How to wake up your Sourdough Starter from the fridge : the trick to not feeding it everyday!

My sourdough starter lives in my fridge 100% of the time. I never directly feed the fridge jar of starter, but it does get discard added to it any week that I'm baking so it's continually getting small amounts of active fed starter added to it. BUT there are weeks and months and seasons that life is full and the starter waits patiently in the fridge! You do not need to directly feed your sourdough starter in your fridge. Instead just give it some of the discard from when you bake. This will keep it revived and refreshed. But guess what, even without any discard added your starter can last for months without you ever doing anything for it. The liquid that your starter produces as it sits and waits in the fridge is not bad! That liquid is called hooch and it's simply a sign that your starter has been resting for awhile.

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When my starter has been waiting more than a couple weeks for me to use it I do the following double feeding schedule to wake it up:

at lunch time :
remove 15 grams of cold from the fridge starter and add to a clean QUART size jar
add 15 grams unbleached all purpose flour
add 15 grams warm water (we use our tap water that is ultra pure well water)
put the lid on loosely and set in a warm spot

at dinner time :
your starter should look puffy and doubled in size, but it's such a small amount it's sometimes hard to tell, ha!
feed again with :
200 grams unbleached all purpose flour
200 grams room temp water
put the lid on loosely, set on a plate and allow to rise overnight

If the starter has not risen to the top of the quart size jar, pop it into your oven and turn ONLY the light on. Let the starter sit in the oven until it hits the top of the jar.

Now you're ready to bake! This amount of starter is enough to make a triple batch of our everyday bread dough. Here's the direct link to the video on how to make it! https://youtu.be/QZTYaDu3uFg

You'll have a bit of extra sourdough starter - go ahead and make a yummy discard recipe like our Molasses Ginger Krinkle Sourdough Discard Cookies! Here's the recipe https://ciderpresslane.com/blog/2025/2/22/sourdough-discard-ginger-molasses-krinkle-cookies

Cheers to fresh baked bread and all the fun of experimenting with sourdough!


video chapters

0:00 - 0:38 the trick to the easiest sourdough leave your starter in the fridge!
0:39 - 1:20 the liquid on top of your starter is NOT BAD! It's a good sign
1:21 - 1:54 first step to wake up your starter is to mix the liquid in
1:55 - 2:22 you do not need to feed the starter in your fridge
2:23 - 3:52 second step remove 15 grams of cold from the fridge starter
3:53 - 4:50 third step feed the starter
4:51 - 5:41 - how I determine if I need to do one feeding or multiple to get my starter active
5:42 - 7:03 - fourth step feed the starter again
7:04 - 8:15 - why there are different ratios to feed your starter
8:16 - 9:01 - letting your starter rise on the counter
9:02 - 9:58 - a trick to helping your starter double in size
10:00 - 11:17 - this is what your starter should look like when it's ready to bake with
11:18 - 12:27 - sourdough works for everyday life! so glad we get to bake together

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