Cultivating Your Sourdough Starter

Yippee! It's time to harvest the Apple Yeast Water to cultivate your sourdough starter. If you have missed out my previous post on building apple yeast water, you can refer it HERE! Allow me to take you through the process of combining apple yeast water and bread flour to produce your sourdough starter. May this be a fun and easy experience for you! Now, let's get the ball rolling...

Disclaimer: This post is solely based on my personal experience of cultivating sourdough starter using apple yeast water.

Method

Day 1

Using a clean jar (approx. 400-500ml capacity), mix 30g Apple Yeast Water and 30g Bread Flour. Stir well, ensure there is no lump.

Day 1, 11:00AM - let's observe the activity after mixing :)

Day 1, 5:00PM - 6 hours later, it starts to show some activity!

Day 1, 7:00PM - Yeah, it grew almost double in 8 hours time!

Day 1, 11:00PM - Gonna place the sourdough starter into the fridge overnight (cover the jar with lid)

Day 2

Bring the infant sourdough starter and 30g of apple yeast water out from the fridge, let it sit in the room temperature for approx. an hour. Discard and reserve 30g of the Starter, feed 30g Apple Yeast Water and 30g Bread Flour.

Day 2, 1:30PM - after discarding and feeding, let's continue the progress....

Day 2, 11:00PM - it's almost 10 hours, it may appear sluggish, don't worry, continue to monitor starter's activity.

Day 2, 11:30PM - Discard and reserve 30g of the Starter, feed 30g Apple Yeast Water and 30g Bread Flour.

This time, I left it on kitchen counter-top to PARTY!

Day 3

Repeat the same process as day 2. Continue to observe starter activity.

Day 3, 7:00AM - The starter is getting stronger, it grew taller within shorter time span.

Day 3, 9:00AM - Discard and reserve 30g of the Starter, feed 30g Apple Yeast Water and 30g Bread Flour.

Day 3, 5:30PM - Starter is growing strong, continue to observe....

Day 3, 9PM - Discard and reserve 30g of the Starter, feed 30g Apple Yeast Water and 30g Bread Flour.

I was supposed to repeat the feeding process at 5:30pm, even though it double in size. I was only able to feed starter at 9pm, as I was occupied with chores. Again, leaving it on the counter-top overnight and let it continue to grow....

Day 4

Repeat the same process as day 3. However, I do noticed the starter gets more active within shorter time span. Be prepared to feed the starter in closer time interval!

Day 4, 7AM - The starter is showing sign of hunger, as it has collapsed a little. But don't worry, it's going to be fine!

Day 4, 7:30AM - Continue to discard and reserve 30g of the Starter, feed 30g Apple Yeast Water and 30g Bread Flour.

Day 4, 11:30AM - 4 hours later, the starter is getting more active!

Day 4, 1:30PM - 2 hours later, the starter has grown more than double without collapsing!

Day 4, 5:30PM - Repeat, discard and reserve 30g of the Starter, feed 30g Apple Yeast Water and 30g Bread Flour.

Do you noticed my last fed timing? It was at 7:30am! Have to attend to last minute errands until 5:30pm.... But don't worry, wild yeast is hardy!

Day 4, 8:30PM - Hurray! That's what we are aiming, the starter should double within 3-4 hours.

Day 4, 10:30PM - WOW WOW WOW! TRIPLE within 5 hours!

The apple yeast water should almost depleted by now, if you still have some balance, you can continue to use it. Otherwise, you can use filtered water and continue the process. Feed the starter once a day, let it rise for an hour and place it into the fridge. Remove from fridge, let the starter rise to double or triple before discarding and feeding. Continue this process for the next 10 days. The sourdough starter should be ready for your first bread in another 10 days time.

I ever used day 5 starter to make sourdough bread and it tasted as if we added apple cider vinegar into the bread. LOL. Avoid using young starter, be patience and continue to take good care of it, I will share starter maintenance in another post soon. Hope you enjoy reading this post!

Note

• Timing shown is for reference purpose

• Prepare at least 2 jars (approx. 400-500ml capacity)

• Always use Apple Yeast Water at room temperature

• Always use clean jar during each feeding process

• Always cover the jar with a cloth to avoid starter from drying out (use cloth so that the starter can breathe), if using a lid - do not close it tightly

• Discard the unfed infant starter (for day 1 to day 4), as it will be unpleasant to use

• Store discard from day 5 to make pancakes etc, you can view pancake recipes HERE