How To Make Sourdough Bread Starter

The smell of fresh baked bread can incite memories of childhood, but to bake that wonderful sourdough bread like Mom used too, you must first have sourdough bread starter.

Sourdough bread starter is an easy to make and store concoction so you can plenty on hand and to share with your family and friends.

To make sourdough bread starter, you will need:

3 - 1/4 ounce packets of dry yeast

1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar

2 & 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 &1/2 cups warm water

In a gallon size plastic container, dissolve the yeast in warm water and add sugar. In about 10 minutes, the yeast will begin to bubble, when this occurs, stir in flour to form a smooth paste.

Cover the plastic container loosely with a kitchen towel and place in a warm location in your kitchen for 2-3 days. Stir the mixture once a day during this 2-3 day period. It's normal for the mixture to bubble and smell soured during this time.

On the third day, you can store the starter mixture in the refrigerator or in a cool, dark location in your kitchen.

Begin 'feeding' the sourdough bread starter mix on the fourth day. Feed it 1 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup water. If you store the sourdough bread starter mix out of the refrigerator, you will need to feed it every day, if it's stored in the refrigerator, feed the mix every few days. If you fail to feed your sourdough starter it will become over acidic and die.

In a few weeks, your sourdough bread starter will have reached it's full strength and you only need to feed it once per week, regardless of where you store it at.

If you don't use your sourdough bread starter mix regularly, it will outgrow it's container. It takes 1 cup of sourdough starter mix to bake a loaf of sourdough bread, the extra sourdough starter mix is a nice, inexpensive gift to share with family and friends along with the recipe for sourdough bread.