Fed vs Unfed Sourdough Starter
Have you ever found yourself staring at your sourdough starter, wondering if you really need to feed it before baking? Or maybe you’ve been tempted to skip a step and just see what happens? Well, I put that curiosity to the test—and the results may surprise you.
In my latest video, I baked two loaves of sourdough bread side by side: one made with a freshly fed, active starter, and the other made with an unfed (aka dormant or sluggish) starter pulled straight from the fridge. No pre-feeding, no coaxing—just straight into the dough.
To keep things fair, I used the exact same recipe, flour, salt, water, and fermentation times for both loaves. The only difference? One loaf had a lively, bubbly starter that had been fed a few hours earlier, and the other used a cold, unfed starter that hadn’t seen flour in over 24 hours.
This experiment was not only fun—it was kind of eye-opening. Sometimes, baking “rules” are more flexible than we think. If you’re a sourdough baker who’s ever forgotten to feed your starter, don’t panic—you might still end up with a pretty great loaf.
Let me know in the comments: have you ever baked with an unfed starter?
Print your Sourdough Bread recipe here:
Sourdough Bread
- 310g of water
- 100g of healthy strong fed or unfed starter
- 460g of bread flour
- 11-12g of salt
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- Throw everything into a stand mixer and mix on low until it’s well combined. Move to an oiled vessel with a loose lid.
- Set a timer for 30 minutes. At the end of 30 minutes perform stretch and folds.
- Now repeat steps 2 for a total of 5 stretch and folds (or 2 1/2 hours total).
- Place dough with loosely covered lid in a warm place with no drafts and bulk ferment until the dough has risen about 30%. For reference it takes about 5 hours at 80 degrees.
- Sprinkle flour on the top of the dough and turn out onto a clean counter.
- Stretch your dough in all directions then roll up like a cinnamon roll. Turn the roll 90 degrees and roll using the tuck and tug method. For bread shape: Seal your ends then pull dough towards you to tighten the top. For boule shape: do not seal ends, instead pull the dough towards you in a circular motion hiding each end as you create tension.
- Allow dough balls to rest for 5-10 minutes. If they stay in the shape you’ve given them without flattening to a pancake, then you are ready to move on. If they flatten out too much, do another rough or two of shaping, following step 7 again.
- Place seam side up in floured banneton and cover loosely. Place in refrigerator for 6-12 hours but up to 36.
- Preheat your oven to 450F before you get your bread out of the refrigerator
- Turn your cold dough out onto a piece of parchment and score. Place scored loaf into the bread pan of your choice, your Dutch oven, or right onto a preheated baking stone.
- Mist your loaf with water and cover. Bake 30 minutes covered then remove the cover and bake another 20-30 minutes or until the desired color is achieved.
- Cool on a baking rack before cutting.
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