Gluten Free Sourdough Starter Maintenance Guide
A guide to keeping your GF sourdough "ride or die" alive and thriving.
“Can I bring you some of my sourdough starter. Would you like that?" Hattie raised an eyebrow at me. "I don't know," I said. "It is quite a commitment. I had some before and I didn't look after it. It died and I felt terrible".”
― Sally Andrew, The Milk Tart Murders
As a living thing, with basic needs, your starter is going to need your attention, your time, and your commitment. Treat her with love and care and she will love and care for you and your baked good right back. Your gluten free starter is the star in your gluten free sourdough journey. If you don’t have a strong starter, then you won’t have optimal rise and loft in your sourdough bread and sourdough baked goods. This post is going to be your guide for keeping a strong starter and to help you troubleshoot if you are having troubles with your starter.
Let’s Start With The Basics
What is starter?
Sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria that allow your bread to naturally rise. With a wild yeast starter, there is no need to use commercial yeast! To create a starter, you combine water and flour (in this case gluten free flours) and let it sit for a period of time. During this time, the mixture begins to ferment by “catching” the natural wild yeast and bacteria in the environment around it. This process usually takes 7-10 days. Once your starter is active, a portion of it will be used to help your bread and baked goods rise.
What equipment do I need to maintain my starter?
Minimal equipment is needed to maintain your starter. You will need a clean jar, kitchen scale and something to thoroughly stir it together with. There is a rumor that using a metal object (like a spoon) will kill your starter. I have found this to be false. I have used metal spoons many times and as you can see, my starter is alive and healthy!
Starter Maintenance
What do I feed my starter?
To maintain a healthy starter you must feed it. This means, after your starter has peaked and fallen, you will take a portion of it and feed it more flour and water, so it can rise again. You will feed your starter right before you want to make bread, or mix your levain (the active starter used to leaven your baked goods). I have found great success feeding my gluten free starter a mixture of organic brown rice flour and organic light (or hulled) buckwheat flour. You can also build a very robust starter of just brown rice flour. Please note, if you use brown rice flour, it is very important to buy finely ground brown rice flour. Rice flour that is not finely ground, will not absorb water very well and will leave your starter hungry, weak and watery. Buckwheat is a very “sticky” flour when wet, but also makes a good starter. If you cannot tolerate those flours, sorghum is a great option. Millet can also be used, but I find it makes a weaker starter. Whole grain flours make the most robust starters. I do not, in any circumstance, recommend using a pre-made blend from the grocery store. Those blends contain starches, heavily processed flours and in many cases gums/binders, which inhibits the growth of your wild yeast. I also recommend using organic grains when you can, as the chemicals in treated grains can hinder your starter’s growth.
How do I feed my starter?
There are multiple ways to feed your starter. Bakers usually find a way that works best for their starter and their own needs. I will write out 3 examples of how to feed your starter and let you know my preference! When reading about feeding your starter, you may come across different feeding ratios. I will break down for you, what this means.
When you are instructed to feed your starter a 1:1:1 ratio, this means you feed it equal parts of all things. Example: 30 grams starter, 30 grams flour, 30 grams water. In my opinion, this is not the best ratio to feed gluten free starter. Gluten free sourdough and starter rises and peaks faster than traditional wheat based sourdough and starter. In plain speak, a feeding ratio of 1:1:1 creates a weaker and more hungry gluten free starter.
I find a gluten free starter works better with a 1:2:2 feeding ratio and sometimes, to really give it a boost a 1:3:3 feeding ratio. Here is the breakdown of what both of those look like. Remember, these are just examples and not necessarily the exact measurements you will use to maintain your starter.
A 1:2:2 feeding ratio would be 30 grams starter, 60 grams flour, 60 grams water.
A 1:3:3 feeding ratio would be 30 grams starter, 90 grams flour, 90 grams water.
If you are not going to be using your starter for a while, say you are going on vacation, then if is beneficial to give your starter a bigger feeding with a 1:3:3 feeding ratio before you go. Let it start to become active (not peak) and store it in the fridge until you get home. Also, if your starter is acting a little sluggish, then give it a bigger feeding (1:3:3) to give it a boost.
The amount of water you use to feed your starter will depend on what flours you are using. I often find that I need more water, sometimes up to 10 grams more. See next section for the exact ratios I use regularly to feed my starter.
How much starter should I maintain?
For my recipes, I suggest you maintain about 140 grams of starter. To achieve this, you will need to follow this guideline. You will put 20 grams of starter (that needs to be fed) into a clean jar. Add 35 grams organic brown rice flour and 20 grams organic light buckwheat flour. Add 65-70 grams filtered water and thoroughly combine your ingredients. Start with 65 grams water, if it is too thick (like a paste, add 5 grams more water). Starter will not always double, but you will be able to see it reaching its peak. The starter will become domed on the top with lots of bubbles of various sizes throughout.
How often do I need to feed my starter?
