Drying and Storing Your Starter

Drying your starter is a great way to store it long term if you don’t plan to bake for a while, or if you want to have a back up of it after all of your efforts.

Drying Your Starter

  1. First, feed your starter as though you were going to bake with it. If it's been stored in the fridge, take it out, and feed it with equal parts unbleached all-purpose flour and lukewarm water. Let it rest, covered, until it becomes very bubbly and healthy looking.
  2. Spread it out to dry. Spread it – all of it – onto two pieces of parchment. It helps to set each piece of parchment on a baking sheet, simply for ease of transportation. The starter should be spread as thinly as possible; use a spatula, an offset spatula, or a bowl scraper to help the process along.
  3. Dry the starter completely, until it's brittle. Let the starter dry at room temperature until it's completely and utterly dry. This will take a day (if you live, say, in Arizona, in a house without air conditioning); or up to three, four, five days – it totally depends on the weather. In Seattle, in winter? Count on a long dry. It will lighten in colour and start to lift up.
  4. When dry, break up into smaller bits and store in an airtight container. You want something totally inert, with an airtight cover; a glass jar is perfect. Date the jar and label it.
  5. Keep the jar of dried starter in a cool, dark place, if possible. Not cool as in refrigerator but in a cubboard that does not get heat from the stove or oven.
  6. To rehydrate, weigh the dry starter and add the same weight in water, or a little more if necessary to cover it. Stir the chips/water occasionally. It usually takes about 24 hours to fully rehydrate.
  7. Once the mixture is fairly smooth/liquid, with perhaps just a couple of small undissolved chips, feed it with equal amounts of water and flour. Cover it lightly (a shower cap works well here), and place it somewhere warm.
  8. Let the starter work for 24 hours. At the end of that time, you should see some bubbles starting to form. Remember, this is at about 85°F; if your temperature is lower, this will take longer.
  9. Feed the starter again. WITHOUT DISCARDING ANY OF THE STARTER, feed it with 1 ounce of lukewarm water, and 1 ounce of flour. Cover, and put back in its warm spot. After "X" hours (depends on your kitchen), you should see some serious bubbling; mine took eight hours to become nice and bubbly.
  10. And again. Feed the starter again – 1 ounce of lukewarm water, 1 ounce of flour – cover, and wait. Again, you're not discarding any at this point. About 12 hours later, it will exhibit a host of tiny bubbles, and has expanded. You may also notice, from the side of the container, that it's risen, and then fallen; this is completely natural.
  11. Put the starter back on its regular feeding schedule.