Instructions
Thank you for purchasing my Dried Wheat Sourdough.
Let’s rehydrate it, so you can start baking in a few days. You will need a kitchen scale, two screw top jars, one that can hold about 200-300ml and one a bit bigger around 400ml, and a rubber band.
This starter has been fed with plain flour, so you can keep using plain flour or strong bread flour.
The ideal timing of starting to rehydrate will depend on your daily schedule and what time is best for you to start baking. This plan is written with a goal to first bake on a Saturday morning. Feel free to adjust the timing to suit your routine.
Day 1 (Wednesday evening, around 9-10pm)
Into the smaller jar mix all of the dried starter with 15g of room temperature water, stir well and let it soak for at least an hour. It should feel like a thin paste. If it still has some dry bits, leave it to soak a bit longer. You can stir occasionally to help it rehydrate properly.
Once there are no dry granules and it turns into a smooth paste, add 15g flour and 15g water and stir it until there is no more flour visible and it turns into a thicker paste. With a small spatula, scrape down the sides of the jar to keep it as clean as possible, push down and flatten the surface of the starter so it is nice and flat. Put the lid on the jar, just loose, do not screw it on. Starters like to breathe and circulating air and lastly put the rubber band around the jar at the level of the starter. It will now need 24H rest in a warm spot (24-26c).
Note: Don’t be alarmed if you do not see any rise within these first 24h. This is perfectly normal. Look for some tiny bubbles in the starter (don’t stir, just check outside the jar). The surface may also show some bubbly activity or may be slightly domed or shiny.
Day 2 (Thursday evening, around 9-10pm)
After 24h, add 30g flour and 25g water, stir well until all the flour is mixed in and level out the surface. The starter is now a bit stiffer. This is normal and wanted at this stage. Clean down the sides, lid loose on top and rubber band at the level of the starter. Let it rest for 24h at a warm spot.
You should start to see a rise and bubbles within these 24h.
Day 3 (Friday evening, around 9-10pm)
After 24h, put all the starter into the bigger jar, add 90g flour and 65g water to the jar, stir well, level the surface and clean down the sides. Lid loosely on, rubber band around the jar and leave in a warm spot.
The starter should at least double and reach its peak within the first 12h, ideally sooner than that.
Once it reaches its peak, it is ready to bake.
Day 4 (Saturday morning, around 9am or earlier if the starter has peaked already)
You can now use the starter to mix your bread dough.
If you are not ready to bake and want to wait another day, you will need to feed your starter at this point again to keep it going. This time you will need to discard. Take out 10g starter into a new jar and feed 50g flour and 40g water. This feed will give you at least another 12 hours before you have to feed it again.
The rest of the starter is discarded. You can put it in the fridge to use for discard recipes or dispose of it into the food bin (do not wash it down the sink).