Welcome to Your Sourdough Journey!
Thank you for adopting Alice, your new sourdough starter! She’s been carefully nurtured and dehydrated, waiting to be revived in your kitchen. With a little love, she’ll reward you with beautifully fermented loaves full of depth and flavour.
How to Revive Alice
Before You Start: What You’ll Need
To successfully revive Alice, your dehydrated sourdough starter, make sure you have the following:
✔ 5g dehydrated sourdough starter (half the packet)
✔ 25g non-chlorinated water (bottled, filtered, or boiled & cooled)
✔ White bread flour (Champagne Valley, Gideon Milling or Eureka Mills recommended)
✔ A clean glass jar with loose-fitting lid
✔ Digital kitchen scale (for precise measurements)
✔ Small spatula
✔ Masking tape and a pen (to write down feeding times)
✔ A rubber band or dry-erase market (to mark your starters baseline)
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Once you have everything ready, follow the step-by-step rehydration guide below!
Day 1 – Rehydration
- Weigh out 5g (half of the packet) of dehydrated starter. Seal the packet and store the remaining 5g in a cool, dry place.
- Add 25g of tepid (not too warm) non-chlorinated water (bottled, boiled and cooled or borehole) and stir well.
- Let sit for 30-60 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the water.
- Add 25g of white bread flour (I recommend stoneground like Champagne Valley, Gideon Milling or Eureka Mills).
- Mix well until no dry spots remain.
- Cover loosely and leave at room temperature (24-30C) for 24 hours.
- Set a reminder on your phone to feed her again or write the time on masking tape on the jar.
Day 2 – First Feeding
- Discard most of the mixture, leaving about 10g of starter in the jar.
- Zero out the scale, add 25g water, mix well.
- Add 25g white bread flour, mix thoroughly.
- Cover loosely and leave for another 24 hours.
- You may not see much activity yet—this is normal.
Day 3 – Second Feeding
- Discard most of the mixture, leaving about 10g of starter.
- Add 25g water + 25g white bread flour, mix well.
- Cover loosely and leave for another 24 hours.
- Mark the jar with a rubber band or dry-erase marker so you can monitor the growth.
- Set a reminder! At this stage, you may start seeing bubbles.
Day 4 – Is Alice Ready?
✔ If Alice is bubbly and visibly rising, you can take your jar (no discarding) and now add 30g water + 30g of flour each. This starter should be ready (at peak) in about 4-12 hours depending on temperature.
✔ If she isn’t active yet, continue feeding the same as day 3 for a day or more.
Day 5 – Ready to Bake
At this stage, Alice is officially revived and ready to bake with! 🎉
You can do one last feed before baking – removing all but 25g, feeding 30g water and 30g flour. It should be ready for a bake in 4-6 hours.
You can use my basic beginner-friendly recipe to bake your first loaf!
Before using your starter in a bake, take out 10g of starter at peak and feed it with 40g water and 40g bread flour to make sure you keep the mother alive!
How to Maintain Your Starter (Daily Care & Storage)
🌡️ Room Temperature (Best for Frequent Bakers)
- Feed twice daily at a 1:4:4 (e.g. 10g starter : 40g water : 40g flour) to 1:6:6 ratio
- Alice should always smell yeasty and slightly fruity—a sign of a healthy starter!
🧊 Fridge Storage (For Occasional Bakers but not recommended)
- Store Alice in the fridge for maximum 2 weeks and feed 2x a day for at least 2-3 days before using in a bread.
- All starters work best when maintained at room temperature. Sure, you can bake a bread with a fridge-maintained starter, but you risk making your starter more and more acidic. Less frequent feeding and fridge storage lead to an overly-acidic starter. When your starter is acidic, yeast suffers. Here is a really wonderful in-depth video on this topic form The Sourdough Journey.
- You do not need to maintain a large amount of starter. Day to day – 10g starter with 40g of water and 40g of flour (1:4:4) twice a day is enough. When it gets hotter (above 25C) I take this to 1:6:6 (10g starter with 60g water and flour each).
Get my FREE Sourdough From Scratch PDF
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✅ Beginner-friendly recipe for making your first loaf
✅ Tools & Equipment
✅ Troubleshooting guide
Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 252 g non-chlorinated water room temperature
- 350 g white bread flour
- 70 g active sourdough starter fed and bubbly
- 7 g salt
Instructions
Mix the Dough
- In a large bowl, mix 252g water and 70g starter until combined.
- Add 350g flour and mix until no dry flour remains. The dough will be shaggy.
- Cover and let rest for 30-45 minutes (fermentolyse).
Add Salt & Strengthen the Dough
- Sprinkle 7g salt over the dough and mix it in using dimpling motions.
- Perform stretch and folds: Grab one side, stretch up, and fold over. Repeat on all four sides.
- Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Bulk Fermentation (4-10 Hours at Room Temp)
- Continue stretch and folds every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours.
