Learn how to make a sourdough starter from scratch with einkorn! Includes quick tips for maintenance and feeding, plus recipes for using leftover discard!
One of my goals for this year was to learn how to make einkorn sourdough.
In order to do that though, you have to first learn how to make an einkorn sourdough starter.
Considering you start with just einkorn flour and water, it can’t be too hard, right?
Right! In fact, making an einkorn sourdough starter is probably one of the easiest ferments you’ll ever make.
Well, I say that about milk kefir, and I’ve said that about homemade yogurt before, too…
But this time I mean it.
It’s literally flour and water and air– and that’s IT!
Why use einkorn flour for a sourdough starter?
But first, a brief history lesson and re-cap of why we’re currently using einkorn.
When we first switched over to real food, from a standard American diet (SAD) consisting mostly of boxed foods (read my full story here), I learned how to make bread. I primarily used bleached all-purpose flour.
When we finally figured out how to make real food work for our budget (thanks to the principles and system I now teach in Grocery Budget Bootcamp), I took a baby step and switched to store-bought whole wheat flour.
A little while after that, I invested in a grain mill and started grinding my own wheat at home. I learned how hard red wheat is great for bread and how soft white wheat is great for cookies and how hard white wheat was great for people who liked wheat bread that didn’t taste so “wheat-y.” (Read more about the different types of wheat here).
Fast forward a few years and my family and I did the Whole30. During reintroduction, we found that my daughter and husband are both sensitive to gluten.
I had done research on einkorn in the past and learned how some people who are sensitive to gluten can tolerate einkorn, so we took a couple months and used store-bought einkorn flour exclusively to see if anyone had any reactions.
No one did! So that’s why we use einkorn now.
Psst! If you’re interested in doing the Whole30 on a budget, here’s how our numbers panned out. You can also download our Whole30 meal plan for free here!
How to Make Einkorn Sourdough Starter
I know the idea of making a sourdough starter is intimidating, but I promise you it is REALLY easy. Watch – let me show you how to make an einkorn sourdough starter.
How to Make Einkorn Sourdough Starter: Supplies
You only need four things to make einkorn sourdough starter: a jar, a spoon, water and flour.
Jar
I used a pint-sized mason jar like this one for my sourdough starter, which made it easy to keep track of when to pour out the discard (when the jar was too full to stir!). You can use any jar you have though, so long as it holds at least 16 ounces.
Spoon
I broke two mason jars using a metal spoon, completely losing my entire starter the first time and almost half of it the second time.
I don’t know if my jars were old or if I stirred too vigorously, but because of this, I now only use a plastic spoon or silicone spatula. You can use a metal spoon, but “stir well” at your own risk!
Water
You want your water to be filtered if at all possible, simply because city water is treated with chlorine and fluoride and we don’t want that stuff in our foods.
We invested in this under-the-sink reverse osmosis filter system last year and we LOVE it. My husband is a plumber’s son and self-declared water snob and even he thinks our water is delicious!
Flour
You have a few choices when it comes to flour. Obviously we want einkorn flour, but you can use store-bought all-purpose, store-bought whole wheat, or freshly ground whole wheat (I recommend any of these).
I started with freshly ground whole wheat.
Note: I’ve searched local stores and the internet for the best prices on einkorn berries and Jovial Foods has the best price AS LONG AS you use the coupon DWCRUMBS. That saves you 10% off everything on the site (excluding their book), plus shipping is free for orders over $25. Visit their site HERE.
The best price I’ve found for einkorn all-purpose flour is this seller on Amazon.
How to Make Einkorn Sourdough Starter: Method
Day 1, Morning: In a pint-sized mason jar, combine ¼ cup water and ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp flour. Stir well, scrape down the sides and cover with a piece of plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature, out of direct sunlight.
This combination of water + flour is called a feeding.
Day 1, Evening: Roughly 12 hours later, add another ¼ cup water and ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp flour. Stir well and cover with the same piece of plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature.
Day 2, Morning & Evening: Repeat the same as Day 1.
