How to Dry Sourdough Starter (2024)

Great!

I’m not sure since I haven’t ever freeze-dried anything. If you try it let us know if it works.

Yes you can freeze dry the sourdough starter. You will rehydrate it the same way as this recipe says. I freeze dried some and am going to fd more. Google freeze drying sourdough starter and you will find out you can do it.

@Caroline, Our pioneer forefathers likely used the sun. Sun-drying is the OG “dehydrator”!

You’re welcome! Check out how to make sourdough powder. I’ve created some recipes that use the powder for a flavor boost.

Hmmm, where do you have the starter? Is it in a very humid environment. When drying starter I will sometimes peel the partially dried starter off the sheet and flip it over to let the other side dry out.

@Eileen Gray,
Yes, it’s summer here and pretty humid.
I tried flipping it over and it didn’t dry any further.
It’s like a duplicate of my silicone mat.
Can I still use it? Or should I chuck it and start again?
Thanks.

Ok…

@Kathleen, So tell us what you are looking for. A commercial product, another way to dry it. portions?
Inquiring minds want to know – esp if you have another, better method.

Hi Deb. I can tell you it get pretty humid here in PA so I do work in humid conditions (although in an air conditioned house). What do you mean you have trouble achieving 100% hydration? If you feed with equal weights flour and water it should be at 100%. Do you mean the texture is different? Being in a new state the water could be different and even the flour is you don’t buy a national brand.

@Eileen Gray,
Good morning Eileen, thank you for your quick response. I use King Arthur flour and I weigh both flour & water by grams. When I feed my starter equal grams of flour & water the texture is not the same. It’s very loose unlike my starter when I was in IL. I made blueberry muffins this morning with my new starter & did have to bake them for a shorter period of time. When I bake I use electric oven & I use an oven thermometer so I do know my new oven was 350. I attribute the less cooking time to less water in my starter. It was humid in IL but in AL its much higher like 90+% humidity. Is that the reason for the texture to be so loose?

@Deb,
Hi Eileen, I just tried to send a reply & it just didn’t send. Both starters are really loose. I did use some rye flour in the new starter based on your suggestion. We are originally from AL but moved to IL as a very young couple for our jobs. I’ve always baked & cooked but didn’t start baking breads using sourdough until covid. I’m sure I’ll have issues with other things like macarons due to humidity. Thanks for your advice. Sorry for the delay but we are still unloading boxes.

No. Those discards shouldn’t be used since the growing starter goes through some pretty funky stages. If you’re using my method for creating a starter there isn’t a tremendous amount of discard, especially during the first few days. You can also make and maintain a smaller starter for less discard overall. Have fun on your sourdough journey!

I’ve had this question before. If you read through the comments you’ll see this response to Danielle. “…when I dried mine the top and bottom sides were different colors. The top got a kind of grayish/beige color and the underside was whiter. I’d be surprised if it would grow mold within 18 hours. Were you drying active starter or a more dormant discard? Discard can become grayish if it’s been unfed. Are there any off odors or does it just smell fermented? My first suggestion would be to let the underside finish drying and see what it looks like. I dried one of my trays at room temp for several days and didn’t get any mold at all. In the end, if you’re still nervous maybe you can just break off the discolored pieces and use the rest?”

I often do a feeding with rye flour when I’m making rye bread or bagels. It’s no problem at all

Fascinating!

There’s no need to be rude. I weigh water in grams all the time when I’m feeding my starter.

I always measure my water in grams. One millilitre of water is 1 gram in mass (ok – pure and at standard temp, etc., but it’s close enough for the kitchen to always assume this). A recipe given in baker’s percentages assumes the water is being weighed just like everything else. In fact, the only time I don’t weigh an ingredient is when I have a recipe from an American that I know just scoops flour and gives the measurement in volume. I have found that in that case, weighing the flour will result in too slack a dough/batter — so I’ll follow the scoop method then. Otherwise — weigh everything — it’s much more accurate. I have verified the volume of several kitchen wet measuring cups I have and have found the markings to be as much as 1 fl. oz. off. That may not sound like a lot, but it can make the difference between success and mediocrity.

