62 sourdough starter recipes

Sourdough starter made with skim milk, yogurt, and flour. A yogurt-cultured method from 1973 that creates an active starter in 2 to 5 days with no commercial yeast.

Potato sourdough starter made with active dry yeast, flour, sugar, and raw potato in a crock. Feeds daily and improves with age for tangy, robust sourdough bread.

Two-ingredient sourdough starter made with just flour and water, left to ferment for 4-5 days. The simplest way to capture wild yeast for homemade sourdough bread.

Plain sourdough starter made from just flour and water. No commercial yeast needed. Mix, wait four to five days, and you have a wild-fermented base for bread.

Potato flake sourdough starter: a simple three-ingredient base of water, sugar, and instant potato flakes left to ferment for 3 to 4 days. The sweet, old-fashioned starter used in friendship bread and soft white loaves.

Old-fashioned milk-and-flour sourdough starter with no commercial yeast. Two ingredients capture wild bacteria for tangy bread. Patience required.

Milk-based sourdough starter using just flour and warm milk. A two-ingredient pioneer-style starter that ferments into a tangy base for biscuits, pancakes, and rustic loaves.

Yeasty sourdough starter is the shortcut version: unbleached flour, a packet of dry yeast, and water mixed into a thick batter and left warm for a day. A fast track to bread baking when you don't want to wait two weeks for a wild starter.

Sourdough starter from scratch in two days using water, active dry yeast, sugar, and flour. The fast-start version that skips the wild-yeast wait, refresh with flour and water as you use it.

Wild yeast sourdough starter made from leftover potato water and unbleached flour. The old farmhouse and camping method, no commercial yeast required.

This basic recipe requires a carefully scalded container.

-Bread Machine CB: A true sourdough starter is nothing more than the flour and milk or water which sits at room temperature for several days and catches live yeast bacteria from the air. Most starter recipes today include yeast as an original ingredient as it is much easier and less time consuming. In addition, many sourdough bread recipes also indicate usage of yeast itself as it does provide a higher rising, lighter loaf. A sourdough starter should be kept in a glass or plastic bowl which has a tight fitting lid. I recommend a bowl instead of a jar as you can "feed" your starter right in the bowl easily.

Three-ingredient whole-wheat sourdough starter made with whole-wheat flour, active dry yeast, and lukewarm water. Ferments in 18 to 24 hours at room temperature.

A milk-based sourdough starter jump-started with yeast: flour, water and yeast left to ferment, then enriched with milk, sugar and flour. Keep it in the fridge and feed it after each use for ongoing baking.

White flour sourdough starter made with just water, flour, yeast, and sugar. Ready in 2-3 days and keeps indefinitely with regular feeding.

Sourdough starter with potato uses starchy potato water to feed wild yeasts faster and more reliably. Builds in 2 days at 85F with active dry yeast as a jumpstart.