A lot of you have asked me how to increase the amount of your sourdough starter. I’ll walk you through exactly how to do that, as well as helpful tips for how to maintain a healthy sourdough starter and the best ways to use discard.
I have been using my sourdough starter for almost twenty years now, and sometimes it can be easy to forget how confusing it was for me in the beginning! It’s ok if sometimes things don’t seem straightforward. I will walk you through how to increase the amount of your sourdough starter step by step with lots of helpful tips along the way.
How to Grow Your Sourdough Starter
If you are a visual learner, I’ve also made a video about this very topic that you can watch. There are many reasons you might want to grow or increase your sourdough starter. Most often, the recipe you want to make calls for 2 or more cups of starter. Or maybe, you need a sweet starter, or you want a start with whole wheat. Maybe you want to share your starter with a friend. There are so many reasons to need additional starter, and luckily it is very easy to increase.
You can use this method for any flour or any starter type. If you had a lively starter, you will have additional starter ready to go by the next day. If your starter was dormant, it may take a few days and an extra feeding to get it ready to go.
Step by Step for Increasing Starter
Most of the sourdough world works in grams because it is more accurate and universally understood. I personally am not as strict with my ratios. I’ve have learned from years of working with sourdough how to eyeball it. I prefer to learn how the starter should look and then trust my judgement, because it is less stressful and always works out. If you need the grams to feel confident, then I’ve included the grams in parenthesis.
- In a medium sized bowl, add 1/2 C (100g) active sourdough starter. If using discard, use a little less than 1/2 C because flat starter is more dense. You will be using 100g starter either way.
- Next, add 1 C flour (115 g) and 1/2 C water (115 g). Stir the mixture until all of the flour is absorbed and the sourdough starter is fully combined.
- Put the new starter in a container or whatever you want to store it in and leave it on the counter for 6-12 hours until bubbly. Now you have 2 additional cups of sourdough starter!
Tips for Increasing Your Sourdough Starter
- Don’t overthink it! It really is that easy to increase your sourdough starter. As you saw in my video, I didn’t break out the scale. If you want a 100% hydration starter and it’s important to getting your recipe just right, then you are absolutely welcome to measure everything exactly.
- Using Other Flours: It doesn’t matter what flour you use, just keep the ratios the same. You could use whole wheat flour, rye flour, freshly milled flour, you name it!
- When Using Discard: You can increase your sourdough starter with discard, it just might take an extra day for it to liven up. Also note, discard is flat (doesn’t have any bubbles) so it is a little more dense than lively starter when measured in a cup.
How to Increase Your Sourdough Starter
A lot of you have asked me how to increase the amount of your sourdough starter. I'll walk you through exactly how to do that, as well as helpful tips for how to maintain a healthy sourdough starter and the best ways to use discard.Ingredients
- 1/2 C Sourdough starter
- 1 C Flour
- 1/2 C Water
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl, add 1/2 C (100g) active sourdough starter. If using discard, use a little less than 1/2 C because flat starter is more dense. You will be using 100g starter either way.
- Next, add 1 C flour (115 g) and 1/2 C water (115 g). Stir the mixture until all of the flour is absorbed and the sourdough starter is fully combined.
- Put the new starter in a container or whatever you want to store it in and leave it on the counter for 6-12 hours until bubbly. Now you have 2 additional cups of sourdough starter!
Video