You may or may not see bubbles at the end of Day 2. If you don’t, it doesn’t mean your starter isn’t working. Just keep going.
Day 3, Morning: Stir well first, then pour about half of the sourdough starter into another glass jar and place that jar in the fridge. This starter that you’ve poured off is called discard. Add another ¼ cup water and ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp flour.
When you’re creating a sourdough starter, it’s important that the beneficial bacteria multiply appropriately. By “discarding” some of the starter, you’re adequately feeding the beneficial bacteria. If you didn’t discard some of the starter, you would need to feed it MORE water and flour, which is essentially a waste of money this early in the process.
You can keep sourdough discard in the fridge for a few days and use it in lieu of liquid and flour in your favorite recipes. Some of my own tried-and-true sourdough discard recipes are sourdough biscuits and sourdough pancakes.
Day 3, Evening: Repeat the same as Day 1 Evening.
Day 4, Morning & Evening: Repeat the same as Day 1.
At this point, you may or may not see your sourdough starter dome an hour or two after you feed it. Einkorn sourdough starter doesn’t dome like a modern wheat or rye sourdough starter does, so don’t worry if your starter doesn’t LOOK much different.
Day 5, Morning: Repeat the same as Day 3, pouring about half of your starter into the jar of discard that you have in the fridge. Feed with ¼ cup of water + ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp flour.
Day 5, Evening: Repeat the same as Day 1 Evening.
Day 6, Morning & Evening: Repeat the same as Day 1.
The beneficial bacteria in sourdough thrives in warm environments. If you’re making a starter in the summer, or your home is on the warm side, you might see a yellow-ish liquid in your starter. This is called “hooch” and it’s the by-product when the good bacteria have eaten what you’ve fed them before their next feeding. This is totally normal!
When you’re first making a starter, I recommend stirring the hooch back into your starter before the next feeding. If you see hooch for two consecutive feedings, go ahead and discard half (like you did on Day 3 Morning and Day 5 Morning) and then feed.
Day 7, Morning & Evening: Repeat the same as Day 1.
Day 8: You’re done! You’ve successfully made an einkorn sourdough starter. See – wasn’t that easy?
I had a lot of questions when I was making my einkorn sourdough starter, but thankfully I was following Wardee from Traditional Cooking School. She walked me through the entire process, step-by-step, and turned what originally felt like a kitchen experiment into something that now feels second nature!
You can read more about the ins and outs of sourdough in Wardee’s book: Sourdough A to Z – It is based on one simple idea: Imagine if five expert, traditional cooks invited you over for tea and blessed you with all of their secrets for creating healthy, delicious breads.
What an incredible resource I’ve come to love over the years!
Here are some of the questions I had, and the answers I found as I made my einkorn sourdough starter.
What should a sourdough starter smell like?
At first, the sourdough starter will smell like flour and water. It will evolve, though, into a sweet yeasty smell, to a strong yeasty smell, to a strong fermented smell that might make you think you did something wrong, and then back to a strong yet pleasant sourdough smell.
After 7 days, your sourdough starter should consistently have a pleasant smell. If it ever smells like vinegar, that’s acetic acid. It’s what the beneficial bacteria give off as they eat the natural enzymes in the flour. It’s normal, but it’s also a sign that you aren’t feeding the starter enough. I would suggest pouring off half of the starter into a discard jar, and then continue with regular feedings.
This happened to me when we went camping during a school break. I put my starter in the fridge and came home to what I thought was a ruined sourdough starter. After a few days of regular feedings and discarding the extra starter into my second jar, the pleasant smell returned.
If your sourdough ever smells BAD, like something crawled in your jar and died, you should probably start over.
Otherwise, keep pushing through. Strong and yeasty and fermented smells are normal.
When is a sourdough starter mature?
After one week, your sourdough starter is ACTIVE. That means you have beneficial bacteria that are doing their job and breaking down the enzymes in the flour. You can take your sourdough starter and use it to make things that don’t require yeast to rise, like biscuits or pancakes or waffles or banana bread.
