Activating the Starter

Activate the sourdough starter by feeding it about every 12 hours over a two-day period:

1. In the morning, two days before starting to make bread, remove the starter from the refrigerator. Transfer the starter from the jar to a medium-sized bowl; there should be about a cup of starter. Wash the jar so it will be ready for storing the left-over starter.
   

   

2. Feed the starter.
3. Cover the starter and put it aside in a warm location (about 80° F) so the yeast will grow.

   

   I warm our electric oven to about 80° F while feeding the starter, then turn the oven off and leave the bowl in the closed oven.

   

4. In the evening (after approximately 12 hours), bubbles in the starter indicate that the yeast is growing.
   

   

   Stir the starter. Keep about a cup of it (probably about half what’s in the bowl) and discard the rest.

5. Feed the starter and leave it to grow, as in Steps 2 and 3.
6. The next morning (the day before starting to make bread), feed the starter and leave it to grow, as in Steps 2 and 3.
7. Again that evening, stir the starter and discard about half, as in Step 4, then feed the starter and leave it to grow, as in Steps 2 and 3.