Make Your Own
Sourdough Making Instructions
It is super easy to make sourdough bread using our sourdough starter!
All you need is a pack of our starter, some flour and water.
Bacillus Bulgaricus sourdough starter is an universal starter, which means you can use it with any type of flour — all-purpose, bread, white, whole wheat and rye, it always works!
Sourdough bread making consists of two parts — activating your sourdough starter (the one you got in the pack) to create an active sourdough starter (a levain), and then using this levain to make your bread. The two steps are explained below.
Learn more about sourdough bread and sourdough starter here.
A no-fuss sourdough starter that is easy to activate, ferments quickly and is no trouble to maintain.
Part I. Activating the starter
In this part we will be activating the freeze-dried sourdough starter that you have in the pack you received from us.
For this, you will need a container that you will use to activate and then keep your active starter (levain). Some people like to close their containers with a lid, I like to cover mine with a cloth but basically anything that you can cover so you can keep polluting particles out would work. 1 quart/liter or 1/2 quart/liter mason jars always work well for this. Make sure it is clean or simply wash it well and let it dry and come to room temperature if it is hot.
- Empty the Bacillus Bulgaricus Sourdough Starter sachet contents in the container.
- Add 75 g of flour and mix in with the starter powder. That’s about 4 tablespoons of flour.
Note: Any type of flour is ok, however all-purpose, bread, white, whole wheat and rye, i.e. high gluten flours, work best. Some people prefer to stick to using the same type of flour to feed their starter as the one they would use for baking later on (i.e. white flour for baking white or san francisco sourdough bread, rye flour for rye sourdough bread, etc). - Add 75 ml of water. That’s about 6 tablespoons of water.
- Stir well until you get a homogeneous mix with no lumps (some small lumps are ok).
Note: The sourdough starter mix should have the consistency of a thick pancake batter or like that of oatmeal breakfast. No worries tho if it’s thicker or runnier, the starter is very forgiving and won’t mind it either way. - Cover the jar (with lid or cloth).
Note: Don’t give it an airtight close because feeding the starter mix produces CO2 so there might be pressure build up in the container if closed tightly (so if you do, watch out when you open it). - Put the jar in a dark place (e.g. in your cupboard) at room temperature.
- The next day (or in the next 12-24 hours) repeat the feeding process — feed the Sourdough starter mix again with 75 g of flour and 75 ml of water and mix well.
- Repeat this same feeding process every 12-24 hours until your stater mix is ready.
Note: Your stater mix is ready to use when it becomes bubbly and doubles in size in about 2-3 hrs after feeding.
At this point, your sourdough starter is activated and now you have a levain that is ready to use.
Read how to keep your active starter alive and happy for as long as you’d like.
Part II. Using the active starter to make sourdough bread
Now that you have your live and active sourdough starter mix (the levain) you can use it to make sourdough bread or virtually for any baking that calls for using yeast or levain.
The best time to use your active sourdough starter (the levain) is when it becomes bubbly and doubles in size. This should happen in about a couple of hours after feeding.
With our starter this usually happens very quickly, about 1-2 hours after its very first feeding so you can use it straight away.
It’s always a good idea to feed your starter for at least a couple of days so it ferments well and develops it’s raising power, flavors, and structure all of which consecutively contribute to making a superior sourdough bread. However, you don’t have to wait if you don’t want to or you are in a hurry. As soon as your starter is bubbly and has a pleasant tangy sweet smell, like that of fermented fruits, it’s good to go.
There are many recipes out there for making sourdough bread so you can use any one of them or you can use this easy to follow recipe below.
Sourdough Bread Recipe and Easy Step by Step Instructions with Pictures and Videos
Bonus: Read what makes our Sourdough Starter different (and better) than the rest
A no-fuss sourdough starter that is easy to activate, ferments quickly and is no trouble to maintain.