Sourdough Starter: EVERYTHING You Need to Know

This is my favorite video about sourdough starter. You told us things I have never heard before. I also loved all the info about what is going on in the process. Thank you!!

I’m a longtime subscriber but I’m occasionally still surprised at the excellent content and presentation here. This is a fantastic channel!

This recipe works 1000%
This is the third time I try to make a starter, it hasn’t worked the first 2 times I used other recipes. the grape trick helped SO MUCH!!

I'm currently 48 hours in to trying to make my own sourdough starter and my little yeast baby is a bit of an over achiever! A few bubbles at the 24 hr mark and an eruption of bubbles by 36 hrs. I am so thankful you described what a young starter smells like compared to a mature one. My starter looks the part but I would have likely thrown out my starter thinking it was no good based on it's smell. So thank you for that 😊

Hello Nicole , about grape , the fine white powder on the grape is yeast , so other fruits don’t have it .

A chocolate starter???? Yes, do a show.

Would love to see learn about the chocolate starter!

Does that work with raisings as well?

after 36 hours my starter is very active, but smells a bit like vomit. Is this ok? Is this just because it is so early in the starter process?

I feed with 80% flour 20% spelt

I love your videos! I’m only confused about using the discard used for waffles, because there is no discard… if the starter is good for life, right? I’m sure I missed but I just don’t want to reply the video again :|

Hi - what size brotform are you using? I've got 10 inch oval, but they seem so small. Thanks!! I have my spelt and eiknorn flour now so will be making these loaves very soon. Can't wait!

Add a little honey 🍯

Hello Nicole, I really like your videos and this is a great one, I would like to know if the Chlore in my tape water can make sourdough starter or not? Thanks in advance.

Looking for a video I watched with you making sourdough step by step and explained "fermentalese". You had a striped shirt! Where can I find it?

I'm so thankful for this video!!!!

Madam plese wafel video plese🇱🇰👍

Hey there!
I'm making my 1st starter following you're amazing video i'm just worried cuz on day 2 of making the starter i'm smelling some bad smells coming out of the starter!

I enjoy your videos. I'm late to the sourdough game, but have been enjoying it. My starter is 5 months old. Started with organic rye to get it going. Now is a mix of 30% WW and 70% Bread Flour. Very active. I bake once a week. Just pull out my starter from the fridge and feed the night before I bake. It's ready to go in the morning having tripled in volume. During these summer months, I feed with cooler water as it will peak in 5-6 hours otherwise when sitting ont he counter.

Yes, I would like to see a video on making waffles with discarded starter. Thank you

Great videos! I do have a question. So night before I’m baking intake out my starter and take 25 g then 100 g water and flour into 1 bowl use that for my making the bread. Then do exactly same thing 25 g starter 100 g water and flour but that back in mason jar to go back in refrigerator. Is this correct?

Did you ever make a chocolate starter video? I can’t find it anywhere.

Is there something I don’t understand. 250 gr of flour, doesn’t look like that. There is definitely a mistake.

Nicole, you are amazing. I have already learned a lot from you, and I just found you today.

Local raw honey for the sugar source instead of fruit. Works great.

I am lost, I made my own started from scratch. I’m on day 3 and it has doubled. I’ve fed it 1x a day, am I able to bake with it now? This is my second time trying to make it and I love the process but this is the part I get lost… once it’s doubled can I cook with it?

Please show waffle recipe

She’s like the “how to cake it” lady of sourdough bread

Great information. Thank you! ❤

I just tried this and it worked great! My grapes were not organic, so I made two separate batches, one with grapes and the other with organic dried figs. Both turned out exactly like the video. The fig batch ended up with a million little fig seeds in it, so I'm not proceeding with that one. But the non-organic grapes worked perfectly. I've never baked a thing, so thanks for the great tutorial, Nicole!

