Day 1 50g wholemeal flour 50g water Place the flour and water into a clean bowl and stir together until fully combined. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
Day 2 75g wholemeal flour 75g water To the sourdough starter add 75g wholemeal flour and 75g water. Stir together until fully combined. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
Day 3 100g water 100g wholemeal flour Discard 100g of sourdough starter. To the remainder, add the flour mix in the water. Cover and leave overnight
Day 4 100g water 100g wholemeal flour Discard 150g of sourdough starter and to the remainder add the flour and water. Cover and leave overnight. The starter should start to smell pleastantly sour with small bubbles appearing on the surface.
Day 5 150g water 150g strong white flour Discard 200g of sourdough starter. Add the flour to the remainder of the starter, and mix in the water. Cover and leave overnight. The starter should appear active and full of bubbles.
Day 6 200g water 2000g strong white flour The starter should be quite active now and be full of little bubbles and smell slightly sour. Discard 250g of sourdough starter. Add the flour and mix in the water. Cover and leave overnight
Day 7 The starter should now be very active and full of bubbles and is now ready to use.
Maintaining your starter To refresh or feed the sourdough starter, whatever weight of starter you have, add the same weight of flour and the same weight of water. Stir everything together. If the sourdough starter is stored at room temperature it will require to be refreshed/fed every day. For the home baker who you might only bake once a week having to feed/refresh your sourdough starter every day can become quite expensive. Therefore, your starter can be stored in the fridge for up to 10 days and taken out when needed.
If using the starter from the fridge, take it out of the fridge the day before you plan to bake. This will allow the starter to come to room temperature. The night before you plan to bake, refresh/feed your starter as per the instructions above. Leave the sourdough starter at room temperature overnight. The next morning the starter should be active and full of bubbles and ready to bake with.
Take what you need to make your dough. Feed the remaining starter and return it to the fridge.
