How to Dehydrate Sourdough Starter
November 2, 2023
Hello and happy Wednesday! Dehydrating sourdough starter is important for several reasons. In situations of prolonged inability to care for your sourdough starter, such as moving to a different city or state, traveling for several weeks, or you’ve just had a new baby and won’t have time to be concerned with sourdough starter, dehydrating it gives you an opportunity to “freeze in time” your sourdough starter and the maturity it’s at. This allows you to pick it back up when you’re ready.
Another good reason to periodically dehydrate your sourdough starter is to have a back up or insurance against your live sourdough starter dying. Sometimes, unexpectedly of course, your sourdough starter may “die” by becoming infested with mold. Or you may accidentally drop your sourdough starter jar and it gets filled with tiny glass shards. Both instances are situations where you must throw away your starter for health and safety reasons.
First, feed your mature sourdough starter and allow it to double. This ensures the live cultures are most active and strong at the time of dehydration.
There are two ways you can dehydrate your sourdough starter: air-dry at room temperature or dry in a dehydrator. Either way is appropriate; air-drying will take a day or so while the dehydrator will take a couple hours or so. This is the brand of dehydrator I use.
No matter the way you dry the sourdough starter, the preparation is the same. Using a pastry brush, spread a thin layer of the starter onto quality parchment paper. Don’t use a cheap brand because it will tear when soaked by the moisture of the starter.
To air-dry, place the parchment paper sheets with a thin layer of starter somewhere that moving air won’t blow them onto the floor, either on top of the fridge or on top of a shelf or cabinet. Ensure that an air conditioner vent nearby is closed to keep it from blowing your parchment sheets down; they get very light-weight once dried.
To dry in the dehydrator, place the covered parchment sheets in a single layer on each shelf of the dehydrator and dry at below 98*F for 2-3 hours.
You’ll know the starter is completely dried when it’s all pale-colored and there are no darker areas (indicating moisture). It should all be crumbly and flaky.
Store the dried starter in a sealable plastic bag or in a glass jar. This is shelf-stable and can be stored in the pantry or somewhere dark and cool. Currently I keep mine in a mason jar in the freezer.
To reactivate your starter, place 20 grams of dried starter into a clean glass jar and add 50 grams of warm water (no more than 110*F). Stir well and add 50 grams of gluten-free flour. I recommend brown rice flour or buckwheat flour (what my sourdough starter is made of). Stir very well. Allow to sit in a warm place for 12 hours and repeat the above steps of adding flour and water.
Over the following 3-7 days, every 12 hours discard half of the sourdough starter and repeat the steps of adding 50 grams water and 50 grams flour and mix well. Do this until the sourdough starter is consistently doubling after each feeding.
I recommend a few kitchen gadgets to have the best success in your kitchen. First, a food thermometer to check the temperature of the warm water you add to your dried starter and to check the internal temperature of your breads and other baked goods to ensure doneness.
Secondly, a kitchen food scale for accurate measurement of ingredients. Gluten-free baking is reliant on weight-measurements instead of volume-measurements for consistently accurate results. Due to the variety of densities and weights of the myriad gluten-free flours, it is important to weigh the ingredients instead of measuring by how much flour fills a certain scoop or cup.
As become a better gluten-free baker and expand your gluten-free pantry items, I recommend a set of quality, BPA-free food storage containers to store your variety of gluten-free baking ingredients in. The list can continue to grow as you progress into more and more gluten-free baking and try new recipes. I have bought 3 sets now of these storage containers to hold my nearly 20 kinds of gluten-free flours, two kinds of gums, and several starches.
Don’t forget some quality parchment paper to use in not only drying your starter but also in everyday baking.
I hope this article has been concise and helpful to you. Check out my recipe for Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread!
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make from clicking links on my website. You are not up-charged for any purchases.
You may like these too
3 Comments
Comments are closed.
Lori
I’ve never heard of dehydrating sourdough starter! Brilliant!!! Very well written with easy to understand directions!