Understanding Sourdough Starter | feeding, ratios, leaven, when to use, what to feed

Today I want to walk you through all of the nuances of your sourdough starter to help you better understand the different approaches. We will be covering how to feed your starter, what flour to use when feeding, starter ratios, using your starter in a bread dough, what a leaven is and how to create one, how to change the timing of your feedings and how to speed up or slow down your starter cycle.
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Here are a few timestamps that might be useful:
0:00 Introduction
1:54 Feeding Your Starter & Starter Feeding Ratios
4:13 Increasing or Decreasing Your Starter Amount
5:34 Starter Cycle after Feeding
6:41 Starter Peak Point
8:09 Factors for Cycle Speed
8:42 When to Feed Your Starter
11:35 Changing the Ratios or Feedings of Your Starter
12:22 When is Your Starter Ready to Go into Your Bread Dough
12:22 How Your Bread Changes Depending on Where in the Cycle You Use Your Starter
15:43 Creating a Leaven or "Offshoot" Starter
17:20 Adjusting the Timing of Your Feedings
19:01 What to Do After Using Your Starter in a Dough
20:00 What Kind of Flour to Feed Your Starter
22:10 Changing the Type of Flour You Use to Feed
23:30 Storing & Feeding from the Refrigerator
25:31 Sourdough Discard
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Today's video is an addition to our Sourdough for Beginner's Series. I am walking you through all of the nuances of sourdough starter and explaining the different approaches. Hopefully this will help you navigate the sourdough world a bit better and help you to understand what approach might work best for you.

#sourdough #sourdoughbread #howtomakesourdough

[BakerBettie]

Here are a few timestamps that might be useful:
1:54 Feeding Your Starter & Starter Feeding Ratios
4:13 Increasing or Decreasing Your Starter Amount
5:34 Starter Cycle after Feeding
6:41 Starter Peak Point
8:09 Factors for Cycle Speed
8:42 When to Feed Your Starter
11:35 Changing the Ratios or Feedings of Your Starter
12:22 When is Your Starter Ready to Go into Your Bread Dough
12:22 How Your Bread Changes Depending on Where in the Cycle You Use Your Starter
15:43 Creating a Leaven or "Offshoot" Starter
17:20 Adjusting the Timing of Your Feedings
19:01 What to Do After Using Your Starter in a Dough
20:00 What Kind of Flour to Feed Your Starter
22:10 Changing the Type of Flour You Use to Feed
23:30 Storing & Feeding from the Refrigerator
25:31 Sourdough Discard

[lyra_jasmine]

Not sourdough related but can we just take a minute to appreciate how well this woman dresses??? Beautiful outfit, hair styled, makeup on point. So chic. 👠💋💄

[jenjen_fisher]

FINALLY, a video that explains sourdough starter in a way that is easy to understand. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[margarethelmuth]

I just got my starter that I had kept un-fed in my fridge for about 4-5 months, I didn’t know if it was still alive but decided to try feeding, so I fed it every 24 hours in room temp at a 1-1-1 ratio and within 3-4 days it was rising to more than double it’s original height and peaking at around 3.5 hours after feeding.
Day # 1 it didn’t rise at all
Day # 2 it rose a little but just barely
Day # 3 it rose about double, peaking at the 12 hour point
And then day # 4 it rose over double in 3.5 hours.

The reason you want to feed every 24 hours in the first days when reviving a VERY DORMANT/un-fed hungry starter is because the yeast bacteria need time to develop and build up again, if you feed too often you discard a lot of yeast bacteria that would have been beneficial to reviving your starter, I learned from experience.
I hope this helps someone who wants to know if their starter is salvageable and how to build it very quickly from that state, 😊

[Jellybellycat]

Bettie, this was tremendous! As an autistic ADHD’er who is trying desperately to learn to use my sourdough starter, I have a stack of books and have watched countless videos trying to gain the courage to leap from feeding starter to actually baking with it. Providing the rationale behind the stages of growth as well as so many other details really helped my mind piece together and what was missing. Now if I can find a video that covers the step of how to get the bread dough started from the starter, I will be ready!

[ruthie]

I've watched so many videos..and finally had that "Ah ah" moment. Thanks for the clear explanation!

[michaelmcdaniel]

I can not tell you how much this video has helped me understand the process. Thank you!!

[francescascreations]

Bettie, I am new to sourdough baking and I have watched soooo many videos to educate myself and there were so many questions I couldn't seem to get answers to until I stumbled across this video. You answered all of them in this video. Thank you! I subscribed and gave a thumbs up! Great

[galOahu]

Thank you for this video. This is the best explanation of sourdough starter on the internet!!! I am no longer intimidated by starting this journey with baking for my family at home❤

[jpereira]

You have a gift, please never stop teaching. I have concentration issues but the way you explain I manage to keep focus all the time. I have been watching videos on YouTube for two weeks now, but only felt confident to iniciate my starter after finding you. I'm even excited about it. Thank you so much!!

[rcbustanut]

Out of all the sourdough starter videos I have seen, this is hands down the best!! You have answered the questions I had & brought to light answers to future questions that I didn't know I was going to ask lol. Thanks you sooo much for this video & explaining everything so clearly & easy to understand.
Thanks 😎👍

[crterwil]

Can’t thank you enough for this amazing lesson. I have spent hours and hours and lots of resources trying to figure this out as I want to be successful. You presented all the info and explained it in a manner that was easy to understand and follow along. I have learned so much and am re encouraged to keep trying. I was ready to give up. You provide inspiration. 😊Blessings to you.

[tehliah]

I’m so glad I found your video; I’ve been failing time after time again with my starter. Now that I know what I’m looking for in terms of it rising and peaking etc, I realize my starters need a 12hr feed instead of 24hrs.

[daniellegodfrey]

You know Bettie, I am really super impressed with how inormative, easy to understand and neatly organized and categorized your sourdough lessons are. Its a lot to understand at the beginning, but the more I read and the more I watch your videos, the more at ease I am starting to be. Thank you so P.S. I am getting ready to start my bread tomorrow!

[karlasaenz]

I followed a whole group trying to learn sourdough, but it was difficult. I came across you on here. I followed your recipe, and my first and second loaves were amazing!!! They didn’t last in my house more than a few hours. Beautiful loaves, and all because of you!

[sleepygoblin]

I have trouble understanding people sometimes due to hearing loss & auditory processing issues. But I never have trouble understanding you! Your speaking voice is very clear & I appreciate that because I know it takes some work. ❤

[ConorSpady]

It's not too often that you want to learn about something and find such a perfectly understandable and well done video about it as this. thanks!

[peaceandquiet]

I could wrap my head around this. Thank you.
I fed my young starter tonight. Wish me luck! Maybe I'll still have it 30 years from now.on my tmbstone it can read "don't forget to feed my starter please!" 🤣🤣

[Quietcloud]

I am so grateful to you for actually taking on the role of serious instructor! Too many sourdough videos just leave out information.

[louisef.decoteau]

You are the best! I've spent hours on YouTube studying sourdough and you rule! Keep up the good work!