How to make Sourdough bread and starter
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Sourdough bread and starter can be made a few different ways — this covers two decades of trial, error, and the one lesson that matters most: don’t give up on your starter.
There are many ways to make your own sourdough bread and starter. Sourdough has been a project here for two decades, with mixed success along the way. The main key to success is simply not giving up — a perfectly good starter has been discarded more than once out of laziness or inconsistent feeding. Homemade yeast culture is tricky and sensitive, which is exactly why many beginners give up along the way.
Table of Contents
What Is a Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is really about producing your own yeast to make bread dough rise, rather than using a ready-made commercial yeast. There are at least three ways to start one: using fruit to kick-start fermentation, letting dough sour naturally using wild yeast from the air, or getting a ready-made starter culture from a health food store.
The Traditional Feeding Regime (First Week)
This is similar to how idli batter is made, though sourdough takes longer and needs regular feeding — treat it like a plant or a pet that needs nurturing until it matures. Since the culture is sensitive to temperature and season, the first week needs closer attention.
Day 1: Mix 100g stone-ground rye flour with 150g lukewarm water in a glass jar. Don’t close the lid too tightly — the goal is to capture wild yeast from the air. Weigh the jar beforehand so measurements don’t get mixed up.
Day 2: Keep 70g of the mature starter (removing the rest), then add 50g stone-ground rye flour, 50g unbleached all-purpose flour, and 115g lukewarm water.
Day 3: Repeat the same process as Day 2.
Day 4: Keep 70g of the mature starter, then add 50g stone-ground rye flour, 50g unbleached all-purpose flour, and 100g lukewarm water.
Day 5: Repeat the same process as Day 4.
Day 6: To 50g of the mature starter, add 50g stone-ground rye flour, 50g unbleached all-purpose flour, and 100g lukewarm water.
Final day: This is the last feeding before the starter is ready, and also becomes the ongoing maintenance feeding from here — once active, feed every 12 to 24 hours depending on the season, or simply once every 24 hours for the easiest routine. Use 25g mature starter, 50g stone-ground rye flour, 50g unbleached all-purpose flour, and 100g room temperature water.
How to Make Sourdough Bread from Spelt Grains?
Ingredients List
- 100g sourdough starter
- 500g flour (freshly milled spelt)
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 10g salt, 1 tbsp sugar
- Water, as needed
Cooking Instructions
Mix and Knead:
Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a pliable dough.
First Rise:
Let the dough rise for 5 hours, or until doubled in size.
Shape:
On a lightly floured surface, knock the air out of the dough with the heels of your hands and flatten it into a rough rectangle. Fold the two shorter ends in toward the center to form a squarish shape, then roll it tightly and place it into a greased loaf pan.
Second Rise:
Cover the loaves with a cloth and let rise for 4 to 8 hours, or until doubled in size.
Bake:
Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C (428°F) for 30 minutes, then lower the heat to 200°C (392°F) and bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes.
Cool:
Cool completely before slicing.
Getting a Ready-Made Starter Culture
Another option is to get a ready-made starter culture from a health food store, or from a friend who already has one going. A rye starter is a good starting point since rye is dense and low in gluten. From there, it’s possible to convert part of a rye culture into a spelt starter — after baking a loaf using half the packet, the remaining portion can be fed with spelt flour going forward. A wheat culture can be started the same way too, running two separate cultures side by side and feeding both; changing the flour from the original culture isn’t particularly sensitive, and it works well.
Tips for Sourdough Starter and Bread
Start simple: if you’re new to baking and sourdough, use all-purpose flour to start your culture, then switch to whole grains once you’ve got the hang of it.
Watch the temperature: sourdough starters work best between 22–24°C room temperature — a warm, heated room in winter means the bread rises noticeably faster than a cold one without central heating.
Plan ahead: sourdough dough needs a longer rise than yeast bread, so plan at least 24 hours in advance.
Use a loaf pan: until you’re confident shaping and baking, a loaf pan keeps the bread from falling apart and helps it rise and bake evenly — especially useful with low-gluten flours like spelt and rye, which can be tricky to handle for the second prove.
How to Store Your Sourdough Starter
If baking sourdough regularly, store the starter at room temperature and feed it at least once every 2 days — after taking out what’s needed for a loaf, refresh the rest with flour and room-temperature water.
If baking less often, store the culture in the fridge instead. This slows yeast activity without killing it. After a few days, a brown liquid layer may form on top — that’s completely normal. Just discard the liquid along with about a third of the starter before feeding it again, and it’ll be ready to use once fed.
What Should the Starter Look Like, and When to Feed It?
A sourdough starter should have the consistency of a thick batter. The best time to feed it is right when it’s bubbling and just starting to drop again — a sign the yeast has used up the sugars in the flour and is ready for more. Feed it before storing in the fridge.
A small confession: feeding is handled in a fairly laid-back way here — only really feeding the starter when actually baking sourdough bread. Sometimes it goes 2 months without a feed, whether away on holiday or just taking a break from sourdough. Despite that inconsistency, the same starter has stayed good and working for well over a year.
Starting a Culture with Fruit
A third way to start a sourdough culture is using fruit to kick-start fermentation — a method popularized by baker Paul Hollywood, though not one that’s been tried firsthand here. It’s a well-regarded approach for beginners if you’d rather explore an alternative to the flour-and-water method.
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Recipe Card
Sourdough Bread from Stone Ground Spelt Grains
- Total Time: 1130
- Yield: 8 servings (2 loaves) 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A reliable sourdough loaf made with freshly milled spelt flour and a homemade starter — the bread that comes after weeks of nurturing the starter itself.
Ingredients
Makes 2 loaves.
- 100g sourdough starter culture
- 500g flour (freshly milled spelt flour works well)
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 10g salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Water, as needed
Instructions
-
Mix and Knead:
Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a pliable dough.
-
First Rise:
Let the dough rise for 5 hours, or until doubled in size.
-
Shape:
On a lightly floured surface, knock the air out of the dough with the heels of your hands and flatten it into a rough rectangle. Fold the two shorter ends in toward the center to form a squarish shape, then roll it tightly and place it into a greased loaf pan.
-
Second Rise:
Cover the loaves with a cloth and let rise for 4 to 8 hours, or until doubled in size.
-
Bake:
Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C (428°F) for 30 minutes, then lower the heat to 200°C (392°F) and bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes.
-
Cool:
Cool completely before slicing.
Notes
If using spelt or another low-gluten flour, it’s best to use a loaf pan after shaping the dough — this also helps beginners get an even shape and a good rise.
- Prep Time: 1080
- Cook Time: 50
- Category: Breads
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 8
- Calories: 185
- Fat: 1
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