dry sourdough starter

Follow this step-by-step guide to reactivate a dry sourdough starter. The process takes about a week, but is very easy to do! By the end, a small amount of dry sourdough will transform into a voluminous, bubbly, active culture - ready to bake with. But not just once! With a little love and weekly care, one sourdough starter will provide you with years and years of delicious, nutritious, and rewarding sourdough baking at home.

How To Reactivate A Dry (Dehydrated) Sourdough Starter

Tbsp sourdough starter culture

white bread flour flour

water

How to Reactivate a Dry (Dehydrated) Sourdough Starter

In a clean pint-size mason jar (or similar) combine 1/2 Tbsp of dried sourdough starter powder or flakes (one H&amp;C package) with 1.5 Tbsp of filtered lukewarm water. Allow the dry sourdough starter and water to sit for several minutes to soften and combine. Use a fork or spoon to stir it on occasion.

Add 1 Tbsp of flour. Mix thoroughly. (See consistency notes below)

Cover the jar with a lid, beeswax wrap, plate, or other cover to prevent it from drying out. Set the container in a moderately warm location (70 to 75F is ideal). Come back in about 24 hours.

Day 1

Into the same jar as yesterday, add 1 Tbsp of flour and 2 teaspoons of water to the starter. Mix well.

Cover the jar or container again, and allow it to sit for another 24 hours.

Day 2

Repeat the same feeding process as Day 2 (1 Tbsp flour and 2 teaspoons water).

Day 3

This time, add 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 cup water to the starter. Mix well.

Cover the container and set aside once again. Consider marking the level of the starter after feeding. It should rise quite a bit by this time!

Day 4

Transfer your starter from the mason jar into a clean mixing bowl.

Add 1 scant cup of fresh flour (just a hair shy of a cup!) and 1/2 cup of water. Mix thoroughly.

Transfer the starter into a new larger container of choice (such as a 1 to 2 liter glass flip-top jar). This will be the starters &quot;forever home&quot;. Set it aside at room temperature once again.

If your starter is now actively bubbling, rising and falling - congratulations! You have successfully reactivated the dry sourdough starter. When a starter rises to double its size and then stays elevated, that is considered “peak activity” and is ready to bake with. It will deflate after a few hours and need to be fed or refrigerated.

Day 5

To learn how to feed and store you now-active sourdough starter, please refer to our sourdough starter maintenance article (linked in the notes below). If you aren&#039;t sure what to do next, put your active starter in the fridge while you do your homework!

Ongoing Starter Maintenance

A Dehydrated sourdough starter is the best way to preserve the sourdough starter for a long time. We all know that maintaining an active starter takes a lot of active efforts and time. But for the times when you want to put your baking spree on hold, drying out the sourdough starter can come in handy. Here, we discuss, how to dry a mature sourdough starter to store or preserve it for a long time. And, how you should be rehydrating and reviving the dry sourdough starter.

How to make Dehydrated sourdough starter and reviving it?

g Mature sourdough starter

Take a measured quantity of ripe, and mature starter. By ripe I mean the starter, should be fed, active, and bubbly. A starter more than 5-6 months old is considered mature. ( for more details read  the post)

Prepare a baking tray and line it with parchment paper. for the sake of convenience,  secure the parchment paper on the baking tray with tape.

Put the starter on one side, on the parchment paper, and start to spread it towards the other side using an offset spatula or a silicone spatula. Try to make a thin layer so that it dries faster. ( instead of parchment paper you can use a silicone mat)

Place the tray in a cool and well-ventilated place in your kitchen. let it air-dry for 24 to 42 hours until it dries off completely. the starter will leave the parchment paper and become like dry chips.

Now transfer these starter chips/pieces/ starter shards to a food processor and give them a pulse.

Transfer the powdered dry sourdough starter into an airtight glass jar, or a Ziploc packet, and store for as long as you want.

Making Dehydrated Sourdough Starter

Weigh the starter and mix with an equal quantity of flour and warm water. The temperature of the water should be around 100-110 0 F.I recommend you start with 15 grams of dry starter and mix in 15 grams of warm water.

Let the dry starter rehydrate for 3 to 4 hours until it regains a starter-like consistency. By the end of time, if you are lucky, you will see one or two bubbles on the surface of the rehydrated starter.