Your sourdough starter is mature when it’s been alive for about 4 weeks. That is when the starter is strong enough to take the place of yeast in bread and other baked goods.
It’s like teaching a baby how to walk. They need to learn how to use those muscles first, and then the muscles will get strong enough to support the weight of the body.
The same goes for the beneficial bacteria. They’ll be young and will mature with time. There’s nothing you can do to speed up this process, so just enjoy the learning curve of how to bake with sourdough discard and look forward to homemade sourdough bread in about a month.
Typical Feeding Schedule for Einkorn Sourdough
During the first four weeks, you really want to be as consistent as possible with feeding your sourdough starter.
The feedings should be roughly 12 hours apart, so that can be 7am and 7pm, or 10am and 10pm, or noon and midnight – whatever works best for you.
I take the kids to school at 7:45 and they go to bed just after 8pm. For me, I’d feed the starter right before we left for school, and then as the kids started their bedtime routine.
Once your einkorn sourdough starter is mature (i.e. four weeks of consistent feedings), you can be a little lazier with your feedings.
I still like to feed mine twice a day, but I’ve reduced the amount I feed to just 2 Tbsp of water and 3 Tbsp of flour.
If my jar is getting full and I’m not making bread anytime soon, and I start to see a line of acetic acid, I make sure to stir well and pour half into my discard jar in the fridge. Then I’ll feed it like normal again.
Here’s how to make a traditional sourdough starter and a simple loaf of sourdough bread.
Although the same issue of an active starter versus a mature starter comes into play there as well.If you want to learn more about sourdough – einkorn or not – I encourage you to check out Traditional Cooking School.
Wardee has everything you need in one handy spot, and she’s really covered all the bases!!
How much of the starter is needed to make a 500 gr. loaf? What do you do with any leftover starter»? Do you have to start from scratch every time when it is used up? Is it best put in the fridge?
I cannot get Einkorn flour here, but would use Spelt instead.
We can buy what my son thinks is sourdoough bread, here in Portugal., but the flour is very coarse and also white. Too rough for my taste!
I think I must be your oldest customer/penfriend or whatever, at 88!
Thanks, Tiffany..
Hi Amanda! 500 grams is about a 1 pound loaf (my own conversion there, so we’re on the same page, lol) – you need about 1 cup of starter plus the rest of the ingredients. The dough will sit 8-12 hours as the original 1 cup of starter ferments the rest of the loaf. Ideally, you never use up the starter completely. You’ll feed it enough leading up to the day you bake bread so that after you pour out 1 cup for the loaf, you still have 1/4-1/2 cup to feed and use for future. You can store the starter in the fridge, but I wouldn’t recommend that until it’s fully active. There’s a lot to learn about sourdough Amanda, and you’re never too old to start! ♥
I am new to all this as far as bread making and especially sourdough; how can I get started and have you any specific books in mind that would help in my, because of you, newly found hobby?
Hi Anna! Yes!! I highly recommend looking at Traditional Cooking School by my friend Wardee. She covers SO MUCH MORE information than I could cover here, and answers pretty much every question about sourdough ever asked, LOL!! The link for her school is in the post. 🙂
Hi, Tiffany, I’d like to try this! I grind my own einkorn. Should I keep it in the freezer until I use it? Would it shock my starter to have cold flour added? I also thought I could premeasure my flour into small bags to streamline the process.
Hi Jalisa! If you’re going to use freshly ground flour within a couple days, the pantry is fine. Longer than that and the freezer is best (although personally, I keep it all in the pantry and just don’t grind too much). If you let the flour come to room temperature – 15-20 min – I don’t think the starter will ‘shock.’ I haven’t heard any issues of anyone feeding straight from the freezer though!
Greetings Tiffany😄
I’ve had my einkorn sourdough going for about three to four weeks now,,,,(using a lot of flour I might add!).
