Easy Rye Sourdough Starter Recipe

It doesn’t take a long time to make your own starter! Whether you want to bake your own delicious sourdough bread, amazing blueberry pancakes, or high protein crepes having your own sourdough opens doors to a new world of recipes!

There are so many recipes available for easy sourdough starters that it can be hard to know which is best. I too have attempted and failed numerous times over the years until I was given the ultimate guidebook to baking, simply titled “Bread Bread Bread” and written by Martin Johansson.

 A big thank you to my sister-in-law for gifting me this fantastic book!

Thanks to his straightforward, fool-proof guidance, I was finally able to bake sourdough bread that was not only edible but delicious. Six years have passed and now I feel confident in using sourdough in my baking and cooking.  This book is a game-changer for anyone that has ever struggled to succeed with sourdough or who wishes to take their baking to the next level, and I highly recommend it!

 In general, what's happening in our jars of sourdough is that the microorganisms in the flour are slowly coming to life. If all goes well, lactic acid, as well as various yeasts with fancy long names such as Kazachstania exigua (Saccharomyces exiguous), Saccharomyces cerevisiae, K. exiguus and K. humilis (previously Candida milleri or Candida humilis) should start to grow.

In this post, I will share with you how to make a sourdough starter and what has worked for me. I’ll also give you some timeline examples to follow to help you to understand how to care for and use your sourdough starter for the best results. I hope that this post takes the guess work out of sourdough starters so that you can focus on the fun stuff like baking and choosing a name for your starter!

HOW TO MAKE A RYE SOURDOUGH STARTER FROM SCRATCH

There are many different types of sourdough starters, but the two most common are made with wheat or rye flour.

Since the hull is where all the life is, including the microorganisms and yeast that will activate the sourdough, a rye sourdough is often easier to get started.

Besides flour and water, many people like to add a little sugar, honey, grated apple, a few raisins, or even some whole dried dates. It can be helpful when a starter is hard to activate or needs a little lift. But it’s often best to start as simply as possible, and if it works, it’s proof that you have good flour and an environment where the sourdough thrives!

BEFORE YOU START:

• Use organic and freshly ground whole grain rye flour as it contains more yeast spores and minerals to aid the process. Avoid old or bleached flour!
• Find a location in your home that is a little warmer than room temperature, between 22 to 25 degrees, to get the sourdough started. A good place could be in a cabinet beside the fridge or above the fridge.
• Clean the container that you’ll mix the sourdough in thoroughly. A glass jar that holds about 1/4 liter is ideal as it allows you to monitor the process, but any clean container will do. It’s important to maintain good hygiene when working with sourdough, as there may be harmful bacteria that can negatively affect the sourdough and mean that you need to start the process from scratch. So it’s good to wash your hands and clean tools and jars thoroughly before starting.

Otherwise, the process of developing a sourdough rye starter really isn’t all that complicated! It takes on average only 4 days to start a sourdough from scratch. This is Martin Joahanssons sourdough recipe for success and it has never failed to produce an active starter that’s ready to bake with.

Day 1, Evening:

1 tbsp wholemeal rye flour

2 tbsp lukewarm water around 30°C/86F

Measure the flour and water into a clean glass jar and mix well with a spoon or fork. Put on the lid (but don’t screw it tight) and place the jar in a slightly warmer location.

The jar should now sit for two days, but we’ll check on it halfway through.

DAY 2:

The starter may already show signs of life. It may smell is warm and sweet. Sometimes it has separated a little bit at this stage, so you can just use a fork to mix it before putting it back.

DAY 3, Evening:

1 tbsp wholemeal rye flour

Mix in the new flour and stir thoroughly. It will now become a little thicker in consistency. Let it stand overnight, or about 8-10 hours.

DAY 4, Morning:

Your starter should be bubbly and smell slightly sour. It may not have increased in size much overnight, but it’s should be a little bubbly on the surface and if you look at it from the side of the jar, you will probably see air bubbles inside the sourdough. It’s time to feed the sourdough for hopefully the last time.

2 tablespoons of wholemeal rye flour

2 tablespoons of lukewarm water

Mix in the water and flour and let it stand until the evening.

If you see plenty of bubbles appear by the evening then CONGRATULATIONS! You officially have an active sourdough starter!
Now what? you can now start to. bake with your sourdough starter, beginning with feeding it according to the recipe you are using. REMEMBER: always save a little starter for future baking!

If you are unlucky and there are very few signs of life I recommend that you try a warmer spot. You can also use some of the tips below for refreshing and reviving a. starter. Sometimes they just need a little more time and TLC to come to life.

HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR SOURDOUGH STARTER

DID YOU KNOW:

That a fed and active starter will smell sweet and tangy. An unfed starter will smell sour but should not smell bad!

The only thing you have to watch out for is mold. If you notice mold it’s practically impossible to get rid of and you should start over. If anything doesn’t look ‘right’ or if an unpleasant odor arises, you should discard the sourdough and start over.

