Things bakers know: Sluggish starter? Add a little whole grain flour. (2024)
Consistency is not my strong suit. I have a terrible habit of picking up hobbies and putting them right back down. I declare a word of the year every January 1st and I forget it by January 20th. I still haven’t developed the meditation practice I promised myself.
This trend continues when it comes to my sourdough starter maintenance. (Shhh, don’t tell my coworkers!) I’m a forgetful sourdough parent, the kind who would leave it stranded at soccer practice because I didn’t remember I was on pick-up duty.
But that’s all fine, because I have a baker’s trick up my sleeve: Whenever I return to my starter, bashful at how long it’s been since I said hi, I give it a treat. And that treat is whole grain flour.
When we feed sourdough starter, we’re quite literally doing just that: feeding the yeast and bacteria that have been cultivated in this simple mixture of water and flour. This, in turn, helps them thrive so they can go on to both flavor and leaven our bread. And all-purpose flour works just fine as a food source, especially if you’re feeding your starter regularly (which you definitely should!). But like most living things, the yeast and bacteria in starter do especially well when they have more nutrients to snack on. “The minerals and other food present in whole grains help give a big feed, encouraging growth,” explains Baking Ambassador Martin Philip. “Using a small amount of that rocket fuel is a great trick to literally get things off the ground.”
According to Baking School Instructor Lucas Diggle, whole grains can also be helpful to encourage activity in a brand-new sourdough starter. “It’s not uncommon to begin a white liquid levain (the kind of culture that most home bakers tend to have) entirely with whole rye,” he says. “Whole grains contain exponentially more sourdough-friendly microorganisms than white flour.” Laura Valli, a doctoral student studying rye at the Washington State University’s Breadlab, adds that “rye, in particular, contains more free sugars that are easily accessible for the yeast and bacteria to feed on, and it has a higher content of starch-degrading enzymes. That all speeds up the fermentation.”
Photography by Kristin Teig; food styling by Liz Neily
If you’re like me and have neglected your starter for a little too long — perhaps you’ve been out of town or simply forgot it in the back of the fridge — you can use a little whole grain flour (such as pumpernickel or whole wheat flour) to feed your starter and give it a boost. Martin recommends 10% to 20% whole grain in proportion to white flour, but adds that “it's flexible — you don’t need to be super precise with this.” The small amount won’t affect your starter’s flavor, and you can still use it in any recipe calling for “regular” (not whole grain) starter.
This trick also works if your starter is merely acting a little sluggish. The whole grains in these flours will accelerate fermentation of both the bacteria and the yeast in the starter, like revving the gas. This step will help get yourstarter ready for use more quickly.
And remember, while this trick is helpful, it’s not necessary to achieving a healthy, thriving starter. “Mature starters that have been maintained with unbleached all-purpose flour will generally revive well with all-purpose flour, even starters that have been neglected in the fridge for an extended time,” says Barb Alpern, a bread expert on our Baker’s Hotline. Laura adds, “The fact that rye flour ferments quicker than wheat flour should not lead to the assumption that the slower-fermenting wheat starter is less healthy. Wheat flour just takes longer to reach the peak ripeness.”
Maintaining sourdough starter is a practice that requires paying attention, responding to your living culture, and giving it what it needs. And sometimes, what it may needis a little boost of whole grains.
Stock up onpumpernickel orwhole wheat flourso you can always have some on hand for your starter — andwhole grain bread recipes to make with it.
Cover photo by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Liz Neily.
The whole grains in these flours will accelerate fermentation of both the bacteria and the yeast in the starter, like revving the gas. This step will help get your starter ready for use more quickly. And remember, while this trick is helpful, it's not necessary to achieving a healthy, thriving starter.
Obviously, if you are establishing a gluten free starter, you'll need to look at alternatives to these flours. But all purpose, bread flour, whole wheat flour or rye flour are all suitable for feeding a regular sourdough starter successfully.
A starter kept at room temperature requires a consistent feeding of flour and water every day. Even though whole wheat is a higher hydration flour in recipes, you'll still stick with equal parts flour and water for the starter.
Over the past decade-plus of baking, I've tested all manner of flour from whole grain wheat to spelt to einkorn, and while they all do work, my preferred flour to use when creating a sourdough starter is whole grain rye flour and white flour (this can be all-purpose or high-protein bread flour).
The whole grains in these flours will accelerate fermentation of both the bacteria and the yeast in the starter, like revving the gas. This step will help get your starter ready for use more quickly.
Whole Wheat Flour: Some bakers swear by using whole wheat flour in their starters. This flour includes the whole grain of wheat, including the bran, endosperm, and germ.
Feed ¼ cup (2 ounces) starter with ½ cup (2½ ounces) all-purpose flour and ¼ cup (2 ounces) water twice daily (approximately every 12 hours) and let it sit, covered with plastic wrap, at warm room temperature.
Changing the feeding interval, or frequency, is the single most important tool in strengthening a starter. By simply catching your starter near its peak and refeeding at that time, you can significantly strengthen a weak starter.
Sometimes the microbes in your starter simply need time to metabolize all the feedings. This is usually the case in cold environments (AC under 70F, winter kitchens). If your starter is barely bubbling or not bubbling at all 12-24 hours after the last feeding, simply stir it again and let the jar sit for a day or two.
Most commonly, the issue here has to do with temperature (which is very important). If your sourdough starter is kept at a low temp, even 70°F (21°C), it will slow fermentation activity and appear to be sluggish, taking longer to rise and progress through the typical signs of fermentation. The solution: keep it warm.
The reason why whole wheat loaves end up so dense is because whole wheat flour has very little gluten as compared to white all-purpose flour. Gluten is important for giving the dough – and final loaves – structure. Without it, loaves tend to end up flat and dense. #wheatsourdough #sourdoughbread #rusticsourdoughbread.
Sourdough “float test” is a great way to gauge if your starter is ready to use for baking. One thing to keep in mind though is that not always will your starter float when it's ready, it depends on the flour you used to feed your starter (whole grain flour is heavier and will therefore not float).
With each sourdough starter feeding, you'll be discarding some to avoid it from becoming overly acidic. Most will compost or trash this discard, but you can save it and use it in other recipes!
Now, sometimes, and it happens to the best of us, a sourdough starter can “get sick.” Overfeeding can be a cause of this “sickness,” as can lack of feeding and neglect. Because, yes, you can overfeed your sourdough.
For more tang: Incorporate some rye flour and/or whole wheat flour early in the bread-making process, such as when feeding the mother culture and the preferment. Rye flour in particular will help your culture produce some acetic acid.
I recommend the following flours to make your sourdough starter: Gluten free: use brown rice, millet, quinoa, sorghum, buckwheat, teff or gluten free oat flour. Regular starter: use whole wheat, whole spelt, whole rye, khorasan/kamut, emmer, einkorn, oat etc.
Whole-wheat flour has the highest protein content on our list. For that reason, when substituting it for all-purpose, use 50 percent whole-wheat, and 50 percent of another flour, preferably all-purpose, pastry flour or spelt, to avoid a dense result. If you want to use only whole wheat, you'll need to add more water.
Whole wheat and rye flours provide more nutrients for your starter and ferment more actively, but working with rye flour makes starter maintenance easier than whole wheat. Rye provides increased fiber and nutrients similar to whole wheat flour, but because of its lower gluten amount it's much easier to stir.
Sprouted flour is also great for making sourdough breads. I like to grow my starter using sprouted rye flour and adding sprouted wheat and spelt flour to my dough. A basic French bread recipe using sprouted wheat flour makes great baguettes, rolls, bread sticks, and buns.
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