Can I use bananas? They’re pretty high in sugars 🤷‍♀️

Hi Nicole , I just start my sour dough journey at the end of January. I am in the process of making a whole wheat sour dough starter I have completed my AP flour sour dough starter. I am looking to start baking this Family Day weekend. I will keep you post on my progress. Neville S Toronto ,ON

This is kind of a recap of how to get started based off the transcripts:
Day 1: Make a starter in a clean bowl, mix 250 grams of flour with 250 grams of filtered water and add a handful of grapes and lightly crush with your fingers and mix that all together. Try to get the grapes into the mixture, cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and set it on the counter out of the sun for 24 hours.
Day 2: Check it, it should have hardened over the exposed grapes, give the whole thing a gentle stir.
to redistribute the ingredients then cover it and leave it on the counter for another 24 hours.
Day 3: You should have microbes, which are those little bubbles, and this mean you have an active starter. Now you take 100 grams of your active starter, leave behind all the grapes, and make sure you only get the flour and water. Put that 100 grams into a clean bowl and feed it an additional 100 grams of filtered water and 100 grams of flour. Discard everything left behind.
Tips:
- Wash your bowl with baking soda and water as the components in the dish soap may hinder the growth of your starter.
- If starter fails after a week and you still haven’t seen any growth. Try feeding your starter warm water (82 degrees but not anything hotter).
After 3 days: Feed it for at least a couple consecutive days to bulk up its strength. Use the same equal ratio as before, 100 grams of starter, discard the rest, add 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water leave it out on your counter after those three days and you should have a strong starter on your hands and you can begin baking bread.
The easiest way to maintain your starter is to keep it in a jar with a loose fitting lid. Why? Remember these are microbes breathing and we need to let some of those gases escape.
You can keep it in the back of your fridge, kept around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. By doing this method, you will only need to feed it once a week.
- to feed your starter you're going to take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
Why?
 What happens in the fridge is the microbes go sluggish in the cold temperature and they'll stop eating and multiplying. You want to wake them up by warming them up at room temperature and allow them to consume the food they already have in the jar. You will know they've woken up because the starter will begin to bubble and rise. This means that the microbes are replicating and increasing. If you feed a cold starter, you have fewer microbes to start with. If you feed a starter that's happy and bubbling you are capturing a bigger population of microbes
Tip: Take it out of the fridge before you go to bed and in the morning it's ready to be fed. This will be when your starter has at least doubled in size at room temperature.
Fed Your Starter: Take just 25 grams of it and discard the rest, feed that 25 grams of starter with 100 grams of filtered water mix it around to get the starter to dissolve a bit and then add 100 grams of flour.
However, if you keep it on your counter at room temperature you will need to feed it daily.

My kid was playing with flour and water and let the bowl in the kitchen! In the other day I saw some bubbles and I start to feed him! Has almost 3 years!

Can’t wait to try this! And…I LOVE that wall behind you in the video!

Waffles, please!

Would love to see chocolate starter and waffles recipe

I would Love to learn the chocolate starter!!!! Sounds VERY INTERESTING!!!

Super good vid!

Anyone who'd like to respond, do you feel that using (a)unbleached flour & (2)filtered, non chlorinated water, are considered "musts"

Do you have someone feed your starter for you if you go on vacation?

Grapes add extra natural yeast

I must be cursed. I did everything you said. King Arthur flour, kitchen scale measurements, my own home grown grapes with no pesticides. I'm on day 4 and it's stinky like the worst cheese you ever smelled and runny! Not with the wonderful development of stringy pulling away from bowl. It's bubbly so something is happening. Just not like what you have. I have tried various ways of starting from scratch and this is a failure just like the others. Help!

Raisins work any type I found …

Waffles 🧇 please

Thank you for great information! Question: do you grind the wheat for the flour you use in your starter? Or do you use a store bought flour for that? Thanks so much!

Do you discard some of it every week when you feed it? 😊

PLEASE ALL OF YOUR STARTERS!!! Really would like CHOCOLATE!!!!❤