Last Updated on January 2, 2024 by TheFarmChicken

I want this post to be straightforward, easy to use, and understand. For you to come out of the other side of this post with the confidence and drive you need to start your sourdough journey. Let’s get right to Learning Sourdough with Agnes!

The first thing I want to share with you is that generally people overcomplicate sourdough. When I started, I thought it was delicate. And now I think you would have to actually try to kill it. It is wild yeast; it wants to grow.

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What is all included in Learning Sourdough with Agnes?

General information about sourdough.
How to make and maintain your own sourdough starter.
Linked: a post on my favorite sourdough tools and substitutes to those tools if you don’t want to invest in everything right away. That was me when I first started with sourdough!
How to use a gram scale.
How to Schedule Sourdough into your life: working 8AM-5PM
Printable to guide you (yes you should really print it off) It was fun to create, and I think it turned out really cute and helpful!
Linked: 2 recipes that are great to start with and delightful.

Click Here to get the FREE Sourdough Starter Printable

General Information

Sourdough Starters have been around for many years! Did you know it predates commercial yeast by far! No one really knows when it became a thing but for sure the Egyptians knew about it and used the starter concept. I started my starter (Agnes) in 2020 so it is 3 years old now. A sourdough starter can be very, very old! It is said that the oldest one is 4500 years old!

Below I have some questions that I had when I first was looking into sourdough starter with the answers I know now:

What is a sourdough starter?

Flour
Water

Agnes is flour and water. That’s really all it is. It breaks down and takes wild yeast (microbes) from the air and ferments. Then, you use this to make bread and other yummy sourdough creations!

What is the best water to use?

Distilled
Filtered

Really water that doesn’t have chlorine. You don’t want to kill the yeast with chlorine that you are trying to grow. Sounds counterproductive to me. Avoid tap water. And if you do need to use tap water set it out for 24 hours before using it. They say the chlorine will evaporate. Note: I haven’t had great luck with doing this so that is why I now buy distilled water by the gallon.

Can you use other flour types to start a starter?

Yes, you can use spelt, einkorn, rye and wheat (whole and white). I have used wheat flour too in my starter but right now I have just been using white wheat flour. Make sure it is unbleached!

How long does it take to establish a sourdough starter?

Usually 7 days. Sometimes it can take longer if your house is cooler etc. As a general rule, 7 days and you should be able to start baking with it. It does take longer than 7 days to get a really strong, active starter that doubles. You have to keep feeding and baking with it. It will get there! I find the starter only gets better with age- Agnes only gets better with age…ha!

Can I do something with the sourdough discard other than discard it?

Yes, there are lots of recipes out there for sourdough discard. My first time making a starter I made pancakes from some of the discard. Definitely less of a waste if you do use the discard in another way but not necessary.

I would wait until your starter is at least to day 5 of the creation process before you use the discard.

How often do I need to feed my starter?

Once it is established (7-10 days of feeding). At the very least every 3 weeks. You can maybe still salvage it after 3 weeks but best to not let it go past that. Usually, I end up feeding Agnes once a week at least.

Why is sourdough considered healthier for you?

Sourdough goes through a fermenting process. As a result, it breaks down the flour which makes it easier on our bodies to digest than bread goods made with commercial yeast. Just another added benefit to sourdough.

Why do I have to discard half of the starter?

It does seem weird when you are making your starter to discard half every time you feed it. This might not seem necessary, but it really is for two reasons:

You would have to have a huge bowl to hold everything after the week of making your starter.
Not discarding will affect the taste and acidity of your starter. This acidity could be detrimental to your microbes (wild yeast) in your starter.

Note: discarding is only truly necessary for when you are making your starter. If you are feeding and using your starter to bake, then the starter should continue to be happy. Using your sourdough starter to bake with is in a way “discarding”. If, however, your starter is established, and you feed it and decided not to use the starter that day (I have done this.) then you can just discard some and put it bake in the fridge.

Making a Sourdough Starter

Day One: Take 75g (1/2 cup) of water (filtered or bottled) and 75g (3/4 cup) of all-purpose flour or bread flour and mix them up really well. Place a tea towel over the bowl (not metal) and let that sit on your counter for 24 hours. Avoid placing in direct sunlight.
Day Two: Discard roughly half of your mixture and repeat what you did on day one. Add 75 g of water and flour and stir well. Cover and let set 24 hours.
Note: You might want to discard in another bowl instead of straight into the garbage. I know I’ve scared myself by almost losing the whole thing! This is more a problem towards the end of the process because it seems the starter becomes more viscous.
Day Three: Repeat Day 2 instructions.
Day Four: Repeat Day 2 instructions.
Day Five: Repeat Day 2 instructions.
Day Six: Do the same as on days 2-5 but instead of every 24 hours discard and feed it every 12 hours.
Day Seven: Continue today with the same process used on day six; every 12 hours. Today you should have enough yeast and bacteria present to make sourdough bread or other sourdough recipes. Sometimes it can be that you need to work with a little more to get it where you want it as far as rise but that depends on how your stater did in the first week.

