Your New Sourdough Starter - Home on Magnolia Hill

how to reactivate your Dehydrated Sourdough Starter

A few simple supplies you will need to get "started":

glass jar with airtight lid
unbleached all-purpose flour
wood spoon
water
your Home on Magnolia Hill Sourdough Starter Packet
***Digital Food Scale***
- ***NOT Neccesarry but nice to have since most Sourdough Recipe ingredients are measured by weight***

**Make sure to check out my favorite Sourdough Supplies and easy Sourdough Recipes near the bottom of this page!

Follow these steps in order to bring your Home on Magnolia Hill Sourdough Starter to life and start baking delicious bread:

**Never use metal containers or utensils with your Sourdough Starter (it interferes with the cultures in the starter and may render it lower quality or ineffective).**

1. Empty contents of your new Sourdough Starter packet into your jar.
2. Add 1/4 cup of lukewarm water to jar and stir until sourdough starter chips are completely covered with water
3. Place lid loosely on jar (not airtight) and let starter sit for approximately 3 hours, stirring 4 times during those 3 hours.
4. Feed your starter: Once mixture is fairly smooth, add 1/4 cup and 1/4 cup lukewarm filtered water into your jar. Your starter should be the consistency of thick pancake batter. Start with 1/4 cup of water and, if needed, add a tsp. at a time until desired consistency.
5. Mix gently until all combined.
6. Cover jar loosely and place somewhere warm if you can (approximately 85 degrees) or room temperature is fine too, it may just take your starter a little longer to "wake up" in cooler temperatures, and that's ok). Wait 24 hours.
7. It's time to feed your starter again. Add 1/2 cup Flour & 1/2 cup (or a little more if needed) water.
8. Mix gently and cover loosely again. Let sit at least 10 hours, you should see a lot of bubbles after 10 hrs.
9. Discard (or throw away) all but 1/4 cup of the starter and replace the 1/4 cup you will keep back in your jar. Repeat Steps 7 & 8.
10. After the second 10 hour sit, you're now the proud parent of a fully active, probiotic rich sourdough starter! Time to start a regular feeding regimen! Now discard (or throw away) all but 1/4 cup of your active starter, replacing the 1/4 cup you will keep back in your jar.
11. Add 1 cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour and 3/4 cup to 1 cup lukewarm filtered water, mix well until combined.
12. After your starter doubles in size, you have a few options: you can now use it in recipes, you can leave it on your counter and repeat steps 9-11 once daily, or you can store your starter in your refrigerator (sealed airtight in your jar) and repeat steps 9-11 once a week (once your starter reaches room temp out of the fridge) until you're ready to bake.

Here's a quick video showing you how I feed my own starter.

And, if you have any questions or need some guidance, feel free to reach out with the contact form below! We pride ourselves in excellent customer service and are always very eager to help if needed.

Happy Sourdoughing!

About Home on Magnolia Hill Sourdough Starter

Our happy & healthy Sourdough Starter was born and raised in South Louisiana and has been lovingly used to bake delicious breads and goodies for our entire family: English muffins, Dutch Baby pancakes, Starter Pizza Dough (our family's favorite!) to name a few.

Home on Magnolia Hill Classic Sourdough Starter Ingredients Include: cultured, unbleached Hard Red Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, & Filtered Water.

Our sourdough starter culture is very active, which makes it very trustworthy and exciting to use as a leaven for fantastic baked goods.

Having a sourdough starter in your own kitchen creates a very real sense of sustainability and stability that is irreplaceable. The first time you feed your starter and see those cultures teaming with life, the accomplishment and sense of ability you feel is so heartwarming....and it continues every single time you see those bubbles rise when you care for your starter, for years and years!!

I hope you and your family enjoy the benefits of having a Sourdough Starter in your home! You will not regret it!

Our Sourdough Starter is made fresh Immediately prior to packaging and is taken directly from our very own starter that we use to bake our favorites. When you arrive home with your new Sourdough Starter, it will be dormant. Simply add a bit of water and flour, as described in the instructions below and it will be ready for baking your favorite recipes in 1-2 days. Just save a bit of the starter after every time you bake bread, and it will last for years!

These are my favorite Sourdough Supplies for beginners!

*NEED EDIT** Sourdough supplies list linked

Sourdough Starter Pancakes (or Waffles)

**This recipe is the perfect recipe for your first time using your reactivated starter**

2 cups bubbly/fed sourdough starter

2 eggs

1/4 cup melted (not hot) butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

*1 teaspoon baking soda (mixed in well, after all other ingredients are mixed and right before ready to use batter)

Combine all ingredients except baking soda.
Add baking soda and mix well.
Cook waffles or pancakes on a lightly oiled or buttered, preheated surface until golden brown.
Serve hot with toppings of your choice.

We love ours topped with extra butter and pure cane syrup or maple syrup, whipped cream and fresh berries!

They’re also very good with add-ins right in the batter: chocolate chips, walnuts, blueberries...you can try anything and make them your own!

We sincerely hope you enjoy every bite!

Especially the ones joyfully shared with friends and family!

Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe

50 grams active, bubbly starter

350 grams water

8 grams salt

500 grams bread flour

Once your dehydrated starter is reactivated, nice and bubbly, you’ll start this recipe the day before you’re ready to bake your bread by feeding your starter in the late morning.
Then around 5pm that day (when your starter is nice and active) mix the ingredients listed above, in the order listed above, then leave in the bowl on your counter and cover with a towel. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.
After a 30 minute rest, you’ll start a series of “stretches and folds” every 30 minutes for the next 2 hours.
Every thirty minutes, you will scoop up one edge of your dough with your hand, stretch the grabbed dough up as far as you can without lifting the dough ball completely out of the bowl or tearing your dough (it will be stiff at first then get stretchy after each session), then fold the stretched portion back over the top of the dough ball and push the edge that you are holding back into the dough.
Repeat this stretch and fold 3 or 4 times in each session, turning the bowl to grab the edge of the dough next to the previous stretch each time. Until you’ve completed a stretch and fold around the entire dough ball.
Once your two hours of 30 minute sequenced stretch and folds sessions are complete, take your dough ball out of your bowl and place onto a clean, flat, unfloured surface, and form dough into a tight ball. You can achieve this tightness by cupping one side of the dough in both hands and pushing then pulling and turning the dough across the flat surface until a tight ball is formed.
*If you have a banneton basket, lightly flour the banneton and place dough ball into basket then cover with a towel. *If you do not have a banneton basket, place your dough in a clean bowl and cover with a towel.
Let your dough proof in the refrigerator, covered, overnight (anywhere from 8-12 hours).
The next morning, your dough is almost ready to bake! I have found great success with a “cold bake” method. This involves no preheat of your oven (and what seems like less prep time).
Remove your proofed dough from the fridge, which should have nearly doubled in size over night.
Place tight dough ball on a sheet of parchment paper (the paper size should be able to fit into your Dutch oven with the ability to close the lid).
With a razor blade, sharp knife, or bread lame, score the top of your dough in the beautiful design of your choice. I highly recommend a google image search for “sourdough bread scoring”….you’re welcome 🙂
Place scored dough, on parchment paper, into Dutch oven. Put the lid on and place on the middle rack in your cold oven. Turn oven on to 350 degrees. Bake (from time placed in cold oven) for 50 minutes and then remove lid and bake until golden brown, checking every 3-5 minutes or so.

It is recommended to wait at least an hour to cut your fresh baked sourdough loaf, but hey I don’t blame you if you dive right in!! I hope you enjoy!!

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