Sourdough Starter Recipe: Easy Homemade Guide from Scratch 2026

Making your own sourdough starter at home is a simple and rewarding process that requires just flour, water, and a bit of patience. Unlike commercial yeast, a sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeasts and bacteria that ferments dough slowly, producing bread with a deeper flavor, a more open crumb, and better keeping qualities. This step-by-step guide will walk you through creating a robust starter from scratch over six days, with no previous ferment needed.

The main difference between sourdough and commercial yeast is that commercial yeast is a controlled fungal culture designed for fast, predictable fermentation. Sourdough fermentation is much slower, which gives bread a more complex, aromatic flavor, a moist and airy crumb, and improved digestibility. It also stays fresh longer. Once your starter is active, you can use it to leaven any bread or pastry dough.

In this recipe, we explain how to make a sourdough starter from zero, without any added yeast or starter. You can also make a starter with commercial yeast by fermenting a portion of flour and water with a little yeast until bubbly, but here we focus on the wild version. The process is straightforward: mix flour and water, wait, and repeat with regular feedings until the culture is strong enough to raise dough.

Ingredients for Sourdough Starter

This recipe makes 1 active sourdough starter, enough to leaven several loaves of bread.

• Whole wheat flour
• Warm water
• 1 tablespoon raisins (optional, to speed up the start)

How to Make Sourdough Starter Step by Step

1. Day 1: Mix the Initial Starter

In a transparent container with a lid, add 50 g of whole wheat flour and 50 g of warm water (total = 100 g of starter). Optionally, you can add a tablespoon of raisins to encourage the fermentation. Mix well and cover, but do not seal the lid tightly so that gases can escape. Leave the mixture in a warm place for 24 hours.

2. Day 2: First Feeding

Without removing anything, add another 50 g of whole wheat flour and 50 g of warm water. At this point, you will have 200 g of starter. Mix and cover again without tightening the lid. Leave it in a warm place for 24 hours. You can mark the level of the mixture on the container to easily check if it rises slightly over the next 24 hours.

3. Day 3: Discard and Feed

Now you need to remove half of the mixture (100 g) and add 100 g of whole wheat flour and 100 g of warm water. You will have 300 g of starter. Mix, cover without tightening the lid, and leave in a warm place for 24 hours. Mark the level again. At this point, if you are lucky, you may start to see small bubbles.

4. Day 4: Continue Feeding

Remove starter until only 100 g remains. Also remove the raisins if you used them, as they have served their purpose. Add 100 g of whole wheat flour and 100 g of warm water. You will have a total of 300 g of starter. Mix, cover without tightening the lid, and leave in a warm place for 24 hours. Mark the level again to check the rise after 24 hours. By now, there should be some activity.

5. Day 5: Feed Again

Remove starter until only 100 g remains and add 100 g of whole wheat flour and 100 g of warm water. You will have 300 g of starter. Mix and cover without tightening. Leave in a warm place for 24 hours, marking the top level to check if the starter grows. If all goes well, it may double in volume in less than 24 hours.

6. Day 6: Check if It's Ready

If everything has gone well, by this point you should have a well-activated starter ready to use. The starter is active when it can double its volume in less than 24 hours. At this stage, you can use it as explained in the introduction. If you are not going to use it immediately, continue feedings by always keeping 100 g of the fermented starter and adding 100 g of flour (of the type you will use for your bread) and 100 g of warm water to keep it healthy. It is best to refresh the starter as soon as it has fully risen, rather than waiting for it to deflate completely.

Tips for the Best Sourdough Starter

Temperature Matters

The ideal temperature for fermentation is around 25°C (77°F). If the room is much cooler, the yeasts will slow down and struggle to work. If it is too warm, fermentation will be too fast and the microorganisms may run out of food quickly. Temperatures above 40°C (104°F) will kill the culture. If you don't see much growth after 4-5 days, try placing the jar near a radiator or a gentle heat source.

Choosing the Right Flour

You can use any type of flour, but whole wheat flour tends to work best for sourdough because the bran contains more wild yeasts. Once your starter is active, you can switch to white flour or any other flour you prefer for baking.

Storing and Maintaining Your Starter

A well-active starter keeps well in the refrigerator for several days. When you want to use it again, depending on the room temperature, you may need to reactivate it over a couple of days with refreshments of equal amounts of starter, flour, and water. During refrigeration, you still need to refresh it, though less often—once a week or at most every 15 days is sufficient. For long-term storage without refreshments, you can freeze it in small portions and reactivate them later.

30 Favorite Recipes I Keep Coming Back to at Home

Maybe you're a lot like me and like having a stash of cozy comfort dishes, tried-and-true international favorites, and desserts that please a crowd.

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Even More Tasty Recipes to Cook for the Family

After years of testing and tweaking recipes in my own kitchen, I've come to believe the greatest dishes are built on simplicity, dependable methods, and serious flavor.

The recipes gathered here are the ones I genuinely keep coming back to—whether I'm putting together a fast meal just for me or making something memorable for friends and family.

When dessert is on my mind, the rich, silky Orange Chocolate Mousse Recipe is a go-to for those times I want something elegant without much fuss. The caramelized Trdelnik Slavic Pastry Recipe, modeled on the well-known Central European chimney cake, is another sweet favorite. If baking is your thing, knowing how to make syrup for better dessert texture comes in handy, and my Inverted Sugar Recipe walks through exactly how I do it at home.

On days when I want something light and fresh, I'll usually make the timeless Italian Caprese Salad Recipe or a flawlessly cooked Simple Poached Egg Recipe. For comfort cooking with more heft, the filling Meatball Sandwich Recipe, the creamy Russian Stroganoff Beef Recipe, and the fast weeknight go-to One Pot Pasta Recipe are ones I recommend often.

I'm also a big fan of passing along dishes from kitchens around the world, such as the genuine Sorropotún de Bonito Fish Stew Recipe, crunchy Chilean Pumpkin Sopaipillas Recipe, and the traditional Spanish Cochifrito Segovian Fried Pig Recipe.

Air fryer cooking is another area I turn to often, since it cuts down on time without sacrificing texture. The ones I make most include Air Fryer Pork Ribs Recipe, Air Fryer Chicken Thighs Recipe, Air Fryer Sweet Potatoes Recipe, Air Fryer Baked Potatoes Recipe, Air Fryer Peppers Recipe, Air Fryer Mixed Sandwich Recipe, Air Fryer Toasted Bread Recipe, and Air Fryer Hard-Boiled Eggs Recipe.

And for those steering clear of wheat, my cozy Gluten-Free Lasagna Recipe shows that a classic baked pasta can still be indulgent, cheesy, and deeply comforting without any gluten.

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