Don't Feed Your Starter!!! Perfect sourdough from 5-month-starved starter.

Ben Starr, the Ultimate Food Geek, proves the rest of the sourdough world wrong by baking a PERFECT loaf of sourdough bread using a starter that hasn't been fed in over 5 MONTHS!!! (Additionally, when that starter was created, it had just reached maturity and had a single feeding before going into the fridge for 5 months without ANY feedings at all, before being put directly into the dough.) Using the "Simple Sourdough for Lazy People" method, that perfect loaf required only 5 minutes to stir together on day 1, and less than 10 minutes of effort on baking day. NO autolyse, NO temperature controlled bulk fermentation, NO slapping, folding, or strength building. NEGLECT is the ingredient that produces a truly perfect loaf!

(NOTE: As an Amazon affiliate, if you buy something from my links, I may get a few cents. Thanks!!)

[mercedesaschenbrenner]

Probably nobody is gonna read this but, in the interest of geek fraternity I’d like to let all know that I have revived an 18-month-old starter. I’m pretty happy!!! 😃👏🏼

[curiousuniverse]

Okay... not gonna lie... I watched this entire video with a sharp eyeroll thinking it could not possibly produce a good loaf of bread. I followed your instructions exactly, gave it the couple of days in the fridge for good measure, and thought for sure I'd be back here saying I was right all along. I was not right all along... or even a little bit for that matter. It was the best loaf of sourdough bread I have made after nearly two years of trying to follow these YouTube bakers with the most complicated, time consuming, organic flour wasting recipes on the entire interwebs. This will definitely be my go-to recipe from here on out. I used whole wheat flour and wish I would have used a mix of WW and white bread flour for a little more lightness, but it was absolutely delish! Thank you!

[jonieward]

You have just saved my sourdough bread making life!!! I knew baking sourdough didn’t have to be this complicated since our ancient ancestors didn’t have all of this modern technology and equipment. Thank you- no longer a slave to the dough 😂

[christinacarter]

This made me cry knowing I just tossed out a 20 year old starter because people told me it was not good anymore!!😭 It looked EXACTLY like yours!

[Cookingwithsteveg]

Love your statement, “Who wants a loaf of bread with a bunch of holes in it?” “You can’t spread butter on a holes!” I’ve always thought that!

[susanna]

I can not believe it 😮 just cut my bread, baked according to your recipe and used my 24 month, YES 2 years old starter who was “starving😂” in the fridge. It stayed 50 hours at 22 degrees Celsius before baking. It is delicious. Thank you so much for your inspiring videos 🙏

[talldave]

I owe you an apology. I had put a comment up here a few days ago that I tried making this and ended up with a slaggy mess. Turned out my measurements were off and I did not have near enough flour because I was reading my scale wrong (duh). I re-did it again and it turned out fine. It looks like some good dough forming now. Just wanted to set the record straight.

[MB-dkdz]

This make SO MUCH more sense to me than the conventional methods being used. I have been grumpy and reluctant to keep trying and now I know why, the other methods didn't make logical sense. I will give this a try. Thank you!

[marlon]

OMG you got my subscription! This is God sent. No more wasting flour. I can now ignore the bread and treat it what it is - just water and flour. I'm even going remove the name from my starter and stop having a personal relationship with it. *Thank you for your knowledge* 👍👍👍👍

[chrisblanc]

I was wanting to get into sourdough baking, but every video, and especially the “easy sourdough” videos, one directed people to get a calendar to help them keep up with every kneading, made it seem impossible, unless you devote a day and a half attached to the kitchen. I work outside the home with fairly sporadic scheduling, and thought it is impossible to do sourdough outside the weekend. You bring the common sense back into baking like no one else I see on YouTube. I am convinced they are all gatekeepers posing as educational content. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[julianachandler]

“Ease and flavor” my kind of chef! Omg the sour dough starter that I’ve wasted in the past! Thanks for revolutionizing sour dough baking for me! Yay!

[samuelmadsen]

I was about to throw out my 3 year old starter after not feeding it for 3 months, but you had me going to the kitchen right away to get started on this beautiful loaf. I always LOVED the more rich and sour tasting breads with just a salty butter spread, but feel a lot of sour dough bread in my area is just all about the holes and not really the flavor. Thank you!

[xXturboXx]

You're a lifesaver my man! I'm sick of all these feeding schedule bullshit.

[reneestevens]

I would imagine the “old ways” of constantly feeding starter was due to lack of refrigeration, and a need to always be making bread bc you couldn’t just buy a loaf. So, the starter had to always be “active”. With the advent of refrigeration, and the ability to just buy bread any old time, bread making almost became a lost art.

With your starter series, and your tips on feeding it, and the simple bread skills I’m looking forward to making my first starter.

I also agree that nobody wants giant holes in their bread 🤣🤣🤣

[vittoriabakes]

I'll have to try this out. I've been using the 'scrapings' method (from Bake With Jack) for the past year and am loving it. I keep only about 15 grams of my starter in a pint mason jar in the fridge. When I want to bake bread I just take it out and feed it the amount I'm going to use and leave it to double or triple. Then take out the amount I fed it, which leaves about 15 grams of freshly-fed starter in my jar. And back to the fridge it goes. I've left it in there for a month before and it still pepped right up after feeding. I feed it from cold with ~90 degree water when I do. It's a great method. I love the methods that don't use discard.

[NickBair]

This is pretty much how I do my bread as well. I have friends who have gotten into making sourdough telling me about their feeding schedule and all this work they are doing. Meanwhile my starter sits in the fridge neglected until I need it and I do as little work as possible to make a great tasting loaf of bread.

[munao]

I became so discouraged with trying to bake a "perfect" (meaning large air holes) loaf of sourdough all I have been baking for the last 4 months is sourdough discard recipes!! I am so glad to see this! It just seems ridiculous to try and become an artisan baker at home- all I want is to bake an easy loaf of sourdough to feed my family~~ Thank you for this video!!

[justmecindy]

I usually put my starter in the freezer when I know I won’t be using it for an extended time. Post pandemic I was too busy at work and moving homes, I’m happy I brought it with me . 3 years later pulled out of freezer, fed for a few days and wala. Also I didn’t need to look at the weird hoochie stuff in the back of my fridge.

[seajayami]

Interesting- i plan to use some of these tips especially not discarding starter, and not feeding religiously. Thanks

[maryannedeering]

I personally do not think that the holy bread is more beautiful . I don’t get why the craze over it. Love your videos.