- Let the dough rest until it grows 60-80% in volume. This takes 4-10 hours, depending on room temperature. The warmer the ambient temperature is, the more to the 60% side you can lean. The colder it is, the more to the 80% side you want to go. The biggest mistake most beginners make is not bulk proofing long enough.
Shape the Dough
- Lightly flour your surface (I use a mix of rice and bread flour) and gently turn out the dough.
- Pull one side of the dough over the center, then pull the opposite side over.
- Starting from the top, roll the dough down towards you to create surface tension. Be gentle and don't compress the dough too much.
- Place the shaped dough into a floured proofing basket, seam-side up.
Cold Proof
- Cover and refrigerate for 8-12 hours (overnight).
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 250°C with a Dutch oven inside.
- Turn the dough out onto baking paper/ non-stick mat, score the top, and place it in the Dutch oven.
- Cover and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove the lid, turn the temperature down to 220°C and bake uncovered for another 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool & Enjoy
- Let your sourdough loaf cool completely (at least 1 hour) on a wire rack before slicing. If you slice before it cools your crumb will be gummy. Be patient and don't ruin all your hard work at the last stage!
Video
FAQ & Troubleshooting
My rehydrated starter isn't bubbling. Is something wrong?
This could be for one of many reasons, but here are the main ones:
1. Temperature: Make sure your ambient temperature is between 22-30C. If it’s colder, you can put it in the oven with just the light on or on top of the fridge.
2. Wrong timing of feeds: If you feed before your starter is peaking (uneven top, peak activity) then every time you feed you are decreasing the yeast colony and effectively decreasing the concentration of the yeast in your starter. Wait for signs of activity and leave it until peak (or just after) to feed.
3. Poor water quality: Chlorinated tap water can slow things down, so try using filtered or bottled water. If tap water is all you have, let it sit out uncovered for a few hours to let the chlorine evaporate or boil and cool it.
How do I know when my starter is ready to use?
Your starter is ready when it:
✅ Doubles in Size – Within a few hours after feeding, it should rise.
✅ Bubbly and Lively– It should look lively, with lots of little bubbles.
✅ Smells Pleasant – A good starter has a slightly tangy, yeasty, and mildly sweet aroma. If it smells strongly of vinegar or alcohol, it might need some TLC and a few feeds before it can be used in bread.
✅ Tastes Balanced – A healthy starter should taste slightly tangy but not overly sour or bitter.
💡 Bonus Check: The Float Test
Want to be extra sure? Drop a teaspoon of starter into a glass of water. If it floats, it’s airy and ready to bake! If it sinks, don’t worry—it might just need one more feeding before it’s strong enough.
Now, get ready to bake some amazing sourdough! 🍞✨
Can I use different flours to feed my starter?
Absolutely! Your starter isn’t picky. You can feed it with any flour you have on hand—whole wheat, rye, or bread flour. However, it’s important to note that a starter performs better in a bread that uses the same flour that it was fed with.
What should I do if there's liquid on top of my starter?
That liquid, called hooch, is a sign your starter is really hungry. It’s best to discard it rather than stir it back in.
Here’s how to revive your starter:
1️⃣ Discard the hooch and take 20g of your starter.
2️⃣ Feed it with 40g water + 40g flour (a 1:2:2 ratio).
3️⃣ Repeat this feeding twice, 12 hours apart, until you see strong bubbling and activity.
4️⃣ Once it’s looking healthy, switch to a 1:4:4 feeding (e.g., 10g starter + 40g water + 40g flour) for a few feedings.
5️⃣ When it starts doubling in size, bubbling happily, and smelling pleasantly tangy, it’s ready for baking! 🚀
💡 Tip: Keep your starter on a consistent feeding schedule to avoid hooch buildup in the future. A well-fed starter is a happy, strong starter! 😊
I think my starter has mould - what should I do?
Signs of Mould (Time to Say Goodbye 👋)
If you see any of these, unfortunately, your starter is beyond saving:
❌ Fuzzy spots – White, green, blue, pink, or black fuzzy growth.
❌ Strange colours – Anything that isn’t a natural beige, tan, or slightly greyish hue.
❌ Unpleasant odour – If it smells rotten, musty, or like spoiled food, it’s time to toss it.
💡 What to do: If mould appears, discard the starter and sanitise your jar and utensils before starting fresh. Use the other half of your starter packet to start over.
Signs of a Dried-Out Starter (Still Safe! ✅)
If the top of your starter looks dry, cracked, or slightly hardened and a little darker, it’s just dehydrated, not mouldy.
✔ Fix it: Peel off the dry layer and continue feeding as usual.
Signs of Hooch (Also Safe! ✅)
Hooch is a dark liquid (grey, brown, or even black) that forms on top when your starter is hungry.
✔ Fix it: Pour off the hooch, take a small amount of starter, and give it a good feeding (see above answer).
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