In case you’re wondering, this series will be going until day 6 — tomorrow! After that we will turn to other matters before gathering our strength to make some baked goods!
This is going to be very easy and you should be confident. You will literally mix a little flour with a little water and leave it in a warm place. It will bubble up and you can then use it to make all sorts of fabulous baked goods!
Day 5:
16 T BF and 6 T + 2 tsp water: the total mix is about a cup of starter and will fill 1/3 of a quart jar.
THUS: you need to use a very clean rubber spatula and transfer it to a quart mason jar, the size I normally keep my starter in going forward.
I don't have a picture of this quantity just after mixing, but by evening, it had risen more than double and was filling the jar, so I removed some for waffles the next day (recipe below)! If yours has not shown this activity, make sure it's in a warm place!
A commenter on the longer version of this post (here) asked why I didn’t start with the bigger jar (quart) but used a pint jar. The reason is that I think it would be hard to tell if the activity was getting going. You certainly can start with the quart jar.
My method is to keep my starter in a quart jar, but I usually only have around 1/4-1/2 cup of starter in it. We’ll discuss why later on.
Has your starter shown some activity yet? Let me know! If not — is it warm enough? Try putting it on top of the fridge or in a cooler with a jar of very warm water…
If it rises to more than half the jar, you can make waffles/pancakes with this easy recipe, using a cup of the starter.
PRINT: Overnight sourdough waffles or pancakes
Making it will use up some of your starter so that you have room in your jar to feed it again. Otherwise, to double the amount of flour, you'll end up needing too large a jar.
If your starter is not very strong (i.e. hasn't doubled), you can add a touch of yeast to the batter (NOT to your starter jar!). It’s a great recipe — I use it all the time!
The method is to mix starter with water and flour and leave overnight. The next morning add a few more ingredients and you’re good to make some delicious waffles and/or pancakes.
After making your batter, still Day 5 (in the evening) feed: 6T BF and 4T water (this is almost 1/2 a cup of flour if that helps).
I’m 2 days behind, so on Day 3, but I’m already getting bubbles and some small growth. My kitchen is a bit cold but I’m experimenting with different warming methods. Tea cozy and putting it on the shelf above our (really hot) under-the-cabinet light strips does the trick.
Thank you so much for this! My starter is just lovely and is more than doubling. Somehow I have so much of it! I am a bit mystified how I ended up with so much- definitely more than the 1/3 of a quart jar. I am taking some out now to try to make the batter for pancakes. I am so excited it is doing so well! Thank you!