TOP TIP: Its easy to be fooled by a sourdough that has been at its peak and has collapsed again! After 10 hours it may be bubbly, but a few hours later it may have collapsed again. So you may miss the bubbles. But if you stir it a little and smell it, you can usually guess if it's developing.

Keep calm and carry on: If your starter doesn’t appear to be active or if you don’t see any bubbles at all don’t panic! Simply Discard half of the starter and feed it again. Consider adding a little grated. apple, some organic raisins, or a dried date to the sourdough. A spoonful of honey can also do the trick. Continue to discard and feed for a few days and you should start to see signs of life! 

Once you have made your own sourdough starter you can try some exciting and delicious sourdough recipes or simply dry your starter so you have it on hand for when you need it.

HOW TO STORE A SOURDOUGH STARTER

IMPORTANT TIP: It's so easy to use the entire starter for a recipe, forgetting to save a few tablespoons for future baking! Try to get into the habit of putting  a little aside! having a dried sourdough starter. will also give you peace of mind!

Store your fed or inactive starter in the refrigerator for the best results. The cold will slow the fermentation processes down, meaning that there will be less work required to get it in shape when you do want to use it.
An active starter will stay active and ready to bake for about 4 days if kept cold. Depending on the level of activity when it was placed in the fridge and some other factors like the type of flour used to feed it and how much it was fed.

You can save a few tablespoons of starter in a jar in the fridge. You can even save a small ball of dough from a sourdough loaf. Both work equally well, though most recipes nowadays rely on a liquid starter, so when you’re starting out, it’s easiest to use the first method.

Something that’s very useful if you don’t bake often or wish to travel is to save some dried sourdough. You can spread a thin layer of sourdough on some parchment paper and place it in a warm place out of direct sunlight. When it has fully dried, it should easily crumble and can be transferred to a small glass jar or zip-lock bag. You can also scrape some of the dried sourdough from the sides of your baking bowl. Having a dried sourdough starter is like having an insurance policy for the unlikely case that you manage to kill your starter, or if mold should form. I have on occasion forgotten to save a. little starter when baking, having a dried starter makes the process of starting again a lot simpler. Simply refresh your dried starter using the method above!

HOW TO FEED A SOURDOUGH STARTER

Feeding a sourdough starter refers to preparing the starter for baking or another sourdough recipe.
-Follow the recipe specifically!
-Most modern recipes involve weighing the flour and water used in order to control the sourdough hydration. (This simply refers to the amount of water or liquid in a recipe and is calculated as a percentage. For example, feeding a starter with 100g flour and 100g water will give you 100% hydration. This becomes more important later on as you start baking more sophisticated loaves and other sourdough recipes. 

– You can feed your sourdough starter with pretty much. any unbleached flour. You can either choose to maintain your rye starter with rye flour or transition to another flour completely. This process will just require a few feedings with the new flour.

You may find that you become accustomed to knowing roughly the measurement required and no longer measure when you feed your starter.

For example, nowadays I mostly bake the same loaves of bread as my family loves it and it’s less complicated when you are baking and parenting at the same time. I no longer measure when I feed as it’s practical and one less step in the process.

Sometimes I have a little too much starter leftover because of this, but it’s not a lot!

Leftover starter is called discard.

When we feed a sourdough starter daily it’s important to reduce the amount of starter to be fed as we would otherwise end up needing to feed a large amount of starter just to keep it alive. This would be both uneconomical and wasteful.

Instead of using an inactive starter, you can save it in a special jar in the fridge and use it for simple recipes like sourdough pancakes. Depending. on what recipe you are using or how many loaves you are making you should only need. to feed only a few tablespoons of starter.

You can also refresh your starter before feeding it using the method described below.

HOW TO REFRESH A SOURDOUGH STARTER

Sourdough starter is hard to kill. It is however not fun to bake with a tired or lagging starter. Refreshing a sourdough starter is important when it comes to baking bread. A starter that is lagging will not behave in the same way as an active, thriving starter. Meaning, any recipe that you make may not follow an accurate timeline if the starter works at all!

Refresh your sourdough starter by adding a small amount of the starter a little flour and water. 

TO REFRESH A STARTER USE:

-2tbsp sourdough starter

-2 tbsp flour

-2tbsp water

A particularly ‘tired’ sourdough( for example a sourdough that has been sitting in the fridge for a few weeks ) may need a little extra help to get going. Adding half a teaspoon of honey, a little amount of an unpeeled and grated organic apple OR a few raisins will help to add some new yeasts to the starter and support their growth.
You may need to repeat this process a few times depending on how long the starter has been neglected.

HOW TO USE YOUR SOURDOUGH STARTER

When working with sourdough I recommend that you always work backward from the day that you would like to bake. Depending on how often you use your starter it may take a few days to prepare it for baking.
Some recipes don’t require an active starter, others need an active and well-fed starter for success.
here are some possible timelines that may help to give you an idea of how to prepare your starter for use.

I hope this mini guide helps you get started with a sourdough starter and that you fall in love with the process of baking and cooking with sourdough, just as I did! I owe much of my baking knowledge to Martin Johansson and hope that you too will find his books useful!