A sourdough starter for starters

Directions

Day One: 

1. In a glass or plastic container, start your sourdough starter by mixing together the whole wheat flour and water, stirring well until no dry flour remains. Make sure the container you use has at least a two cup capacity as the starter will grow in volume as it gets stronger.
2. Loosely cover the container with a lid rested on top and place in a warm room temperature spot for 24 hours.

Day Two:

1. Don’t expect to see any growth yet! You’re just laying down a good foundation for yeast to come live but that takes a bit of time.
2. Get your starter from its warm spot and give it a stir. Split the starter in two and discard one half (this first discard isn’t great for baking yet so don’t bother keeping it). To the remaining starter, stir in 1/4 cup of unbleached white flour and two tablespoons of room temperature water and mix until well combined.
3. Place the lid back on top and set in its warm spot for another 24 hours.

Day Three and Four:

1. You should start seeing and smelling a little bit of a change! The starter will most likely have a few bubbled in it and might smell a little sour and fruity. That’s good! That means some wild yeast have moved in and are starting to make themselves comfortable!
2. Now it’s time to start feeding your starter twice a day so that the yeast has enough to eat (also, now your discard is perfect to use in a sourdough discard recipe (see Notes)). For each feeding, just follow the same method as above: stir the starter, discard half, and stir in 1/4 cup of unbleached white flour and two tablespoons of room temperature water.
3. The only trick here is that you want to make sure your feedings are as evenly spaced as possible. I like to feed my starter about 12 hours apart at around 8am and 8pm.

Day Five (and maybe Six or Seven):

1. Continue feeding your starter two times a day and, if your starter has gathered enough yeast, it should be at least doubled in volume at the end of day five. There will be lots of bubbles throughout the starter and it should smell tangy and sour in an almost fruity way. Once your starter looks and acts like this, it will be good to use in a traditional sourdough bread recipe without the help of store bought yeast!
2. If by the end of day five your starter is not doubling in size and super bubbly, that is ok. Just keep feeding it twice a day as you have been until it does.

Storage:

1. Once your sourdough starter is strong enough to bake with (Day Five/Six/Seven), you can cover it and store it in your refrigerator until ready to use. To use, you just need to bring it to room temperature a day or two before baking and feed it a few times.

Notes:

*I like to save all of my starter discard in one container and either store it in the fridge or freezer to use in really any recipe that calls for flour and a liquid (like my Sourdough Discard Bread and Pita Pockets).

*If there is a liquid gathering on top of your starter, that most likely just means that your yeast is hungry. Just give it a stir, discard half, and feed it.

*If your house is cold, try to find a warm, draft free place for your starter to live or try wrapping it in a towel. Yeast don’t do well in cold environments.