Learn how to make a sourdough starter recipe from scratch with just flour and water. This versatile ingredient can be used to make breads, cakes, cookies, and so much more.

If you hang around the traditional foods community, chances are you have heard of making homemade sourdough starter from scratch.
I have had my homemade starter for over six years now. It is vital in my traditional food kitchen.
What Is A Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is a live active culture made of fermented flour and water that is full of beneficial bacteria and yeasts.
It is used as a way to ferment recipes and naturally rise bread.
Why You Will Love Sourdough:
If you are unfamiliar, let me fill you in on all the reasons why crazy folks, like me, go through the effort of handcrafting, and maintaining, a beneficial colony of yeasts and bacteria in their kitchens.
Before yeast was isolated and sold in little packets, sourdough starter was a valuable commodity in homes and families, passed down for generations.
Health Benefits
Have you ever heard of phytic acid? Basically, it’s an antinutrient found in grains, beans, and nuts that interferes with the absorption of certain nutrients. They are present on grains to keep them from spoiling.
There is a reason they are there, but there is also good evidence that our bodies weren’t meant to handle them. Proper preparation of grains eliminates most, if not all, of the phytic acid in offending foods.
This is the very reason traditional cultures soaked and fermented their grains, seeds, and beans. These days, we’ve lost that art. And what have we found? People can’t handle grains anymore.
Instead of using instant yeast packets, people in traditional cultures leavened their bread with a fermented starter that captured all the yeasts in the environment.
AKA Sourdough starter
How on earth do we capture native yeasts? Read on, because I explain how to make your very own starter.
Because I love good food
I already confessed my foodie tendencies with you all. I reckon it’s the same inclination that led me into the world of homemade sourdough.
Locally made sourdough starter, with the native yeasts of the area present, is certainly the thing a foodie’s dreams are made of. A jar of healthy, productive starter is teaming with life, as evidenced by all the bubbles you will see rising to the surface.
Once you’ve experienced homemade sourdough baked goods, store-bought breads and pancakes simply don’t cut it. Sourdough has a depth of flavor that just can’t be found in something made quickly with a packet of instant yeast.
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FAQ:
How long does it take to make sourdough starter?
It takes about a week to create an active sourdough starter, but sometimes it can take about two weeks to make a starter ready to bake bread.
Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it?
When you are first creating your sourdough starter, yes. If you donโt discard you will have so much starter that it will be hard to keep healthy. This is because the more starter you have the more flour and water you will need to add for the yeasts and bacteria to feed on.
After having a starter for a while rather than discarding you can just use it in discard recipes. This is a much more useful way of removing some of the starter rather than throwing it in the trash.
How do you know your sourdough starter is ready to use?
You will know your sourdough starter is read to use when you feed it and after 4-12 hours it doubles in size and is super bubbly. A good way to be able to determine this, is to place a rubber band where the top of the starter is after you feed it. Then after a few hours have passed you can see just how high it has grown.
Another way is to perform the float test. Take a small glass of room temperature water. Add a quarter sized dollop of active starter. If it floats, it is ready to bake with. If it doesnโt it is not active enough.
Sourdough Starter Recipe:
By now, you know why you want to have a bowl of sourdough starter bubbling away in your kitchen, but how the heck do you make one?
Ingredients
Flour (Whole grain wheat, unbleached all-purpose, and einkorn are all great choices.)
Filtered water (I use a Berkey water filter. We have the Royal size for our family of 7. You can find my full Berkey review HERE.)
Tools
Glass bowl (Metal can react with beneficial bacteria and yeasts.)
Tea towel
How To Make Sourdough Starter
Day 1:
On day one, mix one cup of flour and one cup filtered water. Stir vigorously, making sure to scrape down the sides and incorporate everything. Place a clean tea towel over the bowl and set aside. Allow it to sit for 24 hours.
Day 2:
On day two, discard half of the mixture and repeat the process. Add one cup flour, one cup water, stir vigorously, and cover.
Why do you have to remove half the mixture? By day four, you would have sourdough starter overflowing from your bowl. Also, removing half ensures that the right amount of flour and water is feeding the growing colony of beneficial yeast. If you weren’t discarding half, the cup of flour wouldn’t be enough to feed them on days three and four. Basically, you would end up with a lot of extra starter by the end of the process, and none of it would be mature.
Day 3-5
Repeat the day two instructions for days three, four, and five.
Day 6-7
On days six and seven, do the same but feed it every 12 hours, instead of every 24.
By day seven, there should be enough beneficial bacteria and yeast present to bake sourdough bread and other fermented sourdough goodies, like pancakes and english muffins.
You will know it’s working if it bubbles, and doubles in size.
Sourdough Starter Maintenance
Once your sourdough starter is alive and active, there will be some maintenance to keep it going for years and years.
In the refrigerator for occasional use
Storing it in the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, so one feeding per week, or every other week, is sufficient.
I usually use my starter a couple times per week. If I plan to make pancakes Saturday morning, for example, I will pull my starter out of the fridge Friday morning and add flour and water. By Saturday morning it is bubbly and ready to go.
I remove the two cups of starter needed for my pancake recipe, and put the “master starter” back in the fridge. Since it was fed the day before, it is good to go for another week, or whenever I need it next.
On the counter for daily use
Since the “little guys”, as my kids like to call the bacteria in the starter, are active at room temperature, they will have to be fed more often if keep it in this state.
