SOURDOUGH STARTER
Born and bought up in Kerala, lots of place to move around, a lovely garden, pets and suddenly confined to a small apartment space was saddening. My dream will be to stay in a villa, recreating my childhood.
Gardening is my passion, and back home I used to have a decent flowers and vegetables garden during my school days.
And also being a passionate baker, locked inside the 4 walls of an apartment, I still manage to grow few veggies and spices with the available constrained spaces and hot and dry desert weather. But my newest love is growing wild yeast at home.
Im talking about the preparation of sourdough starter, nourishing the wild yeast naturally available for free. Its an amazing journey, watching them grow and thrive each day.
The whole process is easy, a bit lengthy but worth the try.
Thank you Sujith Sumitran for the basic lessons and tips.
To begin with, take a wide-mouthed glass jar, I used a glass jar with a rubber and wireframe seal and an empty honey bottle. Give it a thorough cleaning by rinsing with boiled water. Let it dry.
Sourdough recipe adapted from Breadtopia.
Ingredients
Instructions
Step 1.
Mix 3 ½ table spoons. whole wheat flour with ¼ cup unsweetened pineapple juice ( I used KDD store bought fresh pineapple juice). Cover and set aside for 48 hours at room temperature. Stir vigorously 2-3 times a day. (Unsweetened in this case simply means no extra sugar added).
Step 2.
Add to the above again 2 table spoons. whole wheat flour and 2 table spoons. pineapple juice. Cover and set aside for a day or two. Stir vigorously 2-3 times per day. You should see some activity of fermentation within 48 hours. If you dont, you may want to toss this and start over.
Step 3.
Add to the above again 5 ¼ tbs. whole wheat flour and 3 tbs. purified water. Cover and set aside for 24 hours.
Step 4.
Add another ½ cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 to 1/3 cup purified water. You should have a very healthy sourdough starter by now, to make a sourdough bread.
Refrigerate the starter, with a lid on it. Allow a little breathing space in the lid. You can feed the starter every alternate day, and mix thoroughly after every feeding.
Thank you for posting this.. just wanted to check on the measurements of feeding alternate day
Hello, thank you for sharing the recipe. Wanted to ask if atta used to make chapatis can be used for whole wheat flour?
Thank you, Namrata
Yes
Hi sumod
Can you help me with details of mesurements for feeding the starter every alternate day
Feed once in a week with equal weight of flour and water and leave in the fridge
Hi Sumod,
I am planning to start my sourdough starter using your recipe.
Thanks for the recipe post.
cheers
Amruta
To make this sourdough starter we need to follow all 4 steps(i.e. 7days) then it’s ready to use, right?
Sorry for this silly question. I am very much unfamiliar with this method.
Wat brand of pineapple juice in India would you suggest?
not familiar with the brands
is there an alternative for pineapple juice?
Thank you
Hi Sumod,
Thank you for sharing this very easy process.
I’m in India and it’s hard to come by natural pineapple juice. What are the alternatives to the juice? I’ve tried making the starter using water and whole wheat flour(chapati atta) but it turned sluggish after a few days and I had to toss it.
Thanks again 🙂
pineapple is easily available in India.
What can be used instead of pineapple juice? My daughter is allergic to it.
water