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Questions tagged [sourdough-starter]

Culture of yeast and lactobacilli in a flour/water mixture, used to leaven bread (also known as levain)

A sourdough starter, or levain, is a fermented mixture of flour and water. This resident colony of microorganisms (yeast and lactobacilli) produce leavening for bread or other baked goods.

Questions may include how to:

  • start
  • feed or maintain
  • use
  • troubleshoot problems
112 questions
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Can I give my friend the sour dough "throw away" as a starter to their sourdough starter?

Many sourdough techniques suggest throwing away half your starter further on in the fermenting process. The reason given (in many YouTube videos I've watched) is that it'd eventually take over your kitchen if you didn't. I guess rather than throw…
Kev
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Traveling with sourdough starter

We recently got a sourdough starter, and have loved trying out many different recipes with it. In a few weeks we will by flying home (after spending the summer in Alaska), and we would really like to take the starter home with us. What's the best…
David Oneill
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Some instant yeast went into my sourdough starter

This is how it all began, I have a 100% rye starter for about a year now. I used a spoon that had some other dough on it, that dough was from a bag of flour that had mentioned at the bottom of the packaging, it had some leavening improvers. …
Pinch
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What's the point of long/complex sourdough feeding techniques?

About a year ago, a friend taught me how she makes her sourdough bread and gave me a portion of her starter. It works great and makes fantastic loaves. I've started to look at other recipes online and in various books (e.g. Flour, Water, Salt) to…
S. Burt
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Will my results differ when using a sourdough starter vs poolish for pizza dough?

I've read about differing techniques for getting the best flavor, texture, and chewiness in my pizza crust. One of the commonly suggested routes is to include a sourdough starter as part of the process, but I also find suggestions to use a poolish…
dpollitt
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Why does my sourdough starter have in the top the liquid separated from the flour?

Why does my sourdough starter have in the top the liquid separated from the flour? 2 days after beginning a new one, a liquid (water) appeared on top of it, it appeared after I fed it the first time. To feed it I discarded half of the starter and…
Michael Ben David
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How can I make my sourdough bread more sour?

I am having trouble getting my German Farmer Rye Bread (Bauernbrot) to taste sour enough. I have a good rise and good structure but the flavor is not sour enough. I tried making the starter less watery and letting the finished dough rise in the…
Paul
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How to Judge the Appropriate Feeding Schedule for Immature Sourdough Starter

I am a week into the development of sourdough starter. I initiated the starter on spring water and a flour mixture that is 1/2 whole grain rye (Hodgson Mill) and 1/2 whole grain wheat (King Arthur). I am maintaining the standard 100% hydration in…
Stephen Eure
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Is using commercially available yeast to create a sourdough starter effective?

Numerous starter recipes talk about capturing wild yeast from the environment. Many recipes, as well as questions and answers here, directly say or imply wild yeast is better and that deliberately added yeast is counter productive, but the…
Phil
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How frequently should I feed my sourdough starter?

I am growing my first sourdough starter. It is a week old, but it isn't very active. My concern is that I might be feeding it too frequently or too infrequently. I could see it going either way. The process I have been using is to (initially)…
user2488125
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Sourdough starter issues

I've been trying unsuccessfully to create my sourdough starter. First of all it starts off well, i combine 100g of bread flour with 100g of water (bottled) mix well and leave it in my jar covered with cloth for 24 hours. Next day i always have a bit…
user54136
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Why won't my sourdough form a shapeable dough that doesn't stick?

I'm pretty new to the sourdough game and will admit that I have very little knowledge of the science behind it (hydration, etc.). I have so far tried two sourdough starters to make two simple sourdough boules which have both failed. The first was a…
emyrking
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My sourdough starter is going wrong in every possible way

I have been feeding my sourdough starter daily for just over two weeks and everything is constantly going wrong. At first water was sitting on the top, then it started smelling of nail varnish, and now it has a green mould at the top. Should I just…
reuben clark
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What happens if I forget to feed my sourdough starter?

Is there something wrong that can happen if I forget to feed my sourdough starter? I kinda forgot to do it twice, but it still appears to have a few bubbles in it. Previously it contained hooch, which I discarded. Also, my starter has a dense…
Michael Ben David
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Make sourdough starter without discarding

I understand the point of discarding half the sourdough starter as the yeast develops so that you don't have exponential amounts of starter. Why not start with a half ounce of flour and just add the same weight as what's in the container? (I plan to…
motorbaby
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