KS Quotient
Easy: Minimal ingredients. Super-reliable.
The easiest way to get started with a wild yeast sourdough starter is to beg or borrow a little from somebody who has already a good one bubbling away. For those lacking a necessary personal contact, the King Arthur Flour Company in Vermont is a reliable source for a vigorous, tangy starter that needs only a couple of feedings of water and flour to be ready for use. I've found that it makes an excellent San Francisco—style sourdough loaf, even though the company doesn't claim its starter has a West Coast pedigree! If you feel you must have an actual San Francisco starter, check out www.sourdoughbreads.com or other Internet vendors whose sourdough contains the Candida milleri yeast and Lactobacillus sanfrancisco bacteria.
If you choose to make your own starter, there are two basic ways to go: The purist's approach followed by professional bakers involves setting out a flour-water mixture and hoping that it has the right strains of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. The easier, virtually foolproof (some would say cheater's) approach involves seeding your water-flour mixture with a little commercial instant yeast, which is a "domesticated" cousin of the wild organisms. Since creating a wild yeast, or "spontaneous" starter, is a hit-or-miss proposition, and producing what is technically referred to as a "cultured" starter is quite easy and reliable, it seems appropriate to go the second route in 4Kneadlessly Simple.
There's no trick to this recipe other than to use bottled spring water or any other pleasant-tasting water, good-quality unbleached all-purpose flour, and a very clean glass bowl, crock, or other container that doesn't react with acid. The mixing, feeding, and maintenance directions below are fairly specific, but in truth they don't have to be followed exactly for success.
It usually takes 10 days from the initial mixing for the cultured starter to yield a noticeably sour loaf. I've made the San Francisco—Style Sourdough Bread with a young (5-day-old) homemade starter, and though the bread was delicious, it wasn't really sour. For a very tangy loaf, give the starter a full 14 days.
½ cup (2.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose white flour, plus more for daily and maintenance "feedings"
1/8 teaspoon instant, fast-rising, or bread machine yeast
About 1/3 cup room temperature bottled spring water or other chlorine-free water, plus more for daily and maintenance "feedings"
To start the starter In a medium glass bowl or large, wide-mouth jar, thoroughly stir together the flour and yeast. Stir in 1/3 cup water or enough water to yield a gravy-like consistency. Loosely drape a clean tea towel over the top. If possible, stir the mixture with a clean spoon once in a while; aeration causes more rapid development. You'll probably see bubbling whenever you stir. Let the mixture stand overnight at room temperature.
To feed the starter For the next 3 or 4 days, stir in another 1/3 cup of flour and ¼ to 1/3 cup more spring water daily, stirring once in a while if possible. If the mixture seems to be getting thicker, add the larger amount of water at the feeding. If it's becoming thin, add the smaller amount of water to maintain a gravy-like consistency. The mixture will gradually become more sour tasting and smelling, and may have the aroma of alcohol, too. This means it's maturing.
On the fourth or fifth day pour off and discard about a third of the mixture before feeding the starter with the usual amount of flour and water. Then continue to feed the same way as before, every day for 4 or 5 more days, allowing the quantity of starter to build up again. At this point there will be plenty to bake with and a sufficient maintenance amount left over to store.
To liven and refresh the starter for Baking Pour off a third of the mixture, then stir in 1 cup flour and ½ to 2/3 cup water. Let the starter stand for at least 4 hours until very bubbly before using it. Then stir it down and measure out the amount you need.
To maintain the starter Replenish the remaining starter by stirring in the usual ½ cup flour and ¼ cup water or enough to maintain a pancake batter consistency. It's a good idea at this point to transfer the mixture to a large, clean container. Loosely cover it; don't use a tight lid. Once it is bubbly again, transfer it to the refrigerator.
After about a week, stir; then pour off about a third of the mixture; then feed the remainder by stirring in the usual 1/3 cup flour and ¼ cup water. Return it to the refrigerator for another week, and repeat this maintenance feeding weekly.
To revive a refrigerated starter If left unfed for a long time, the refrigerated starter can become very sour and separate into layers. (You may also find that your sourdough loaves actually come out too sour.) Pour off most of the liquid on top, then give it a feeding (adding extra water if necessary), stir well, and set it out at room temperature. If it doesn't bubble at all, also add a tiny pinch of commercial yeast. Repeat the feedings each day for several days, pouring off some of the buildup, until it is bubbly and less sour again. The revived starter can go back in the refrigerator and kept indefinitely on its weekly maintenance feeding schedule. Pour off some of the old amount every time you feed so the quantity doesn't become too large. It's very rare for a starter to spoil even over years, but if it smells very unpleasant or moldy or has an orange color, it's time to discard it and start fresh.