Equipment

1 Medium Bowl or glass mason jar not metal – glass works well
1 spatula
1 quart wide mouth jar
1 reusable storage mason jar lid
1 tea towel

Ingredients

675 cups all purpose flour or bread flour our favorite flour is Dakota Maid
675 grams water distilled or filtered

Instructions

Day One: Take 75g (1/2 cup) of water (filtered or bottled) and 75g (3/4 cup) of all-purpose flour and mix them up really well. Place a tea towel over the bowl(not metal) or jar and let that sit on your counter for 24 hours. Avoid placing in direct sunlight.
Day Two: Discard roughly half of your mixture and repeat what you did on day one. Add 75g (1/2 cup/3/4 cup) of water and flour and stir well. Cover and let set 24 hours.
Note: You might want to discard in another bowl instead of straight into the garbage. I know I’ve scared myself by almost losing the whole thing! This is more a problem towards the end of the process because it seems the starter becomes more viscous.
Day Three: Repeat Day 2 instructions.
Day Four: Repeat Day 2 instructions.
Day Five: Repeat Day 2 instructions.
Day Six: Do the same as on days 2-5 but instead of every 24 hours discard and feed it every 12 hours.
Day Seven: Continue today with the same process used on day six; every 12 hours. Today you should have enough yeast and bacteria present to make sourdough bread or other sourdough recipes. Sometimes it can be that you need to work with a little more to get it where you want it as far as rise but that depends on how your stater did in the first week.

Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter

You’ve made your starter…now what? Keep feeding it and baking with it!

Pouring out an active sourdough starter into the bowl — Hoping this picture helps you see the consistency of my starter, Agnes.

Feeding it from here on out: A lot of people will tell you to feed your starter equal parts water and flour. In my experience I have found this to be too much water by volume but just right by weight. I used to do it by volume and baked quite a few things with success, but my starter would never double from a feeding. I then decided to feed it the same amount by weight a 1:1 ratio. It has had a positive impact on Agnes! Now she rises to any baking occasion and the top of the jar! 😉

My Recommendation (How I Feed Agnes):

Either:

1:1:1
1:2:2
1:3:3

More on feeding and maintaining a sourdough starter in this post:

How to Use a Sourdough Starter: A Complete Guide

It makes it a little thinner than brownie batter. Some people will say pancake batter, but I feel like that is such a hard standard. Everybody makes a different pancake batter, and they are all different! After I have fed Agnes, I leave it on the counter covered with a tea towel.

Using a gram scale in the kitchen for sourdough etc.:

Gram scales can be intimidating if you have never used them before. However, don’t let that stop you! If you learned to use measuring cups and spoons this process is just as easy if not easier! You just have to get used to it. (All gram scales are probably different in some ways but this is just a general overview.)

Turn on your gram scale and make sure it is in grams.
Choose your bowl that you will be adding ingredients too.
Set the bowl on the scale and tare or zero out the scale. On my scale it is the button to the right of the screen.
Add the first ingredient to the desired amount and then zero or tare again.
Continue with this process until you are done.
Hooray you just used a gram scale successfully! (And no dirty measuring cups or spoons either!)

Scheduling Sourdough into your life

Like most things in life, if it is worth having you have to work for it. That means finding a place to work sourdough into your schedule. Believe me you won’t regret it. Most recipes that I have come across you feed your starter, wait for it to rise (6-10 hours), prepare what you are making after that (1.5-4 hours), put it in the fridge overnight, and bake it the next day.

Here is a suggested schedule for someone with a work schedule of 8-5:

Before you leave for work (7:00-7:30AM): Feed your sourdough starter and leave on your counter covered with a tea towel.

When you arrive home (5:30-6:00PM): Start mixing up your recipe. If it is like bread, you will have some stretching and folding to do along with autolyse and resting periods. You will put the dough in the fridge overnight or for 12 hours.

The next day – Baking Day: You have two options here. Either plan it so that baking day is on one of your days off or you can bake before you go to work. If its bread or bagels it would be the perfect breakfast. I would estimate that you would need at least 2 hours to bake – this is a rough estimate and depends on what you are baking. Some things might take more, some less.

If your work schedule looks different than this, (longer days away from home) I would suggest planning your sourdough baking around your weekends/days off. This is mostly true for all sourdough baked goods. I’m sure there are exceptions, and you can work through these as you find recipes you want to use.

I hope you are ready to go grab a bowl and spoon and make a starter! It is a learning experience but so rewarding. If you made it this far you are already showing that you have some stick to it! Let me know below about your sourdough journey and if you have any questions. Thanks for reading! I’m going to go and put my sourdough English Muffin dough in the fridge now! 🙂

Sourdough Recipes Linked Here:

Some of the things I have made with Agnes:

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Galatians 5:9

Learning Sourdough with Agnes