Can I feed my sourdough starter different flour? (2024)

FAQs

Can I feed my sourdough starter a different flour? ›

What Flour Should I Be Feeding My Sourdough Starter With? You can feed your sourdough starter with any flour you like, as long as it provides the starches the wild yeast in your sourdough starter need to convert to Co2 to rise your dough. The flour you choose should always be unbleached flour.

You can create a sourdough starter with any flour in your pantry, though I find it easiest to use a portion of whole-grain rye flour to help speed up the process.

Also, the type of flour you are using can impede the rise of your starter. All-Purpose flour, for example, will not rise as robustly as a blend of bread flour and whole wheat flour. Different mixtures or types of flour will cause your starter to rise differently. I strongly recommend at least 50% whole wheat flour.

The best ratio to get things going is 1:1. So for example that would be 50 grams of bread flour, 50 grams of water, and 50 grams of established starter. Bread flour sourdough starters fed 1:1 will usually rise and bubble up in 4-6 hours, then fall back down to look flat.

My first attempt at a starter, I accidentally used bleached all purpose flour. That didn't work out very well. The very next day, I had blue spots all over my precious starter. All purpose flour is fine, but I realized that when flour is bleached…it kills off the naturally occurring yeast.

Substituting all purpose flour in a sourdough recipe that specifically calls for bread flour is not always an even swap. You'll need to REDUCE the total amount of water first. All purpose flour absorbs less water than bread flour, which can make the dough too sticky to work with otherwise.

For more tang: Incorporate some rye flour and/or whole wheat flour early in the bread-making process, such as when feeding the mother culture and the preferment. Rye flour in particular will help your culture produce some acetic acid.

The World's 'Oldest' Sourdough Starter Was Made With 4,500-Year-Old Yeast. There's no bread quite like sourdough. In addition to being tasty as a sandwich bread, delicious as sourdough croutons, and even great just toasted with butter, sourdough's production process is decidedly unlike other breads.

*Do not try baking with your starter right after feeding it. Allow time for it to grow and feast on the flour before using it. Starters are usually ready to bake with around 4-12 hours after a feeding depending on the amount you feed your starter. The larger the feeding, the more time it needs to ferment.

Long term lack of feeding at room temperature can absolutely ruin your starter. Contamination: The yeast and bacteria in your sourdough starter are willing and capable of keeping some contamination at bay.

Can I just add flour and water to my sourdough starter? ›

It's a necessary part of the process and ensures that you keep it lean. Add 30g flour + 30g water, stir well, scrape down the sides of the bowl, loosely cover the bowl and leave on the counter, as above. Your starter may be smelling vinegary, that is all normal, it is the fermenting process happening.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

If you have an established sourdough starter you can use any flour of your choosing! Honestly, I've even used bleached flour on the rare occasion if I'm in a pinch and don't have unbleached flour in our pantry.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

If you don't want to discard sourdough starter daily, scale back your feedings by 1/4 cup amounts. Still feels like you're baking too much? You can further reduce your feedings to a weekly basis if you keep your starter in the fridge rather than on the countertop.

short answer, yes, though it takes far longer for AP flour to go bad. I've had dull Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye that smelled fine and was still long before its 'use-by' date screw up my starter (fortunately, the switch to a fresher local brand led to a full recovery.)

This is definitely possible. While it would still contain trace amounts of gluten, eventually after enough feeding with gluten free flour, a regular starter would be transformed into a “gluten free sourdough starter.” But, then again may have traces of wheat still contained in the gf starter.

Making a starter involves mixing "equal parts flour and water." That's technically for a 100% hydration starter. But starters can exist and thrive at varying hydration levels. For example, you could mix in half as much water to make a 50% hydration starter in the style of an Italian lievito madre.

Sprouted flour is also great for making sourdough breads. I like to grow my starter using sprouted rye flour and adding sprouted wheat and spelt flour to my dough. A basic French bread recipe using sprouted wheat flour makes great baguettes, rolls, bread sticks, and buns.