If you leave your starter out on the counter, you will need to add flour and water every day. You will also have to be baking every day to use up all that starter.
Most people probably won’t use the starter quite so much, unless you own and operate a bakery. I would recommend storing it in the refrigerator between uses.
Helpful Resources
Every day I get loads of questions about sourdough starter, so I devoted a whole post called, How to Care for Sourdough Starter filled with your questions and my answers. You can use this post a reference guide.
Thank you so much for stopping by the farmhouse! I hope this is just the beginning of our sourdough journey.
Check out my other sourdough recipes and posts
- Sourdough English Muffins
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Healthy One Pot Meal- Sourdough Skillet
- Sourdough Tortillas
- Easy Sourdough Focaccia
- Dry Sourdough Starter
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Also, tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- Flour, Whole grain wheat, unbleached all purpose, and einkorn are all great choices.
- Filtered water
Instructions
- On day one, mix one cup of flour and one cup filtered water. Stir vigorously, making sure to scrape down the sides and incorporate everything. Place a clean tea towel over the bowl and set aside. Allow it to sit for 24 hours.
- On day two, discard half of the mixture and repeat the process. Add one cup flour, one cup water, stir vigorously, and cover.
- Repeat the day two instructions for days three, four, and five.
- On days six and seven, do the same but feed it every 12 hours, instead of every 24.
- By day seven, there should be enough beneficial bacteria and yeast present to bake sourdough bread and other fermented sourdough goodies, like pancakes and english muffins. You will know itโs working if it bubbles, and doubles in size.
Notes
Sourdough Starter Maintenance
- Once your sourdough starter is alive and active, there will be some maintenance to keep it going for years and years.
In The Refrigerator For Occasional Use
- Storing it in the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, so one feeding every week, or every other week, is sufficient.
- I usually use my starter a couple times per week. If I plan to make pancakes Saturday morning, for example, I pull my starter out of the fridge Friday morning and add flour and water. By Saturday morning it is bubbly and ready to go. I remove the two cups of starter needed for my pancake recipe and put the โmaster starterโ back in the fridge. Since it was fed the day before, it is good to go for another week, or whenever I need it next.
On The Counter For Daily Use
- Since the โlittle guysโ, as my kids like to call the bacteria in the starter, are active at room temperature, they will have to be fed more often if kept in this state.
- If you leave your starter out on the counter, you will need to add flour and water every day. You will also have to be baking daily to use up all that starter.
- Most people probably wonโt use the starter quite so much, unless you own and operate a bakery. I would recommend storing it in the refrigerator between uses.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
While making sour dough starter from scratch, I noticed liguid forms on top by the end of the first 24 hour period. Should I stir it while it sits on the counter? Am I doing this incorrectly?
Yes, that is normal! Stir it and pour it off before your next feeding.
It’s my first time but turned out fantastic and have kept it going for a month now. Even found great recipes for the discarded, so nothing is going to waste!
I think I know why everyone is saying that this recipe doesnโt work. Itโs because 1/2 cup of flour wonโt weigh the same as 1/2 cup of water, but 50 grams of each will. With sourdough, you need to go by weight. If you update this โeasyโ recipe as such, thereโll be fewer people calling you out. Guaranteed.
Hi!
You are using a glass bowl with a tea towel, but can I use a glass jar with a loose lid?
Yes.
Iโm just not sure what to do when I take the remainder starter out of the refrigerator. Iโm trying to find a place where it says how much water and flour to add to that to make more starter. I have not seemed to find any answers.
As long as you add more than what is in your jar already, you can feed it as much as you need.
I tried a couple of other starter recipes but they didnโt work. The ratio of flour to water produced a dry dough rather than anything that would produce bubbles. This one was perfect. Thanks.
On day 6 and 7 when you feed every 12 hrs do you discard every 6 hrs too or just once a day?
Yes, discard before each feeding!
Iโm on day 9 of feeding/discarding and still it hasnโt increased in volume. I mistakenly used a metal spoon in the early days – did that doom me? Smell is ok, thick pancake texture but very few bubbles. Should I toss it and try again?
I wouldn’t think that would be an issue. Are you keeping it in a warm spot, using unbleached flour and filtered water? You can try bumping it up to 3/4 cup flour and 1/2 cup water to see if that helps.
Hi Lisa! Iโm on day 15 and still not getting a doubling in size despite bubbles. Im feeding once a day. Should I keep going? Maybe it needs more time?
Hello, I have a questionโฆ is there anything I would need to do differently when attempting the starter in South Floridaโฆ.. Key West to be specific. I live in NY and have had no issues with the starter. While in Key West I was attempting to show a friend how to make the starter along with sourdough bread. Itโs been an epic failure and I am not certain what I need to adjust and Iโve thought of just about everything. Thank you
The heat and humidity in the Keys most likely cause your starter to rise faster and your dough to ferment much faster! You could try feeding the starter more flour than water to give it something more to feed on. That would help!
I am having a similar issue and from what I read online it said that could be caused by too wet of a starter. So I have tweaked my proportions to see if that helps โฆ will keep you posted.
Iโm getting ready to start my sourdough starter. A lot of recipes call for 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water. Is one cup of flour and 1 cup of water not too runny? Do you use the same cup to measure? I read some do and some donโt, and some go by grams.
Yes, I find that it works for me! I use the same measuring cup, to keep it simple. You can also do 1/2 cup water to 3/4 cup flour if you find it is too runny.