Traditional slow-fermented sourdough bread is, in my opinion, the best bread in the world. Prepared with a sourdough starter—an active culture of bacteria and yeast—it is a living breathing thing—until it hits the oven, of course.
The texture and flavor of sourdough bread is like no other. It’s tangy and sweet, tender and crusty, all at the same time.
But the allure of sourdough bread doesn’t end with how good it is. As breads go, sourdough is about as good-for-you as it gets. And it’s all because of those microbes living in the sourdough starter.
Read more about the benefits of sourdough bread here.
Throughout the entire bread making process—until the bread hits the oven—the microbes are at work in the dough, consuming the starches and degrading the gluten. I like to say they’re pre-digesting it—which in turn makes it easier for us to digest!
The making of sourdough bread is very satisfying. It’s a simple process, really—flour, water, salt, and time are all you need—but there is so much nuance to it, that for all its simplicity, it presents a satisfying challenge.
I’m chuckling to myself as I write this because I’ve got a phrase running through my head, and I think I’m going to have to say it out loud here, even though it’s terribly cliche.Sourdough...it takes minutes to learn, and a lifetime to master.
Ugh. I am so sorry. I couldn’t help myself, though, because it’s so true.
Anywaaaaay...in the process of honing my own sourdough skills, I’ve tried different styles and tricks, and have landed on a technique that’s a little less common within the world of sourdough, at least as far as I have seen, and I absolutely love and recommend it.
And that is, keeping a “dry” or small or concentrated starter.
In contrast to the big bowl of sloppy wet starter that I kept for my first two years of sourdough baking, a dry starter is small and thick, kind of like a sourdough starter concentrate.
I feed my dry starter at a 1:5:5 ratio, meaning 1 part starter to 5 parts flour and 5 parts water. And that 1-part starter is kept very very small.
For measurement purposes, for a daily feeding, that will look like 10 grams of starter (or 1 Tablespoon) to 50 grams of flour (or 5 Tablespoons) to 50 grams of water (5 Tablespoons).
This makes for a stiffer, smaller, manageable starter. When I’m prepping to bake, I can build up my starter by building whatever sized leaven I need for the particular recipe I’m preparing.
As already mentioned, a dry starter is tidy and manageable, but there are other advantages as well.
A dry starter is a strong starter.
Because it’s fed at a 1:5:5 ratio, there is more food for the microbes to feed on than with the typical 1:1:1 ratio. This means the starter can go longer between feedings and the microbes will not tire out and need more food as quickly. This also means that when you are ready to build the leaven and bake, you have a more vibrant and lively starter to work with—and that meansbetter rise and flavor in your bread. Read more about building a leaven here and here.
A dry starter creates less waste.
A sourdough starter that is kept at room temperature must be fed daily (every 12-24 hours) in order to keep the microbes healthy and active. Each time it is fed, a small portion (10 grams) is scooped into a fresh jar and fed flour and water, while the remainder is discarded.
The advantage of a small dry starter is it minimizes the discard. The smaller the starter, the less daily discard.I explain why we discard here.
A note about discard:
Rarely, if ever, does discard need to be truly discarded. Instead of pouring it into the trash bin, try pan-frying it on med-high heat in a skillet with a drizzle of oil for a quick flatbread. Or stash it in the fridge and save it to use in one of the many recipes all over the internet that calls for discard.
Discard can be used for muffins, flatbreads, pancakes, quick breads, etc, or even stirred into quiches or souffles. So don’t throw away your discard. Collect it for a lazy day, when you want to bake something but don’t feel like going through the 24-hours-long bread making process.
Keeping a dry sourdough starter has so many advantages—it’s transformed my process, making it so much simpler and easier. It’s really worth considering and maybe even giving a try yourself.