The last week I was gone and my husband only fed it in the morning, (misunderstanding my instructions 🧐) however it hadn’t doubled I size before that, either, but it did get bubbles and some hooch. I’ve been home five days now, feeding it every 12 hours. Our weather has been hot off and on… I’ve seen some hitch, not too many bubbles…. I want this to work! What does this sound like to you…? What is my next step? I, thinking it might need to be kept warmer. We live at 6500 feet, it’s a bit cooler, but desert so no humidity but hot is here…. so AC will be turned on shortly!?!😮
Thank u for your thoughts..,,,
I think it sounds good Sue! I don’t get much hooch unless I delay the feedings, which makes sense, since hooch is the by-product when the bacteria eats ALL the sugar and is still hungry. 🙂 Einkorn also won’t bubble like modern what does. Next step, try a loaf of bread!
How often would you suggest to discard during the first four week process?
My starter is extremely active on Day 7, and it practically doubles in size every time I feed it. ( We have warm weather here.)
So how often should I discard and how much?
Hi Bella! If it’s doubling every time, I’d probably discard once a day and discard so that there’s roughly 1/4 cup left.
Hi Tiffany. I have been looking forward to trying this for a while. I literally just started with the jovial einkorn. When you mix it together is it supposed to be doughlike or liquid? I see that later we should be able to pour off discard. Mine looks like a dough. Should I add more water?
Hi Lyd! If you used the correct ratio of water and flour, it will look like a very wet dough. As the good bacteria grow and eat, they’ll produce a liquid called hooch. That hooch is what makes the starter look more liquid over time. Also, as a general rule of thumb, it’s better to have a thick starter than thin, because you’ll need less flour when to make bread. It’s also easier to thin later, than it is to thicken!
Hi Tiffany,
I am on day 7 starter looks and smells great. Now since I am maintaining the starter to build it up for bread, should I just feed it a smaller amount of flour and water twice a day and still discard half of the jar at each feeding? Thanks so much
Hi Theresa! Yes, you can feed smaller twice a day, but you don’t have to discard at each feeding at this point. If your starter makes hooch (the liquid) before the next feeding, then you need to discard. But remember to USE it instead of throwing it away!!
Thanks for your reply!
Thanks so much ch, that is what I thought but just wanted to verify. For sure won’t throw it away I am going to make some waffles with what I have now. I made your sourdough discard pancake recipe too they were delicious. We only eat limited carbs but this is a great way to add a bit to our diet in a healthy way. Thanks again!
Thank you for this einkorn starter recipe. After day 7, when feeding it, do you store at room temp? Or in the fridge? Thanks again!
I kept my starter at room temperature until I got to day 28. 🙂
Hi,
Would like to try this soon…. I am a bit confused about how to care for it in the first four weeks. I have seen some recipes that say that if you aren’t going to use it for a week or so, you can stick it in the fridge and then feed it once a week (or use it)….. but, can I not do this until it is fully mature at 4 weeks? (Do I have to leave it on the counter)? Also, once it’s active, is it okay to feed it maybe once a day?
Thanks
Hi Pepper! Ideally, you don’t want to store it in the fridge until it’s fully mature. This is especially the case if you want to make bread. Yes, you’ll need to leave it on the counter and you can certainly reduce the feedings once it’s fully mature! Now that I’ve had mine a few weeks, I keep it in the fridge and pull it out only every 4-5 days or so to feed.
Hi again,
Is it okay to use a mix of freshly-ground whole grain flour and the 80% all purpose for the starter?
Absolutely!
On Day 3 Morning it says to discard half but does not say anything about feeding it. Do you still feed it as well or just discard?
Yes! You should feed it. I’ll fix that Teresa!
Hi,
I just started my starter 3 days ago, and so far, so good! It has a yeasty, fermented smell and there are lots of bubbles (it even domed a bit), but there is also lots of hooch. I even got hooch on the first day, literally within three hours of me starting it….. I am discarding half and feeding the right amounts, but was wondering if that much hooch is normal? (Only thing I can think of is that the weather is still very hot and humid).