Feeding 1:Now is the time for the first feeding. Add 30 grams of each, whole wheat flour and water, and mix well. Cover the jar, and let it rest in a warm corner of the kitchen for 9-12 hours or overnight. Be flexible here, you want to let the starter rest until you see considerable activity. If you feel the need, extend this period until 24 hours. The starter should get bubbly. (refer to images)

Feeding 2: Discard 45 grams of the starter and feed 45 grams of flour and water each.

Let the starter regain its vigor. Keep it covered on the kitchen counter for 6-7 hours and observe its activity. It should start to rise. To keep track of its activity, place an elastic band around the jar.

Feeding 3: Give another feeding, by discarding 65 grams of the starter and feeding with 65 grams of flour and water each. Your dehydrated starter should have regained its normal activity by this point. (I was able to revive my starter by this point but in case the starter has not shown normal activity after feeding 3 go ahead and do another feeding.)

Feeding and maintenance of the starter: Go ahead and start your normal starter feeding and maintenance schedule. Start by discarding 100g of the starter and add 100 g of water and flour each.

Now go ahead, and use this starter to bake your favorite bread! Something like this... 

Reviving the Dehydrated Sourdough Starter

Come learn how to easily dehydrate sourdough starter, either in a food dehydrator or air-dry. The result is a dry starter that is easy to store, ship or share. Dry sourdough starter is alive but dormant (preserved) and stays good for years to come!

How to Dehydrate (Dry) Sourdough Starter to Preserve It

Wet sourdough starter ((active))

For the best results, feed your sourdough starter before drying it. Allow it to reach peak activity (when it has at least doubled in size after feeding, but hasn’t started to deflate yet) before collecting some of the starter to dry.

Once it reaches peak activity, take some of the wet starter from the container. Use a spatula to spread the wet starter out in a thin layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, or on a food dehydrator tray liner. The more thin and evenly you spread it, the more quickly and successfully it will dry. (For reference, about 1 cup of starter will cover a 14 x 14 inch tray)

Dry the starter in a food dehydrator set to 105°F or less (heat will kill the starter culture) OR set the tray out (uncovered) in a cool, dry and well-ventilated location to air dry. Tip: If your oven has a convection fan, put the tray of starter in the cool oven to air dry (oven off, fan on).

Allow the starter to dehydrate until it is completely dry, brittle, and snaps when bent. The time it takes to fully dehydrate sourdough starter depends on the method you use, how thick you spread it, and the ambient humidity in your kitchen. We usually run our dehydrator on 95°F for about 24 hours.

Once it’s 100% dry, you can break up the dehydrated starter into chips or flakes, or grind it into a powder in a blender or food processor.

Store dehydrated sourdough starter in a cool, dark, dry place inside an airtight container. It should stay viable for many years.

To use the dry starter, you must reactivate (reconstitute) it back into wet active starter first. Follow these instructions or google &quot;Homestead and Chill reactivate dry starter&quot; to find them.

I've got my dried starter in a zip lock.  Can I just put that in a box and mail it to my friend or do I need to do anything else special if I want to ship it?

I got my starter so quickly in the mail!  I baked sourdough for years and --unlike so many during the early pandemic--I gave it up during the pandemic.  I seemed to have a knack for getting starter going from scratch (ie, no powder starters to add like this).  However, for some reason, this time my attempts were completely unsuccessfull.  After several weeks of absolutely no success with my own starter, I decided to give Deanna's a try. For years I have admired how super active and valuminous her starter could get! I am on the third day of reviving Deanna's starter, and it is already bubbling away. It is so much more active and happy than my other attempts with other instructions!!  So excited to finally get back to baking sourdough!

Hi Deanna!
I purchased your sourdough starter and have had great success!  It's been fun baking my own bread per your instructions.  I have made your other sourdough recipes as well and each have been delicious.  I do find that when I discard I may not have enough for a recipe.  Do you have a suggestion for creating more bulk so when I discard I would have enough for other recipes?  Thank you in advance.  I often turn to your website and channel to learn from for all things in the garden.

Hi,

Thanks for writing this!  I've always wondered if the starter can be frozen or preserved somehow for exactly those times...

Do you have any idea if the same could be done with SCOBYs for pausing the Kombucha production for a period of time?  I'm tempted to try.

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