Flour for Feeding Your Starter

A starter, or lievito madre, is only as steady as the flour you feed it. The flours on this page are strong, refined flours, mostly Tipo 00 and Tipo 0 at W 340 and up, the kind Italian bakers use to keep a starter active, mild and predictable.

Whole grain flours ferment faster and can make a starter sour and hard to manage, so we keep Tipo 1, Tipo 2, whole wheat and rye off this list. You can still bake with them; just feed with a refined flour.

If you bake panettone, a strong panettone flour doubles as the ideal feeding flour.