Hi Pepper! That’s totally normal. The amount of hooch will depend heavily on the environment – mine is making hooch like crazy and it’s October! Just keep on going. 😉
Do you have a recipe for sourdough using the einkorn starter AND einkorn flour? Or know of a resource that does? Thank you!
Hi Molly! I have a recipe going live mid-October! I’ll be sure to update this post when it’s ready. 🙂
On day 5, it says to feed the starter in the morning and then do not feed until day 6 in the evening. Is that mistake. Do you feed it twice a day every day?
Oops! Yes, until Day 8. I’ll get that fixed and updated!
Do you have to wait until 28 days to go to your lesser amount of flour and water?
Hi Susan! No, you can use lesser amounts of flour and water after you consistently see growth and bubbles, which is around the 7-10 day mark.
Hi Tiffany, I might be missing something but please confirm that the starter ratio on day 1 is 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp flour. Im asking because my starter is a paste.
Yes! It’s easier to work with a thick starter, because you can always add more liquid later to the dough.
My starter is about 2 weeks old. At the end of the first week, it developed the hooch. I’ve been feeding it 2 times a day with 1/4 cup and 2 tbls of freshly ground einkorn and 1/4 cup of water and discarding at every feeding trying to get rid of the hooch, but it still has it. It also smells like apple cider vinegar. What am I doing wrong?
It sounds like you’re right on track, Emily! Hooch means your starter is eating faster than you’re feeding it. It’s not a bad sign at all, and actually shows that you have good bacteria growing! Keep going at your pace, possibly reducing the feeding to once/day if you prefer, and you’ll have a strong, mature starter very soon! ♥
I wish this was included in the instructions in the Yearly Meal Plan!!! I haven’t been able to use it much because I only make sourdough bread, so the plan has been difficult to use/follow. When I first downloaded the plan, I was surprised that sourdough bread/pizza dough/etc was not part of it.
Hello, Hello! I’m new to sourdough making (but baked lots of bread) and I’m making my first starter using your awesome recipe since I’ve discovered I’m gluten sensitive. I’m trying to figure out ways to use the discard and wanting to experiment with it using recipes I’ve found online. Some recipes are calling for 100% hydration, and since I’m new to this, can you tell me if your starter recipe is considered 100% hydration? Or perhaps less? Thank you in advance!
Hi Tiffany, I just bought some Einkorn flour to try it out. Is it possible to use a starter made from all purpose flour from hard red wheat instead of Einkorn starter?
You can Marcia, but I would recommend using this tutorial instead: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter/
Is this starter considered 100% hydration?
If I did my math right, this is an 80% hydration Amy.
Complete newbie here so forgive me if this is a silly question, but it took me a while to find (any) flour and I ended up with einkorn…is the feeding every 12 hours because it’s einkorn as opposed to regular flour? The original recipe I was looking at before I went shopping had me feeding it just once a day. In short: do I have to wait until tomorrow morning to start the process, so I can feed it every 12 hours consistently? It’s nearly 4pm and I certainly don’t want to get up in the wee hours to feed it; alternatively, can it go more like 17 hours the first time (say from now until tomorrow morning), and then I get it on a regular 12-hour schedule? Oof, sorry 😀
Hi Amanda! The 12 hour feeding at first is for all flours. Once you’re past the fist 7 days, you can cut back to once a day. And yes, you can fudge the 12 hours a bit until you’re on a good schedule! Don’t forget to use the discard in a helpful recipe, instead of throwing it away! If you search my site for ‘discard,’ you’ll find a great pancake recipe!
Thank you for your instructions but now I am confused about what to do next. I am finally at day 8 and mistakenly thought I would be able to start making a loaf of bread. Do I have to keep up this same process for the next 3 weeks before I can proceed with the bread? My jar is full today – do I keep pouring half into the discard?
Thanks.
Hi Jan! You can reduce the feeding to once a day, and still discard every 2-3 days, but use it in recipes instead of throwing it away! Search the site for biscuits and pancakes using discard – both are delicous!