Sourdough 101

Welcome to the world of sourdough! Keeping a sourdough starter is a simple, rewarding way to explore bread making at home. The fresh, rustic loaves you’ll bake will be well worth the effort! Below you’ll find instructions for rehydrating and maintaining your dehydrated Andrea’s Bakehouse sourdough starter.

Supplies You Will Need:
● All-purpose flour
● Room-temp water, filtered
● Clean 16-oz glass jar with a lid
● Food scale
● Spoon or flexible spatula

How to Rehydrate Your Starter
1. Put your dehydrated sourdough starter flakes in a clean jar and crush the flakes into smaller pieces.
2. Using a food scale, add 15 grams of room-temp water and stir. The flakes will slowly rehydrate over the next few hours, so cover loosely and let sit.
3. After 4 hours, stir your starter to incorporate any lumps that didn’t originally dissolve. Then add 30 more grams of room-temp water and 30 grams of all-purpose flour. Stir until incorporated (there will be some lumps—don't worry about these).
4. Cover loosely and let sit on the counter for 24 hours.
5. After 24 hours, throw away about 75% of the starter (you can eyeball this) and then stir in 50 grams of room-temp water and 50 grams of all-purpose flour.
6. Cover loosely and let sit for 24 hours.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 again for two more days: discard 75% of the starter and then add 50 grams of room-temp water and 50 grams of all-purpose flour. Mix and let sit loosely covered for 24 hours.
8. Your starter should be bubbling by the end of the third day. If not, continue repeating steps 5 and 6 until your starter rises and falls. The timeline could vary based on the type of flour you use and the temperature of the environment.
9. Once your starter is active and bubbly, move onto the next section: Using and Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter.

Using and Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter

If you will be baking often, keep your starter at room temperature and feed it every 24 hours. You can keep your starter in the fridge if you’d like and forgo the daily feedings. If you choose to keep your starter in the fridge, as most bakers do, simple take it out of the fridge and feed it the evening before you plan to prepare your loaf.

If you are baking a single loaf of bread, the recipe will likely call for 100g sourdough starter (see below for a classic sourdough recipe). The easiest and most fool-proof way to make sure you always have starter ready to use is to keep 10-15g of starter in a jar in the fridge at all times. The evening before you plan to prepare your loaf, take the jar out of the fridge, feed it with 50g flour and 50g water, and leave it on the counter overnight. Approx 12 hrs later, the starter will have doubled in size and will be ready to use. When your starter is at the top of its rise, take out 100g of starter and mix with water, fresh four, and salt according to your recipe. The remaining bit of starter in the jar goes back into the fridge where it can sit until the next time you bake.

Then the next time you want to bake, simply take the jar out and repeat the above process. Keeping 10-15 grams in a jar in the fridge is the easiest way to maintain a sourdough starter. This is called the “scrapings method” because you are simply keeping the bare scrapings of the jar in order to feed it again the next time you bake. You don’t need a big container of sourdough starter or sourdough discard in order to be a baker! All you need is a the scrapings at the bottom of your jar.

Starter can last in the fridge for a long time, but you might start seeing a dark liquid form on the surface after some time. This is called hooch and it's just a sign that your starter is hungry. Do not throw away your starter if you see hooch. Simply feed it 2-3 days in a row to re-nourish the yeast. The only time you should throw your starter away is if you see mold. Mold will look like pink/orange streaks or like dark spots. Once you see those signs, your starter has gone bad and you must start over.

Country Loaf Recipe

450g bread flour
300g room-temp water
100g sourdough starter
15g salt

Autolyse: Combine 450g bread flour, 300g room-temp water, 100g active starter, and 15g salt in a bowl until no dry patches remain. Cover this mixture and let it sit for 30 minutes.

Bulk Fermentation: Perform a set of stretch and folds. For this, imagine your dough ball is divided into four quadrants. Grab one “corner” of the dough, gently pull it straight up until it can’t stretch anymore, and lay it firmly across the dough. Repeat this with each quadrant until the dough has come full circle and is tightened. Do three sets of stretch and folds total, with 30 min breaks in between each set (1.5 hrs total). Be gentle with your dough so as not to pop any air bubbles. After the third and final set of stretch and folds, cover the dough and let it ferment at room temperature for 3.5 hours.

Shape: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. With the help of the bench scraper, shape into a tight mound. Let the dough mound rest for 30 minutes. Then flip the dough over and shape into a taut ball as follows:

1. Fold the bottom ⅓ of the dough into the center
2. Fold the right ⅓ of the dough towards the center
3. Fold the left ⅓ of the dough towards the center
4. Fold the top ⅓ of the dough down to cover everything.
5. Pinch together the seams to stitch the dough together.

Proof: Place your shaped dough ball seam side up into a proofing basket (banneton). Cover and let proof for 1 hour at room temperature, then place in the fridge overnight.

Score and Bake: The next day, preheat your oven to 500°F with a Dutch oven inside. Carefully turn the dough out onto parchment paper. Cut a slit on the top of the dough. This slit should go across the length of the dough and be ¼” deep. Transfer the dough to the preheated Dutch oven. Cover with the lid and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the lid, drop the temperature to 450°F, and bake for another 20 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown.

Allow your bread to cool completely before slicing. Enjoy!

Ideas for How to Use Sourdough Discard

Sourdough discard refers to sourdough starter that is in the "hungry" phase. In other words, when your starter is past its peak and has fallen again, it is considered "discard." "Discard" does not necessarily mean "throw away" in the sourdough world. You can keep a jar of discard in your fridge and add it to almost any flour-based recipe. Simply add a glug or two of your discard to your favorite quick bread or sweet treat. Adding discard will not give your baked goods a sour flavor, it will simply change the texture by making it lighter and airier.

Some ideas:
● Pancake or waffles
● Banana bread
● Coffee cake
● English muffins
● Biscuits
● Make flatbread by mixing ½ cup starter, ½ tsp baking soda, salt, and a drizzle of honey. Let sit for 1 min and then cook like a pancake in a buttered pan.