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You can make a starter for bread at home out of thin air! Learn how to make sourdough starter with this step-by-step recipe. Then use it in our best sourdough bread!
Are you looking to start baking sourdough bread at home? As part of our series How to Make Sourdough Bread, we’re showing you how to make sourdough starter at home!
A sourdough starter is essential for making sourdough bread. You can order one online or find one from a friend, but why not make it at home? It’s simple and requires very little hands on time. Wait for 5 days, and you’ll have grown your own starter—out of thin air!
Buy it: To shortcut the process, you can buy a sourdough starter instead. We’ve tested this one and it works well.
What is sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter, also called levain, is a fermented dough filled with natural, wild yeast and a bacteria called lactobacilli. The starter is what makes sourdough bread rise. Instead of using active dry yeast like in other bread recipes, sourdough bread uses a starter. Along with leavening the bread, the starter also brings that classic sour flavor.
A starter is literally full of life! There are 50 million yeasts and 5 billion lactobacilli bacteria in every teaspoon of starter dough. Sound weird? Actually, humans have been doing this for thousands of years; the process is as old as bread itself. For over 5,000 years, humans have mixed flour and water, waited for it to ferment, and then used it as leavening for bread.
Interested in the science behind sourdough starter? Read more here.
How to make sourdough starter: read this first
Making this sourdough starter recipe is a simple process. You simply mix together flour and water, and then wait, wait, and wait some more for the yeast and bacteria to do their thing! It’s a 5 to 6 day process that mostly consists of waiting.
For our sourdough starter recipe, we use a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour to give the start a jump start. Once the starter is active and vibrant, we switch to all purpose flour for regular feeding of the starter.
That’s right, we said feeding a starter! Since this little dude is alive, you’re going to have to feed him or her regularly. See our post on How to Feed a Sourdough Starter. You may want to give him a name too! (Ours is named Starty. Original, right?)
Now, jump right to our full recipe for how to make sourdough starter!
Sourdough starter ingredients and equipment
Luckily, you don’t need too many special tools for making this starter recipe. (Of course, you’ll need special tools when we get to How to Make Sourdough Bread!) Here’s what you need for making sourdough starter at home:
- A covered jar to store your sourdough starter (any will work: we use this one)
- Whole wheat flour
- All purpose flour
- Filtered water, at room temperature (we use this pitcher to filter our tap water)
- Kitchen scale (here’s the one we use)
What to make with sourdough starter
One more thing before we get to the recipe: what can you make with starter? Homemade sourdough bread, obviously! Here’s our sourdough bread recipe, complete with a printable to make the process pretty simple.
Outside of bread, there are all sorts of things you can make with sourdough starter: pancakes, waffles, cookies, pizza crust, and muffins. Check out some uses here: Beyond the Loaf: The Many Uses of Sourdough.
Related posts
This post is one of three in our series on making sourdough bread:
Dietary notes
This sourdough starter recipe is vegan, vegetarian, plant-based, and dairy-free.
Frequently asked questions
It usually takes about 5-7 days for a sourdough starter to become active and ready to use. However, the time can vary depending on the temperature and humidity of your environment.
A mature starter will double in size within 4-6 hours after feeding, have a bubbly and slightly sour aroma, and float in water when you drop a small spoonful in.
Once your starter is active, you can store it in the refrigerator. You’ll need to feed it once a week to keep it alive and healthy.
Go to our post on How to Feed a Sourdough Starter, which has tips for troubleshooting.
How to Make Sourdough Starter
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 days
- Total Time: 5 days
- Yield: 1 starter
Description
This sourdough bread starter recipe shows how to make sourdough starter from scratch. No need to order online, you can make a starter for bread right at home!
Ingredients
- Whole wheat flour
- All-purpose flour
- Room temperature filtered water
Instructions
- Day 1: Use a kitchen scale to add 25 grams whole wheat flour, 25 grams all-purpose flour, and 50 grams of water. Stir to combine. The mixture should look like a thick paste. Cover the jar and place in a warm location for 24 hours. The temperature of your room can have a big effect on the speed at which your starter grows. Ideally, you want to be between 68 and 72 degrees. The starter will not flourish in cooler temperatures.
- Day 2: You may or may not see a few bubbles starting to appear in the starter. Either way, discard about half of the starter and add the same ingredients to the jar: 25 grams whole wheat flour, 25 grams all-purpose flour, and 50 grams of water. Stir to combine. Cover the jar and place in a warm location for 24 hours.
- Day 3: You will likely see a few more bubbles today. The starter should start to smell a little bit sour (in a good way!) Again, discard half of the starter. Today, you’ll switch to using only all-purpose flour. Add 50 grams all-purpose flour and 50 grams of water. Stir to combine. Cover the jar and place in a warm location for 24 hours.
- Day 4: You should see a lot more bubbles and the starter should increase in volume. Follow the same process: discard half of the starter. Add 50 grams all-purpose flour and 50 grams of water. Stir to combine. Cover the jar and place in a warm location for 24 hours.
- Day 5: The starter will be very bubbly and double in volume. It will have a funky sour smell that indicates the magic of sourdough is ready to happen! This starter is ready to use! Follow our instructions for feeding and maintaining a starter to keep it alive on the long term.
Notes
Depending on your room temperature conditions, it might take several more days of the same process to get the starter to be really bubbly and active!
- Category: Baking
- Method: Fermented
- Cuisine: French
Hi! I began my starter, and the first 2 days were going great, but now the days where I’m discarding half and then feeding again, it’s not growing / getting bubbly! It has the brown liquid on the top and it smells like how it should, but it’s not doubling in size! Any recommendations? I live in 80 degree climate so it shouldn’t be a weather issue. Any recommendations would help :)
This happens sometimes! Discard a little more than half next time so it has more to consume. Sometimes it takes just a few extra days to really get going.
Hi, I am new and this is my first attemp to make a sourdough starter. Each day I get a smooth hard layer on the top of the mix. It didn’t rise or produce any bubbles either. I discarded the hard top layer and just added the flour and water to what was remaining but still no rise or bubbles. What am I doing wrong?
. . . excellent a pair of healthy people . . . happiness and long life . . . thanks for sharing . . .
Hi,
I just read through your directions on making the sourdough starter,, simple and strait forward! Now looking forward to giving it a try , Thankyou for sharing!
Have you ever tried a gluten free version? I made your wonderful sourdough bread for my husband and he loves it but I have celiac disease and can’t eat that. It smells soooo good!
I’m sorry! We don’t have any experience with gluten free.