquid at the top of your starter, it means your starter is hungry. So, yes, it is still alive which is a good thing! You can stir the liquid in or pour the liquid off. Either way is OK but do feed it. This is a sign that you may need to feed it more often.
MOLD: If you see any discoloring or mold on the surface, starter was probably contaminated. If it is only on the surface, it is probably OK to save. Scrape it off, save ½ cup of the underneath starter and keep going. Feed, smell, use your best judgment.
FLOAT TEST: Try testing when your starter is peaking. Take a spoonful from the top without stirring it down. If your starter is rising and falling consistently, but not passing the float test and it has been over 8 to 10 days, just try baking a loaf. It may be the flour.
It is very helpful to go into the website and see the pictures and videos of how to do each step. There is a nice troubleshooting section also.
HOW TO MAINTAIN YOUR STARTER:
REFRIGERATE & FEED AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK: Pick a scheduled day and try to stick with it, always reserving ½ cup and feeding it 1 cup flour and ½ cup water. Discard the remaining, give it away or keep the discard in a separate container to use in waffles, pancakes, sourdough buns, banana bread, biscuits etc.
If you forget to feed it one week, it most likely will be OK – just feed it 1 to 2 times a day for 1 to 3 days in a row to revive it (keeping it on the counter) until bubbly and active. If you go on vacation, leave it in the frig and reviving it by feeding it 3 days in a row, 1 to 2 times a day. It is actually kind of hard to kill. You can also freeze it for longer storage.
This batch will allow you to bake 2 loves of bread per week with enough left to feed for the next week. If you find yourself wanting to bake more often, you can keep it out and feed it 1 to 2 times daily. Or if baking every few days, you can pull it out of the fridge, feed it 10 hours before using, leaving it out and use what you need while it is peaking (or slightly after). Then put it back in the fridge that evening. Do the same thing a few days later when ready to use again. This would be feeding 2 to 3 times a week for baking 4 to 5 times a week.
TIPS ON SOURDOUGH STARTER:
TEMPERATURE: The colder your home, the longer it will take for the starter to grow and become active (bubbles). Find a warm spot (70-80 degrees) for the best results - on top of the frig, in the oven with the oven light on, on top of a heating pad set to low with a towel in between. You can still make a starter in a colder home, it will just take longer – even up to 2 weeks! Test the temperature of your starter using a thermometer.
FLOUR: Always try to start the batch by using organic whole grain flour (wheat or rye) because it has more wild bacteria in it than white flour and will get active and grow sooner. Freshly milled grain works exceptionally well. You can continue to use whole grain but you can also use organic white bread flour for days 2 through 6. You can also feed with organic all purpose flour but you might have better luck with getting the starter stronger, faster by starting off with the wholegrain the first day and using bread flour for the remaining. You can always mix in a little whole grain with the white as well if your starter looks like it needs a boost.
WATER: Using filtered or bottled water seems to have the best results. Sometimes chlorine in tap water can inhibit the growth of your starter. If you don’t have an option, some people leave the tap water out in an open container overnight to allow some of the chlorine to evaporate. Using room temperature or lukewarm water helps fermentation to start faster.
HYDRATION: Hydration refers to the ratio of water to flour in terms of weight. It is a ratio. For starter, this is typically at 100% hydration. This means using 1 heaping cup of flour and ½ cup water.
STORING AND FEEDING: When your starter is kept cold (in the fridge) you don’t need to feed it as often – only once a week. If you keep it out on the counter, you’ll need to feed it 2 times daily. Cold slows down the fermentation. Heat speeds it up.
USING: When you need to use your starter for baking bread, feed it 4 to 8 hours before making bread dough, using it right at peak height or slightly after (even better).
DO I REALLY HAVE TO DISCARD MY STARTER? YES. It might seem wasteful but while you are building your starter, during the first week, it is the simplest, easiest, fastest and most economical way to create a healthy starter. Doing this will shorten the fermentation process, require less flour in the long run and create a stronger starter. Once the starter is ‘established’ after the first week, then you don’t need to discard it but can use it in making other delicious items.
SOME WAYS TO USE YOUR SOURDOUGH STARTER: No knead bread, baguettes, scones, crackers, biscuits, buns, tortillas, banana bread, waffles, pancakes and many more!!
