Many new sourdough bakers struggle with creating sourdoughstarters. The most common problem I seeis new bakers trying to create a starter with 100% all-purpose flour (or 100%bread flour).
The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purposeflour.
I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and breadflour.
Why do you need to use these two types of flour?
When establishing a new sourdough starter, the vast majorityof the yeast cells and lactic acid bacteria cells come from the flour. The microbes attach themselves to the wheatberries in the wheat field and are lying dormant in the bag of flour. Contrary to popular belief, the microbes inyour kitchen that come from the air, or your hands, or your utensils are an infinitesimallysmall contributor to the microbial population of a new starter.
The beneficial microbes (yeast and lactic acid bacteria) arefound on the outside hull or shell of a wheat berry. When you buy a bag of whole-meal flour (wholewheat or whole rye), it includes 100% of the wheat berry (the hull, theendosperm and the germ). So, the microbesattached to the outside of the wheat berry are ground up in the milling processand end up in your bag of flour.
With processed flours like bread flour and all-purposeflour, much of the bran (the hull of the wheat berry), is extracted from theflour and discarded in the milling process.Many of the microbes attached to the outside of the wheat berry are discardedwith the hull and do not end up in a bag of bread flour or all-purpose flour. Refined flours, like bread flour and all-purposeflour, are also subject to more mechanical milling which can damage the cell membranesof the microbes – reducing the viable population of microbes.
Lastly, whole-meal flours contain unique nutrients andenzymes which are beneficial to jump-starting the microbial population in a newsourdough starter.
Why not use 100% whole-meal flours?
You can create a starter with 100% whole-meal flour, but, inmy experience, you will get best results with a blend.
As the yeast and lactic acid bacteria populations begingrowing, they need a food source (sugars and starches). Bread flour or all-purpose flour provide amore readily available food source than whole-meal flours. Refined flours are easily converted to sugars,which are the essential food source for your new starter.
A simple way to think about a 50/50 flour blend is – the whole-mealflour provides the “bugs” and the refined flour provides the “food.”
Do I need to continue feeding the 50/50 mix forever?
Once your starter is established, you can transition tofeeding it 100% bread flour or all-purpose flour. An established starter (e.g., 14-30 days aftercreation) has a robust microbial population, and the feedings from that point forwardare primarily providing the food, not additional microbes.
I feed my starter a 50/50 mix of bread flour and whole-wheatflour, but many bakers maintain strong starters with bread flour or all-purposeflour.