The Fastest and Easiest Sourdough Starter Recipe

This new approach is the simplest, fastest and best way to make a super active sourdough starter. From start to finish it only takes 3-4 days until you are ready to bake your first sourdough bread, traditional methods take 7+ days typically.

Recipe for the bread shown:
- 350g bread flour
- 50g whole wheat flour
- 300 water (75%)
- 20-40g of liquid sourdough starter
- 8g salt (2%)

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:58 Making your starter
5:58 When is your starter ready?
13:06 Making the first bread
16:00 Sourdough starter maintenance

#sourdough #sourdoughstarter

[brucejohnson]

I've been watching the bread code for a couple weeks, and decided to try baking my first loaf of sourdough ever. I made a traditional starter, which took a week, and just baked my first loaf this morning. It was the best tasting bread I've ever eaten!

[wesfree]

This is a terrific technique that I've been using for a long while... as a frugal German! Your use of the PH measurement is a superior empirical tool that I must now add to my array - it saves time! I notice that you have a sourdough "surplus" jar. I keep one in the refrigerator too. I enjoy using it for etc. -- anything that I bake. My pancake recipe? 100g of (surplus) starter; 50g of "complete" pancake mix; 50g of water; 1 egg; any of the following: raw cacao nibs (3g), dried fruits (10g) etc.; cinnamon. Makes one super-large pancake for me! Cheers.

[E-hd]

One thing about having it liquid: I think an important thing you should mention is that it gets much more active, also in the sense of feeding intervals. I would not make my sourdough this way since I may not bake bread often enough.
The other way round the trick to put your starter in hibernation: have a much bigger flour part than water part causes the starter to go slower and you can have it in the fridge for a much longer time without worrying about starvation to death.

[natashas]

For anyone who makes kefir, it has a huge amount of wild yeasts as well. I created an excellent starter by using kefir, water, and flour....

[nroestroff]

I made this starter and it works wonderfully, I always struggle with the traditional method. I'm not sure why, but the starters would always develop a rotten smell before maturing. I got so frustrated with the results so, I made one by including a very small pinch of bakers yeast and a few drops of lemon juice. that worked but I don't feel it is right, so I'm very glad for this recipe/method. The time to experiment isn't always there with my work hours.
Thanks a lot.

[susanmessenger]

I agree with Mr Bread Code....there is a lot of sourdough information on YouTube. I like the way this guy backs this up with some Science and testing. Vielen Dank aus Australian.

[ZefixYT]

Hi Hendrik,
i use both methods. My Wheat-Sourdough is 50:50, while my rye sourdough is liquidy. Both work great.
The liquidy has another benefit as far as i know: The acidic fluid (and the fusel alkohol) on top of the jar works like a protective shield against mold. Though if you leave him for a few weeks in that state, the liquid gets some really disgusting dark brown colour and the smell goes torwards acetone (like nail polish remover). Still healthy, nothing to worry about - but i guess it will make some people not use it anymore. But it can survive in the fridge for weeks if not months. Just refresh/feed it once before baking (maybe twice, to be sure) and you're good to go.

[DennisMcCoy-xb]

This is awesome. This is the first time I used your liquid starter and I took your instructions and put the culture in a 82 F proofer. 19 hours later and I have a fully active starter that easily doubled in volume, right out of the box. Earlier I tried several sourdough recipes with sad results. The scent is slightly sour. Thanks again,

[burnsmicro]

Amazing! Earlier you explode the sourdough starter 1:1 feeding myth. Here you explode the multiple feeding myth. Pioneers like you, Joy Ride Coffee (banetton not needed, etc.), Ben Starr (Perfect sourdough from 5-month-starved starter, etc.) and others, are demystifying sourdough baking, making it way more accessible while raising the standards of home baked sourdough.

[madisbacks]

Hi 'The Bread Code'. Something I discovered: The first two sourdough starters I tried to cultivate failed miserably. I used organic whole wheat flour (REWE Bio), but after a couple of days there was still no signs of activity, but mold started to spread, so I disposed of the starter. I assume there were just too many mold spores in the organic flour, which kinda makes sense. I switched to non-organic flours and that starter worked beautifully and still lives to the day. Thank you very much for the videos. You're awesome!

[ptatoesaurus]

You have become my favourite bread channel. I use your tips all the time and my bread game has been on point lately!

[TalsBadKidney]

you've become a real Master Baker!

[belnerearg]

The note about the bakery and the brewery blew my mind! I'm starting a small business with this two things!! THANK YOU!

[alfontana]

It took me nearly 3 weeks before I got my starter to start working for baking when I first began sourdoughing. It would have been much quicker with your method!!!! Thanks, nice video.

[Celticbavarian]

I'd love you to talk about your "sourdough surplus". Also, I've watched a ton of videos in starting to learn sourdough in the last couple months, but yours were the ones that really brought it all together for me. I totally understand the process now and feel like I can relax and enjoy it. Thank you so much!

[BBTheCancelled]

The thing I love about bread making is the feeling we're mad scientists conducting our own experiments. Brewers yeast being in the air makes so much sense! There's a huge Labatt's brewery in my city and the air fills up with the smell of it on "hops day." I wonder if there's any benefit to people keeping their starter outside for a few hours who live nearby. Unfortunately I think I live too far away now. Thank you!

[chazyvr]

There's something beautiful about using a starter at its peak and seeing it float in water. I would not want to trade that experience for this different approach.

[helenjohnson]

(Beginning to wish I could live in Germany for the many quality tools available in Europe.) Lovely instructions. I’m trying to work up the courage to start the starter. But there isn’t much to lose if it fails! This is a SUPER HELPFUL video! Thanks! Also, your wonderful subscribers post many intelligent & thoughtful comments. This is a great place to learn.

[DANVIIL]

My starter lives in my fridge until 2 days before I want to make my dough. Sometimes it stays in the fridge for a month if I'm out of town and it gets no feedings. I've left a starter unfed for up to 5-6 months. When I get ready to make the dough I will create a levain 3 times in 2 days. Usually, I will feed 3 to 1. I've never had an issue with the starter doubling in 5-6 hours and get an excellent rise in my bread. I don't check my ph at all and as long as I autolyze for 2-3 hours everything just works out. Our ancestors did pretty much the same thing for thousands of years.

[ThatGuy-djqr]

Okay, this is a cool hack. Thanks for the great tip.
I had some ongoing starter issues several months back. The bacteria seemed to get an edge on my yeast and I kept getting watery starter that smelled way too vingary. This also resulted in unspectacular breads and eventually failed bread. I am not sure what the problem was, but I would say it is much easier to simply create a brand new starter than to muck around for over a week with the old starter trying to revive it. This high hydration method appears to shave days off the schedule.