SOURDOUGH STARTER STORAGE – Drying your Starter for long term storing
If you have been following ‘My Introduction to Bread Making’ series and have made you own sourdough starter, you may be wondering what to do next.
If you bake bread on a regular basis, every day or every other day, then leaving it out on the side, feeding and replenishing when you use some, is the way to go BUT…….
What if you only bake bread occasionally or you want to stop making bread for a while what can you do then?
You can pop the starter in the fridge and chill it, this will stop the yeast from developing and then you only need to feed it once a week.
If you like the work I do? You can always buy me an expresso Here but truly just a like will do 🙃💕
This is the easy solution and if you follow the simple steps below your starter will ‘live’ quite happily for years.
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Remove from the fridge and allow it to come up to room temperature for 3 or 4 hours.
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Remove or ‘discard’ half a cup and feed it as you did when you began the process, with equal quantities of flour and water, up to about half a cup.
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Stir until smooth and then leave in a warm place to ‘bubble and feed’ away for 2-3 hours.
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If you want to make some bread, once you have lots of bubbles, take out what you want for the recipe and then pop the rest back in the fridge until its next ‘feed’.
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If you are not ready to bake, then just return it to the fridge until next week.
Watch the Storing Your Sourdough Starter Video
Drying your Starter for Long term Storage
If you want to keep the starter but don’t want to have to feed it regularly what can you do?
Take a piece of Baking paper and lay it onto a tray. Pour your sourdough starter onto the paper and spread it out so it is evenly thin all over.
Set it aside and leave it to dry out completely -how long this takes is dependant on temperature and humidity but mine was dry after 24 hours. ⏰ You may wish to cover it with a thin cloth to stop any dust from getting in to it.
Once it has dried completely, break it up into small flakes, crush it with a mortar and pestle or grind it in a food processor and then place it into a ziplock bag and zip it closed.
Your sourdough starter will keep indefinitely like this and if you need to, like me, you can take it with you on your travels ✈️ and bring it back to life when you are back in the kitchen.
To rehydrate the starter just add some water and then start to feed it as you did in the beginning with equal quantities of flour and water.
I will be making a video to show you how I rehydrate my sourdough once I am settled in my new kitchen – where ever that might be
