Dehydrating and Reviving Sourdough Starter

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Not everyone is a master baker, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make yourself an expert sourdough maker. In this blog post, we discuss the basics of dehydrating and reviving sourdough starter. We’ll also cover tips and tricks for ensuring your starter is strong, healthy, and ready to be used in your baking creations. 

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Skip to reviving your dehydrated starter

What is Sourdough?

Alright, let’s talk about one of life’s most important and delicious topics: sourdough. So what the heck is sourdough anyway? Well, it’s not just any old bread. It’s a special kind of bread that’s made using a wild yeast starter instead of commercial yeast. This starter is like a magical mixture of flour and water that’s been fermenting for a while, sometimes even years!

What makes sourdough so special and well, sour, is the wild yeast and good bacteria that are present in the starter. These little guys work together to give sourdough its distinct tangy flavor and that beautiful chewy texture we all know and love. It’s like a party in your mouth!

Now, I’m not gonna lie, making sourdough isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It takes time and patience to create and maintain a healthy starter, and then you have to go through the whole process of mixing and kneading and proofing and baking. But let me tell you, it’s totally worth it. There’s something incredibly satisfying about slicing into a freshly baked loaf of homemade sourdough bread and slathering it with butter or using it as the base for a killer sandwich.

And the best part is, once you’ve got a good sourdough starter going, you can keep it alive for years and make endless amounts of bread. It’s like having your very own pet that just happens to make you delicious bread instead of leaving hair all over your furniture. Plus, sourdough is healthier for you than regular bread because it’s easier to digest and has a lower glycemic index. So not only does it taste amazing, but it’s also good for your belly.

Benefits of Dehydrating Sourdough Starter

Dehydrating your sourdough starter has a ton of benefits. For starters (pun intended), it allows you to store your starter for longer periods of time. Instead of feeding it every day or every week, you can simply dehydrate it and keep it in a jar on your shelf. This is especially great if you’re going on vacation or if you just want to take a break from baking for a while.

Dehydrated sourdough starter also takes up a lot less space in your kitchen. Instead of having multiple jars of live starter taking up precious counter space, you can have a small jar of dehydrated starter tucked away in a corner. It’s a great solution if you have a small kitchen or if you’re just trying to declutter.

Lastly, dehydrating your sourdough starter can actually improve the flavor and performance of your bread. Some bakers believe that dehydrated starter develops a more complex flavor profile, resulting in a tastier loaf of bread. Plus, dehydrated starter can be incredibly resilient and can withstand more neglect than live starter, making it a great option for novice bakers or those who are short on time.

How to Dehydrate Your Sourdough Starter

Dehydrating your sourdough starter is a lot less complicated than it sounds. We will discuss 3 easy ways to do just that, and one of these ways doesn’t even require an appliance. With an active starter and a little bit of patience, you can have shelf stable starter in 1-3 days.

**For all methods of dehydrating, make sure you have a mature starter at peak activity. Meaning, dehydrate it once you feed it and it becomes super active and bubbly and almost overflowing in the your glass jar!

Air Drying Method

For this method, you are going to line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper or silicone mat. Spread a thin layer of your active starter as thinly as possible across the baking sheet. At this point you want to find a cool and well ventilated area for it to sit for 24-48 hours. Drying time will vary depending on temperature and moisture. As your starter sits, it will begin to dry. As it dries you will notice some areas are more moist than others. At this point I will start “breaking” up the starter. This allows air to reach the areas that aren’t drying as well as the rest of the starter. By the second or third day your starter should be completely dried. At this point, you can store it in “broken pieces” or powder it in a food processor.

*Disclaimer: this is my least favorite method, but I understand that not everyone has access to a dehydrator and most (myself included) cannot go without an oven for 2-3 days. Some issues I had with this method was how badly it attracted fruit flies and the fact that it just did not feel sanitary to me. I ended up trashing this batch of starter due to my own personal preference.

Oven Method

When dehydrating you sourdough starter in an oven, it is important to remember to NOT turn on the heat. When temps get over 100-105 degrees you risk killing your starter. So follow the same steps as with the air dry method and place your starter in the oven with the light on and convection fan (if your oven has one). I don’t hate this method, but it is very inconvenient not having an oven for a couple of days. This would be perfect for someone that has a double oven! Once you have a dry sourdough starter, you can grind it down to a powder or break into small pieces and place in an airtight container for long term storage.

Dehydrator Method

This method is easily my favorite! I have found the best way is to use the dehydrator function on my air fryer. I follow the same prep work. Spread my active sourdough starter on parchment paper on my air fryer’s wire tray. Place it in the air fryer on dehydrate mode at 90-95 degrees. I was originally dehydrating in my Crux air fryer (which took 2-3 days like the oven method) but have since switched to using my Ninja Foodi Smart XL and it has it dehydrated in way less time than the Crux. The Ninja Foodi XL had my starter dried in roughly 14 hours. I still go in and break it up about 4-6 hours into dehydrating to help speed up the process. Once it is completely dried, I pop it into my blender or food processor and grind it down to a powder. I store my dry starter in a glass mason jar with an airtight lid. Now your starter is shelf stable!

Reviving Your Starter

So now you have dehydrated starter and you are ready to “rehydrate” it. It is a super simple process and much quicker than starting from scratch with a brand new starter. When I revive my dried sourdough starter, it is usually ready to make bread with in 4-6 days. I will go through my day-to-day process with pictures below!

Day One

On day one, take 1 tablespoon of the dehydrated starter and mix with 3 tablespoons of warm water in a clean jar. Make sure it is purified or spring water. We use water from our Berkey. Stir together well using a silicone or wooden spoon and then add 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour. Now cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

Day Two

For the real “first feeding,” add 2 tablespoons of flour and a tablespoon of water. Stir with a silicone or wooden spoon. Cover with a lid and let it sit for another 24 hours in a warm spot.

Day Three

Same as day two. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and tablespoon of water. Stir with a silicone or wooden spoon. Cover with a lid and let it sit for another 24 hours.

Day Four

Today we will add 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of water. You may not need that extra tablespoon. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. We are shooting for a thick pancake batter consistency and sometimes not all of the flour incorporates well on day four and that extra bump of water is needed. After 4 days of feeding I usually have an active/ live sourdough starter that has more than doubled in size.

Day Five

By day five I am usually confident enough in my starter to make bread. It is usually very active with lots of bubbles and has quadrupled in size. If this is not the case for you, thats ok. If your starter is not ready for bread by day 5, remove half of the starter and discard. Add back 1/2 cup of all purpose flour and 1/4 cup of water. Mix well and allow it to rest another 24 hours. Repeat this step as many days as necessary to achieve an active bubbly starter. You may have to tweak your feeding ratios a bit to achieve that thick pancake batter consistency. You don’t want it too thick you can’t stir it, but also it should be thick enough that stirring isn’t “easy.”

Conclusion

Sourdough starter is an essential ingredient in baking, and dehydrating and reviving it is an important step in the baking process.  Now that you understand the basics of dehydrating and reviving sourdough starter, why not give it a try? Share your success stories and your favorite sourdough discard recipes in the comments below and learn from other bakers. 

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