Creating A Sourdough starter is easy. Here is how to create both a wheat sourdough starter and a gluten free variety.

Make your own sourdough bread

Firstly make sure all the equipment you use is clean and sterile. We are wanting beneficial bacteria and yeasts only.

You will need:

Sterilised Jars to house your starter/s
Measuring spoons
Filtered cold and boiled water

Flours – You need 2 Tablespoons a day for 5 days for the starter part. More for bread baking.

Wheat flour (I usually start with white and if I want to I transition to Wholemeal later)

For gluten free.

Gluten Free flour blend – I have used Nicola Galloway’s blend from her Homegrown Kitchen cook book. I am new to gluten free sourdough bread so wanted a tried and tested recipe.

Nicola’s Gluten free flour mix is below: (Makes 4.5 cups)

2 cups brown rice flour, 1.5cups buckwheat flour and 1 cup Tapioca starch. Mix to combine and store in a jar. Note: Millet or Sorghum has been suggested if you do not like the earthy/nutty taste of buckwheat.

Method:

Day 1: Mix 2 Tablespoons of the flour (same process with both gluten free and wheat) with 1.5 Tablespoons of warm water – I use cold filtered water mixed with boiled filtered water to get the right temperature. Mix well with a clean spoon. Cover loosely with a lid – do not screw on tight.

Leave in a warm place – a shelf in Summer or a sunny windowsill in winter.

Days 2-4: Repeat the day 1 ‘feed’ same amount of water and flour every 24 hours. Try to do about the same time each day. Mix well and return to warm place. Keep an eye out for bubbles. It will start to smell sweetly sour and yeasty.

Day 5: You can test to see if ready by dropping a teaspoon of starter into a cup of water, if it floats on the surface it is active. Otherwise repeat ‘feed’ until it does. It may take a few extra days in Winter.

Sourdough recipe to come soon!

Below is how my sourdough starters looked before their 3rd (day 3) feed. It does not take long to get the fermenting action going! The one on the left is the gluten free.