How to Make Sourdough Starter.mp4

Hey guys, it's Tessa from HandleTheHeat.com and today I'm going to be showing you how to make a homemade sourdough starter right in your own kitchen. Making homemade sourdough starter is actually surprisingly simple, it just takes a little bit of time and patience and I'm going to be sharing all the tips and tricks along the way so be sure to watch this video all the way to the end and check out my blog post below for step-by-step instructions that you can follow along. Making homemade sourdough starter gives you the most flavorful, tangy, well-balanced sourdough bread ever and you can actually control the level of sourness so if you like it really sour or just more mild, it's totally customizable. So if you'd like to learn how to make a homemade sourdough starter then just keep watching. So we have the making of sourdough starter right here, all it is is flour and water, it's that simple, however making a homemade sourdough starter is not really a matter of convenience because it's literally a living organism that requires time and attention to grow, develop, and mature. So to start out I have 120 grams or a scant cup of organic whole wheat flour and half a cup or 120 grams of bottled water and it's really important to use organic whole wheat flour because it'll work faster and we want to make sure that there are no chemicals getting in the way of our sourdough from forming, same goes for the water, we really want to make sure that there's no chlorine in our water, which most tap water has, that's why it's really necessary to use bottled water. It's also really important to make sure that all of your utensils and bowls are completely perfectly clean. So I've just stirred together the flour and water until it moistens and it comes together in a stiff dough. Then I'll transfer it to a four cup container and cover it tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a cool area for 48 hours, if you don't have a cool area let it sit for only 24 hours and then move on to day three and all of the days and instructions are listed in the blog post below. So the consistency should now resemble a thick pancake batter and there may be a few bubbles and this may take 24 to 48 hours again just depending on the temperature of where the sourdough is resting. So with a very clean spoon remove and throw away about half of the starter or 120 grams or about half a cup. I'm using measuring by weight throughout this entire process because it's completely accurate. So once you've thrown away half the sourdough starter, stir in a scant half cup of bread flour, 60 grams, and a quarter cup of bottled water, another 60 grams. So once that's all stirred together, cover tightly with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature for another 24 hours. After 12 hours the starter may have increased by one and a half and have lots of bubbles but don't be concerned if it deflates and falls back down. So after another 24 hours we are going to repeat the process again. So with a clean spoon scoop out and throw away about half the starter and then stir in more bread flour and bottled water. This time we're going to cover with plastic wrap but not as tightly as before because gases are going to start forming that will need to escape. We're going to leave this again for another 24 hours. So after 24 hours it's now day 5 and if the starter is active it will have increased in volume to at least 3 cups, maybe even 4, then dome and start to recede. That hasn't actually happened yet, then go back to day 4 and repeat those steps until it reaches that activity stage. So for day 5 we're again going to use a clean spoon to remove out half of the sourdough and then stir in more bread flour and bottled water and now you will have 1 cup of active starter. You can cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place for about 4 hours or until it has almost doubled and if you want to bake bread now you can expand it by feeding it with more water and flour but if you want to wait to bake then you can refrigerate it overnight and start expanding it the following day. And if you don't plan to use it for several days you can feed it again to double it, let it sit for an hour and then refrigerate it. Alright so I just pulled my sourdough starter out of the fridge, this is what it looks like, it actually doesn't look like a whole lot but it smells just like sourdough bread and it's going to be perfect when you're making homemade bread. Now this starter will continue to develop and mature over the coming weeks and for the next 2 weeks you just have to feed it 3 times a week to keep it going. So after 2 weeks of regular feeding of the sourdough it will start to mellow out and develop a more mild, complex, sour tangy flavor that is perfect in bread. You can bake it and use it in baking bread now but if you want to get that more mild kind of distinct sourdough flavor then waiting 2 weeks will give you the perfect amount of tang. So after 2 weeks of regular feeding you can actually slow it down to feeding just once a week and that's all it will take to keep it going if you're only making bread once a week. I have all the detailed instructions if you want to play around with feedings and flavors and baking now or later on this blog post below so be sure to check it out. Alright guys I hope you've enjoyed this video on how to make homemade sourdough starter. Be sure to stay tuned for my next video which will actually show you how to make sourdough bread with this starter. If you did like this video please give it a thumbs up and leave me a comment below and let me know what you'd like to see next time and I'll make that happen for you. Thank you guys so much for watching and don't forget to subscribe.