Wild Alaska Sourdough Starter Care & Baking
Activating Your Starter
Remove dehydrated starter from the sealed container and place into the larger jar.
Add a 1/4 cup of warm water and stir well. Let sit, covered, at room temperature to dissolve, 3-4 hours.
Add 1/4 cup of sourdough starter flour and stir until the flour is completely hydrated. Add more water if needed.
Put the lid back on. Note: Remove the jar’s rubber gasket before clipping shut, so the seal is not airtight. The sourdough starter releases gas as it ferments.
In about 24 hours, add two heaping tablespoons of flour and enough water so that the starter has the consistency of a very thick pancake or muffin batter. Repeat every 24 hours.
After 72 hours, the starter should be bubbly and have a strong yeasty smell with a note of vinegar. If it's not happening yet, repeat this process for 2-3 more days.
Contact us for a new starter if your starter is not active after 5 days. We will ship a new starter for free.
Caring For Your Starter
You can feed our barley flour or wheat, rye, and other hearty grains to keep the starter active. However, other grains will introduce other microorganisms and may change the character of your starter.
If you are baking regularly, you will want to store your starter at room temperature and add flour and water every day.
We recommend adding two heaping tablespoons of sourdough starter flour with water daily to keep the starter active.
Caring for your starter is not like caring for a pet. If you aren't baking regularly, you can store the starter in the fridge and feed once a week.
If you notice that the starter is turning grey or getting a clear liquid on the top, no worries! That is a sign it is hungry and needs to be fed. Just stir the liquid back in during feeding.
Baking With Wild Alaska Sourdough Starter
Our starter makes delicious baked goods, including sourdough bread, muffins, rolls, pancakes, banana bread and more!
When you're planning to bake, take your starter out of the refrigerator the night before, feed as usual and allow to come to room temperature. When your starter is bubbly and rising up the walls of the jar, it's ready to use.
Be sure to leave at least 1/4 cup of starter in your jar for future baking!