no need to be rude., Instead of learning about sourdough you need. learn to be polite
If you are unhappy with the way the author writes recipes simple go to another site.
Sourdough really isn’t rocket science.
.It has been around for centuries and they certainly did not have the conveniences for measurement that are available today
I appreciate the authors willingness to share her thoughts and ideas

@ponyboy,
It seems you haven’t been able to pass elementary school. Let me enlighten you. The SI standard of weigh based on the volume of water. 1 liter of water in room temperature is 1 kg. 1 kg = 100 dkg = 1000 g
1 kg water = 1000 ml
1 dkg water (10 g for the weak in mind) = 1 cl (10 ml)

@Impatient_Teacher, no need to be insulting. Many if us have years of valid experience without a scale. Scales are useful but much excellent baking had been done for centuries without one. Metrics have not always been taught in school..thank you for your help

@ponyboy, this is a very valid measurement. As we know 1 liter of water equals 1000 g or ml of water. It is just much easier to measure 14 g on a kitchen scale than 14 ml in an container. Possibly on a not plum surface.

@Liz Reynolds, I never measure my starter feedings and all four of them are alive and well…so many happy bubbles. I go off of texture, look, and smell somehow I imagine 100+ years ago cooking in a cast iron pot over an open fire they didn’t really have a gram scale:-)

@Eileen Gray, I weigh the ingredients in grams as well.. I follow your instructions for dehydrating and rehydrating my sourdough starter

It’s hard to say without seeing it, but when I dried mine the top and bottom sides were different colors. The top got a kind of grayish/beige color and the underside was whiter. I’d be surprised if it would grow mold within 18 hours. Were you drying active starter or a more dormant discard? Discard can become grayish if it’s been unfed. Are there any off odors or does it just smell fermented? My first suggestion would be to let the underside finish drying and see what it looks like. I dried one of my trays at room temp for several days and didn’t get any mold at all. In the end, if you’re still nervous maybe you can just break off the discolored pieces and use the rest?

I don’t have a dehydrator so I couldn’t say. Anyone else know?

@Jenni, Since I first wrote this article I bought a dehydrator and used it to dry my discard. I set it to 90 degrees and it took about 8 hours.

I can turn on the fan without heat in my oven. You could also just leave the tray out at room temperature for a couple of days.

I don’t think that temp range would kill the yeast since I use water over 100F for making bread. Try dehydrating at room temp (it will take a few days) and see if that works better. I found that it also made a difference how active my starter was when I dried it. Discard took a couple of feeding to become active. Did you use warm water for rehydrating?

@Eileen Gray, yeast actually won’t die until about 140 degrees. I’m not sure about the beneficial bacteria also present in the starter. That said, I dried mine in the oven with the light on, mine will get up to about 105 if I leave it on but I prefer to keep it under 90. I don’t think 80-90 would kill anything.

@Connie Merritt my “accidentally” baked starter came back to life.
It’s practically indistructable

I’ve been doing experiments with ground dried starter. I’m not ready to publish yet, but I am working on it.
P.S. Great minds think alike, I guess!

Thanks Iris. I’m doing quite a bit of experimenting with dried sourdough starter. Stay tuned!

I have had great success keeping small amounts of starter in the refrigerator when I’m not baking every couple of days. I mix 20g starter with 20g flour and 20g water Leave on the counter for an hour and then stick in the refrigerator. Even after several weeks of no feeding, it usually wakes up after a feeding or two. Just take it out a day or two before you want to bake, stir the hooch back in, feed 60g flour and 60g water with no discard, then 180g flour and 180g water about 12 hours later (sooner if it has reached its peak), again with no discard. Then feed normally. In the refrigerator, I always keep it in the coldest section, which is about 38F or 3C.

I bought an old (1970s) book about bread and inside is a packet of dried starter. I’m tempted to see if it works….also scared I will poison myself….

@Jaki, that is so cool! I hope you tried it. I’d be curious to know the results.

@Jaki, I have a package of dried San Francisco stated that is 35 years old!! I’m trying to revive it right now. My research brought me to this site. We’ll see how it goes : )