The 7 Day Sourdough Starter Recipe
You can get a Sourdough Starter happening well enough to make bread in 7 days or less. The trick is feeding the fresh starter the right amount at the right time.
The measurements start small, but grow quickly. This is because sourdough starter is a living thing, and as it grows, so too does its appetite. You'll be doubling the size of the sourdough starter every couple of days, so make allowances for this with your storage container.
I use a clear plastic container, ideally about 1.5 litres or more, with a clip on or loose fitting lid. If it's 'clip on' type, leave it loose at all times when storing sourdough starter, so it can breathe.
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Sourdough starter is a careful balance of enzymes, bacteria, wild yeasts (funghi), fuel (carbohydrate), moisture and trace elements.
A useful article, if you've tried this recipe and are not having success, is 'healing your starter'. Perhaps, after a few attempts, you'll start to see how resilient sourdough starter is, and that all you need is patience, and possibly faith, to get sourdough starter going well.
Above all, don't throw it out! You're probably almost there! Often, the pet living in your kitchen fridge is just waiting for the correct enzyme balance to occur. Until then, it will simply blanket itself in scungy stuff, and quietly ferment inside, waiting for the right foodstuff to come along..
That's where unsweetened pineapple juice comes into it. This has the right amount of acidity to promote the early stages of sourdough fermentation, and I recommend its use ahead of plain water. I have also used 'raisin water' (which is water that raisins have been mascerated in overnight), and had great success with this too.
Full information follows, though I'm adding this little Quick Summary for you. Follow these steps, and you'll have a workable starter in 7 days. However, for a fully functional sourdough starter, you will need to be patient. Most readers report getting their starter really workable after about four weeks of feeding and use.
After a few uses, your new sourdough starter will improve and give you better rises each time. I suggest trying out yours on what I believe are 'neverfail' semi leaven recipes first. These recipes have a tiny amount of yeast, which is added only to the dough. Your starter remains entirely pure and free of refined yeast. Semi Leaven sourdough recipes almost always work, and in the process enable your virgin sourdough starter to get a walk around the block without fear of failure.
While you are building the 7 day sourdough starter:
- remember to feed at the sourdough starter at the same time each day, so you know where you are in the cycle.
- room temperature is the 'ideal' in this process. If your kitchen is really cold, look for somewhere a little warmer for better fermentation action.
- consistency is king. Same food, same time, same place, same temperature every day.
- keep notes with dates, times and observations. It all helps!
- feed with 'clean' utensils and ingredients. Use Wholemeal flour (organic, if possible), filtered or spring water (if you use water, but pineapple juice is probably better if you're game..)
- Your container for sourdough starter should not have detergent residue. It hampers the growth of the sorts of greeblies we want to encoueage as well as the baddies, so either rinse the starter container thoroughly before use with very hot water, or wash in super hot water only a few times prior to use. You would be amazed at the effect detergent residue has on the establishment of any kind of culture. Not surprising, I guess!
- if you really are stuck, you can contact me. I'll get back to you quicker than you think I will..
- if all else fails, buying some will get it happening straight away. Then all you have to do is feed it!
Quick Summary of the 7 Day Sourdough Starter Recipe
 Day 1:
25 mls warm water, or warm unsweetend pineapple juice
25 gms fresh flour,
Mix to a paste.
Day 2:
To your mixture, which will have 'softened' overnight, add
25 mls warm water, or warm unsweetend pineapple juice
25 gms fresh flour,
Mix to a paste again.
Day 3:
Add to the mixture
50 mls warm water, or warm unsweetend pineapple juice
50 gms fresh flour
and whisk together.
Day 4:
Add to the mixture
100 mls warm water, or warm unsweetend pineapple juice
100 gms flour
and whisk it all together again.
Day 5:
Rest, (you and the starter) observe, 
take notes. Activity? Bubbles? Smell? Times? You want Details! This procedure can really make the difference between many griefs and few. It also lets any delicate fermentation processes get a foothold.
Day 6:
Add to the mixture
100 mls warm water, or warm unsweetend pineapple juice
100 gms flour
and whisk it all together again.
Day 7:
Use, if you have observed that it's ripe!
