

Dark rye flour is milled from the rye berry and contains a great amount of nutritional value. There are quite a few different flours out there these days, so I will make a simple list for you of the most common and easily accessible types of flour that you can find at a grocery storeĭark Rye Flour: This is my number 1 choice flour to use for creating a sourdough starter. My preferred flour for making a sourdough starter from scratch is dark rye flour. Now that you have an idea as to what a sourdough starter is, you probably want to make one! In order to make one, you will have to buy some flour. Usually around 13-14 hours after you fed your starter, it will return back to the same state as prior to the feeding and is essentially an active sourdough starter once again. After this peak point passes, your levain will start to decline in size and lose strength. When it is at the point to where it rises and is ready for your final dough mix, your starter is now commonly referred to as a levain or a leaven (French and English words that mean to make something rise). An active starter indicates it is healthy and when fed it will reach a point where you can add it to your final dough mix to begin the process of making bread.

Sourdough Starter vs Levain: When your sourdough starter is ready to use after you make it from scratch, it is now known to be active. If you tell me your bread is naturally leavened, well, I'd think the same thing! These two terms are often used to designate the fact that a loaf of bread was made with a fermented mixture of flour and water - a sourdough starter. Sourdough vs Naturally Leavened: If you tell me that your bread is sourdough, the first thing that comes to my mind is that you have fermented your dough for a long period of time and that you used pre-fermented flour to make your bread rise, aka your sourdough starter. Let's talk about the names and terms used in regards to sourdough, as these terms can be interchangeable yet they seem to confuse lots of beginners: What do I call it?: Many people might give their sourdough starter a name, but that's not what I'm getting at here. The period between refreshments is called fermentation, and thus when you use your starter to make bread you are using "pre-fermented" flour in your mix. Ultimately, it will become so potent that you can make your bread rise in the oven. This mixture begins to absorb wild yeasts and bacteria from the environment, and the more you refresh it (refreshing your starter means you are keeping some of it, and adding fresh flour and water to it), the stronger and more active it will become. What is a sourdough starter?: Something quite incredible happens when you mix flour and water together. I will explain a few differences in terminology here, but if you want to go straight to the process for making a sourdough starter from scratch, just scroll down. Let's start with the basics, as you probably want to make a sourdough starter from scratch.