The answer to this question depends entirely on how often you are planning to use your starter for baking. If you are planning on baking one boule a week, then you will feed about once a week. If you are planning on baking more than once a week, then you will feed it more!
Every time you are wanting to bake, you will need to feed your starter the morning or the night before mixing your levain (the ferment you will use in your bread). After your starter is well risen, you use it to make you levain. You will then feed your starter again. This time, when your starter is well risen, but not at it’s peak, you will put it in the fridge and store it there until you are ready to bake with it again. If you choose to keep your starter on your counter, because you are baking often, your starter will need to be fed every 24 hours. Keeping it on the counter will create more discard and potentially more waste if you are not planning on using up all of your discard.
How do I store my starter?
If you are not planning on baking with your starter for over 24 hours, then I suggest you store it in the fridge. The cold slows the fermentation process and allows you to store your starter for longer periods of time between feedings. I have kept my starter covered in my fridge for over 3 weeks without feeding it.
How do I care for my starter?
Your sourdough starter and my sourdough starter will not be the same, so the care of your starter will look a bit different than the care of mine. What do I mean by this? Many factors go into a healthy starter including, the wild yeast in your own home vs my home, the temperature of your kitchen, what kind of flour you use, what water you use, how often you feed it, what ratios you feed it, if you use organic or conventional flours. This is where you will need to take some time getting to know your own starter. What flours does it respond best to? What ratios of flour and water does it respond best to? What temperature does it perform best in? I cannot answer these questions for you. This is where you will need to take some time getting to know your starter. By answering these questions (with some trial and error), you will get to intimately know your starter and the best way to maintain it.
When it is warm, your starter will peak much faster than when it is cold. During the summer, my starter can peak after 2-3 hours. However, during the winter, my starter will take 6-10 hours to peak, depending on how cold my kitchen is. Looking for a warm spot in the colder months? Place your starter in your unheated oven with the oven light on. This makes the oven slightly warmer and is a great place to ferment your starter. Words of advice, put a note on your oven so you don’t forget your starter in in there and turn it on! Many a great bakers have accidentally cooked their starters! During the changes of the seasons, you will need to adjust your feeding/baking schedule based on temperature alone.
What is discard?
Discard is any amount of your starter remaining that has been removed/not used before feeding the remaining starter. Example, you have 50 grams of starter left after making your levain, but you only need to feed 25 grams of starter. You would remove 25 grams of starter and put it into your discard jar. Also, any starter that has reached its peak and fallen is considered discard OR inactive starter. You could feed it again to make the starter active, but that would become too much starter to maintain. So, again, you would remove 25 grams of starter to feed and the rest becomes discard.
How do I store my discard?
You store your discard in the fridge. It will keep for a long time. The longer it sits in the fridge, the more sour it will become. I have used discard that is 3-4 weeks old, this makes for a very sour baked good. My family and I enjoy the sour flavor, especially in discard crackers. However, if you don’t love your baked goods too sour, I recommend using your discard up within in 7-10 days. Please do not use discard that has gotten discolored or moldy (this has actually never happened to me, but I am aware that it can happen).
My discard has a layer of liquid on top, what is that?
This liquid is called “hooch” and it simply means that your discard (or your starter) is hungry. It is a byproduct of the bacteria and yeast after they have digested the flour in your starter. You can stir it back in to your discard or pour it off. If you stir it back in, it will give your starter a more sour taste.
What can I do with discard?
Discard is one of my favorite byproducts of starter! I have recipes already posted that use up discard, but I also have many other recipes. These discard recipes range from pancakes to cookies to pie dough to English muffins. I even use mostly discard in my focaccia recipe. There are specific recipes for discard and your discard is NOT interchangeable with your fed starter. I will be sharing many more discard recipes are this community grows! Expect at least one new discard recipe a month.
What if I kill my starter?
I’m going to be honest, it is very hard to kill a starter, once established and hearty. Your starter wants to live. I have purposefully tried multiple times, just to understand better how starters work. This is where putting in the time to understand and getting to know your starter pays off. Really pay attention to how to starter reacts to feedings and different temperatures and time between feedings. Take notes if it helps you. This may seem like a lot of work, but you won’t have to give it this much attention forever. Once you get to know your starter, then it’s needs become second nature to you.
Where and how do I get gluten free starter?
There are options for obtaining a gluten free starter. The first one being, you can make one yourself. If you are not confident in doing this or don’t want to take the time, I have created my own gluten free dehydrated starter. It will be available for sale starting next week. If you are interested in this option, follow me on Instagram (TheNakedPear) where I will be announcing updates on this product. I will also post a note on Substack when it is available to purchase.
Whew!
This was a lot of information and it can get confusing when you are just starting out! Feel free to message me with any questions. I will also be starting a new Chat on Substack where you can add your own questions and helpful information. This will be a great place for us to start building community, which is one of my favorite things about Substack!
With Gratitude-
Idris Craft
I am allergic to rice flour. Is there a substitute, for that, which I can use in the starter?
Very helpful article , thanks so much