You should end up with a total volume of 600 grams (approximately) of sourdough starter. If your first batch of sourdough bread uses half this volume, then you will have 300 grams left to feed and maintain as a 'wet' starter.
For your first use, I strongly recommend trying one or more of the semileaven recipes on the site. These utilise the starter you have now created, but add yeast to the dough, making your first attempt a surefire success. Once your starter has established, move on to the sourdough recipes, which have no refined yeast (cerviseae yeast).
Have a quick look at 'feeding your starter' for more information about how to keep a 'liquid' starter. The landing page for the liquid starter section is here.
Or, if you want to have a go at the 'old dough' method, have a look at the article on this.
Likewise, if you want a low maintenance starter to continue on with after you have established your liquid sourdough starter, have a look at the desem or dry dough sourdough method.
(It's for more advanced bakers, but you'll very quickly get the idea, and I'm sure you'll love this technique once you get the hang of it.)
Now read on for some tips on how to do the 7 day sourdough starter recipe. You're on the way to making great home made sourdough bread.
Incidentally, did you know that over the past twelve months, over 12,000 people have done this recipe? I might also add that it has been copied, measurement identical, so many times that I have lost count. You can't own a recipe, of course...but it takes quite a bit of time to make it all this simple. if you see a recipe turn up looking a bit too much like this one elsewhere, please send me the link! Curiosity, is all...
Sourdough Starter Day 1:
To 25 mls of warm water or warm unsweetened pineapple juice, add 25 grams (about a heaped tablespoon full) of fresh organic wholemeal flour. Warm water just helps the airborn yeasts multiply quicker.
Whisk together to form a paste. You'll need to use a plastic, glass or ceramic container with a loose fitting lid to cover it. Today, you will only make a bit more than a tablespoon of paste in total, but by the end the recipe will have 600 grams of sourdough starter. Thus, i suggest you choose a container with about a litre capacity, to allow for the rise.
Leave the paste out for a day. Just on the kitchen bench.
Sourdough Starter Day 2:
At about the same time as yesterday, feed with exactly the same amount of warm water or unsweetened pineapple juice and the same amount of wholemeal flour, and whisk again.
There might be a little bit of activity, like sparse bubbles in the batter - which means that there are airborne yeasts beginning to attach themselves to the batter you have made.
There might also be absolutely nothing happening at all. Don't worry. A process is beginning, you just can't see it. However, any stage in this process can be extended by a day or even two if you just can't see or smell anything at all. Extra days here and there won't hurt.
If you are in a crazy hurry, you can just buy my 21 year old sourdough starter. It'll take a week to arrive anyway, but it removes all the trial and error, and it makes brilliant sourdough bread right from the get go!
I usually leave these young ferments out of the fridge to do their stuff naturally.
Sourdough Starter Day 2: Bubbles starting to form. You might be able to detect a very faint smell of Bananas.
Sourdough Starter Day 3:
Have a smell of the mix. If it smells vaguely like bananas, you know the process is beginning. If you get a slightly tangy smell, a bit like vinegar, it's going well.
Feed in the same way as yesterday, this time using 50 mls of either warm water or pineapple juice, and sift in 50 grams of flour. Whisk it all together.
Sourdough Starter Day 3: More Bubbles, and you can smell bananas and maybe a slightly tangy smell now.
A word on Sourdough Yeasts
I should mention here that this particular sourdough starter is one that encourages wild yeasts who thrive in cool conditions. Different types of yeasts live at different temperatures. Many winemaking yeasts, for example, like temperatures below 10 degrees centigrade.
Generally, breadmaking yeasts like to multiply rapidly at above 25 degrees C, but are almost dormant below 15 degrees, so can be stored for quite a few hours. We home bakers are going for yeasts which do quite well below 15 degrees C - they are 'retarded', which is a baker's term for having their leavening activity slowed down, but they continue to reproduce anyway, albeit slowly in the cold temperatures of a refrigerator. These yeasts breed in both cold and warm conditions. When they get warmed up, they go absolutely crazy with reproductive zeal.
