This post is for anyone I've ever shared my sourdough starter with. Or, for anyone that loves reading about sourdough. Or anyone that loves sourdough, maybe?

Over the last few years, I’ve gifted a number of people a bit of sourdough starter. Sometimes as a full-fledged robust ready-to-go version and sometimes looking like this: a jar of dried-out little flakes and crumbs that, when it’s received, gives the recipient a little pause—a little what-have-I-gotten-myself-into moment. That moment is followed by me hurriedly trying to reassure the poor soul that bringing the flaky crumbs to life is really quite simple. Then proceeding with me going into great detail while noticing my friend's eyes losing focus and glazing over.

Sad to say, this has happened more than once 🙃

Therefore, I decided to put all my sourdough starter survival tips out in an easy-to-bookmark format. Maybe—just maybe—this will save at least one soul from the out-of-focus-eyes glazed-over experience. A gal can hope anyway!

First, a warning: I love to bake. I do not claim to be particularly good at it. I think I’m just more OK with failure than many. I’ve always loved to bake. I suspect it started when I was a kid and I would want a treat. My mom didn’t keep candy or sweets in the house, but I could always find the core ingredients needed to whip up cookies (oatmeal, raisins, flour, sugar, butter). Fast-forward twenty years and I became the girl who always brought treats to meetings. I used to joke that I was only hired and invited to meetings for the baked goods.

Fast-forward to a pandemic, stuck in our itty bitty Airbnb in Barcelona and, like many, I turned to the kitchen. I spent many hours over those six weeks in Barcelona experimenting with sourdough. I left that first sourdough starter for our Airbnb hosts. I didn’t know how to transport it and we were heading to Denver where a good friend had already offered to provide me with some of her starter. Fast-forward to today and this little sourdough monster has traveled more miles than most will in their lives. It’s been active and baked with in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Arizona, California, Costa Rica, Belize, Mexico. Colombia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Malta, (it went on its own vacation while we were in Rwanda and Kenya), South Africa, Panama, (on vacation in Argentina, Antarctica, South Georgia Island, and the Falklands), Tennessee. (4.2022)

How to bring your sourdough starter back to life from dried chips

When I gift sourdough starter chips, I typically give you approximately an ounce of dried sourdough in a glass jar. If I've gifted it to you this way, follow the steps below to bring it back to the beautiful hungry monster it is meant to be.

1) Mix the dried starter chips (1 ounce) with 2 ounces of lukewarm water. The water will barely cover the chips. I prefer to store my starter in a glass container and use a disposable shower cap as the lid. If you are using an actual lid, you'll want to just place it on top and not seal the container. Otherwise there is a good chance you'll end up with a sourdough explosion.

2) Stir the chip-and-water mixture occasionally over the next few hours. Once the chips are mostly dissolved, feed your sourdough monster with 1 ounce (about 1/4 cup) of all-purpose flour. Cover it with the shower cap or lid, and place it somewhere warm. King Arthur Flour had an awesome tip to store it in your oven with the oven light on. It helps keep the starter at a consistent, warm-ish (80 degrees) temperature. I love this tip and have used it many times. I suggest putting a sticky note or some other reminder on the oven though to remind you that it's in there. You don't want to go preheating the oven only to open the door later to a scene like this. (Photo courtesy of my mom. Man, how did I survive childhood? 😂)

3) Let it rest until it bubbles - anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. If you aren't keeping it in the oven with a light on, it might take a bit longer to get bubbly. You want it to look kinda like this.

4) Feed the sourdough monster again—this time with 1 ounce of lukewarm water and 1 ounce of flour. Cover, and put back in its warm spot. After around 8 hours (if you are using your oven with the light on, if not, waiting until it looks like the picture below), you should see lots of bubbling.

5) Repeat step 4 (Feed the little monster again with an 1 ounce of lukewarm water and 1 ounce of flour.)

6) Repeat step 4 AGAIN. (Feed the little monster again with an 1 ounce of lukewarm water and 1 ounce of flour.)

The little monster should be very happy and bubbly at this point. It will probably have gotten super bubbly and fallen back down. This is totally normal and OK!

7) Your little sourdough starter monster is ready for baking! Hooray! Now… here's how to keep your little monster alive.

Keeping your starter alive

This is just how I have found success in keeping my starter alive and (mostly) healthy. You can google sourdough starter and read the “standard sourdough feeding schedule.” My method isn’t all that different. (Read: I do best with things that can survive some tough love.) I use my sourdough about twice a week. Saturday night pizza night (recipe below) and either a loaf (or two if our Airbnb host lives nearby) of whole wheat sourdough bread (recipe below). Between these two uses, I rarely end up throwing away (discarding) my sourdough when feeding. If you are not going to use your sourdough for something at least once a week, you’ll still need to feed it, you’ll just have to throw away the “discard” instead of using it.

What does the sourdough monster eat?

4 ounces (113 grams or 1 cup) All-Purpose Flour

4 ounces (113 grams or 1/2 cup) lukewarm water

Note: I'm a big fan of weighing ingredients for consistency.

Steps for feeding:

1) Remove 4 ounces of sourdough starter from your monster. Either bake with this (see my pizza dough recipe below) or throw it away.

2) Add the ingredients above. Mix it with a spoon and leave it on the counter for a few hours to let the monster eat a bit. If you are like me and will only be using it once or twice a week, put it in the fridge for storage. If you'll be using your monster more often, you might want to store it on the counter all the time.

Recipes and other miscellaneous tips

A few things to note:

• I find that if I've been keeping my sourdough in the fridge, it's best to take it out a few hours or the day before I'm going to use it. This keeps the monster “active” and ready to perform in the recipe.

• You can substitute sourdough in a lot of recipes! Often, it improves your baked goods without being able to taste the tang of the sourdough. Starter is equal weight of water and flour so it’s fairly straightforward to use it in any recipe that requires flour and water (or milk/buttermilk): weigh your sourdough starter discard. Divide that number, whether it’s in ounces or grams, in two. Subtract that weight from the weight of the flour and the weight of the liquid in your recipe and use these new weights, along with the entire amount of discard, when making the recipe.

Now for a few of my favorite ways to use my sourdough monster.

Carrie's Sourdough Soft Pretzels

I spent most of our six weeks in Barcelona perfecting this soft pretzel recipe. I ♥️ soft pretzels.

Carrie's Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

The base of this recipe comes from King Arthur Flour. The original recipe calls for white flour. Whole wheat is a much heavier/drier flour. I’ve added some oil and honey to soften the flavor a bit. The bread isn’t sweet though.

Carrie's Sourdough Pizza Crust

This is another recipe based on a King Arthur Flour recipe.

Carrie's Sourdough English Muffins

And I have no idea where I found this one, but I've made adjustments over the last few years. After making these, I have no interest in buying and eating commercial English muffins. They are that good!

If you are reading this and I haven't shared my sourdough with you and you would like some, let me know!

Below: a selection of baked goods I've made with my sourdough monster: sourdough cinnamon rolls, scones, pancakes, hamburger buns, rolls, biscuits, blueberry muffins… the list goes on!