Your common and garden refrigerator is the handiest thing for the home baker. It will become invaluable for many processes used in sourdough breadmaking, and is especially useful for the control of sourdough starters.
Sourdough Starters tend to take a while to get their enzyme balance right. When this occurs, the sourdough starter will make consistently good full sourdough bread.
Unsweetened pineapple juice really helps to get this delicate balance established, and is consumed completely as the starter grows. You do not need to feed it with pineapple juice once the starter is established. From time to time, and I mean when you have cause to think your starter needs a tune up, I recommend using pineapple juice as a kind of vitamin tonic. The rest of the time, water is best.
Sourdough Starter Day 4:
By now you will start to see quite a few small bubbles in the still relatively unripe sourdough starter. You should also be able to easily smell something - the smell will be quite like ripe bananas, with a tanginess reminiscent of alcohol. The texture will be changing too - you'll see a progression from what looks like bubbles in batter to something resembling a sponge. Feed this mixture with 100 mls more warm water (or PJ) and enough flour to keep it as a paste. This is roughly 100 grams, but from here on texture is more important than weight. I use the weight as a guide only.
There is not much activity while the starter is young, so keep an eye on it, and leave it to do it's thing!
Sourdough Starter Day 4: Quite a few bubbles, and the smell of ripe bananas.
Sourdough Starter Day 5:
There will be more bubbles, and more banana smells. If things are going well, there will also be a slightly tangy smell too. The texture could almost be slightly spongy by now, though don't concern yourself if it isn't yet - it will. This tangy smell indicates that a secondary level of fermentation is occurring.
Allow the fermentation to take hold by doing nothing at all today.
Tip: I take notes and photos as I go along, with temperatures too if I'm feeling particularly scientific. Today is a good day to review and update!
Sourdough Starter Day 5: It's beginning to look a lttle spongy, and the banana smell will be getting slightly tangy now.
Sourdough Starter Day 6:
The smell will now be becoming quite tangy. If you have kept the temperature quite low throughout the process, the smell of bananas will still be there, but the tanginess will be steadily increasing.
There will be bubbles on the surface of the mixture, and some throughout too. You can give the mixture a final feed of 100 mls warm water or PJ and about the same of flour - same thing, mix with a fork or whisk to a paste consistency. It will respond from this feed quite rapidly.
Sourdough Starter Day 6: Tangy and Spongy now.
Sourdough Starter Day 7:
Your starter should be used now - I strongly recommend visiting the articles on SemiLeaven Bread Recipes. These combine your new sourdough starter with a little yeast in the dough, allowing you surefire success first time.
Once your starter is established more, try some full sourdough recipes too!
Other Sourdough recipes you might like to try from this site include:
Basic Sourdough Recipe
White Spelt Sourdough Recipe
Basic Sourdough Variation (Baking By Feel)
Wholemeal Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
White Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
Light Rye Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
Medium Rye Sourdough (Old Dough) Recipe
Continental (Semi Leaven) Bread Recipe
Light Wholemeal (Semi Leaven)Bread Recipe
Light Rye (Semi Leaven) Bread Recipe
Stop Press: You might want to have a look at the SourdoughBaker Bookshop for more information about sourdough breadmaking.
We now have supplies of Fresh Sourdough Starter available, which comes in a dry dough form for transportation purposes. This Sourdough Starter can be used immediately and provides the strength, resilience and flavour of 21 years of Sourdough Culture right away - making it an excellent way to get you baking great bread very quickly.
 There are also a range of specialist Sourdough and Artisan Bread Books available through this site. Remember, every book you buy through SourdoughBaker helps me to build this free Home Sourdough Breadmaking resource bigger and better for you!
Note: I have amended these measurements over time thanks to everyone who has tried this method and found that the weights were larger than the 'spoonfuls' I had indicated. The principle used here still applies, no matter what the weight is. But digital scales lead to greater accuracy, and I thank everyone who has pointed this out. If, as a result of following my earlier measurements (i.e., twice those shown here) you have created too much starter, the quick fix is to simply use more, and make more bread for friends and family!
Here's a complete list of articles in this section:
Here are some of the sourdough recipes which work the best with liquid sourdough starter:
Happy sourdough baking!
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