How to reliably store your sourdough starter (and how to revive it)

If you need a break from baking, there are ways to store your sourdough starter for weeks, months, or even years. In this email I'll be sharing a few tricks to make it store more successfully.

Refrigeration

A regular 100% hydration starter can be successfully stored for up to a month in the fridge. For best results, give your starter a fresh feed and leave it at room temperature for an hour before storing. Use a jar with a tight-fitting lid.

Refrigerated starter will need to be revived before baking by discarding most of it and then feeding it in the usual way. To feed your refrigerated starter, first scrape off the top layer, take out some of the starter beneath it and place that in a clean jar or bowl, then feed at 100% hydration (e.g. 25g starter to 100g water and 100g flour). Once your revived starter has fermented (the length of fermentation will depend on the seed percentage, the temperature, and the quality of the starter itself), observe it and smell it: are there plenty of bubbles? Does it smell fermented? If in doubt, give it a second feeding, or a third.

For best results, always give your refrigerated starter two feedings before baking with it. The second feeding can be the process of building a pre-ferment or leaven for the final dough, or simply a second feed in the jar.

Lowering the hydration

A thicker starter will store for longer than a 100% hydration starter. To create a thick starter for storage, weigh out some ripe starter in a bowl, add the same weight in water, then knead in more and more flour until it is very very stiff, and put it in a jar with a lid in the fridge right away. With this method, you are essentially preserving your existing starter, giving it a little extra food at such a low hydration that it will grow very slowly and won’t run out of food in a hurry.

A starter like this can survive many months in the fridge, but keep in mind that like any starter, the longer it is stored, the more feedings it will need before it is ready to rise bread to its potential.

Dehydration

Sourdough starter can also be dehydrated: Spread it out very thinly on some parchment paper or a tea towel, put that on top of a cake cooling rack, and allow it to air-dry. Once completely dry, crumble it up and store it in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Store in away from direct sunlight, in a cool, dry place. To revive dehydrated starter, just give it two feedings, as you would for refrigerated starter. Dehydrated starter will last for months or even years.

Freezing: only suitable for some purposes

Excess sourdough starter can be frozen for use in sourdough discard recipes, but freezing will kill or damage some of the yeast strains that are needed to rise bread, so freezing is not recommended as a sole way to preserving your best starter.

May your jars stay lively and your loaves rise high. Floury regards,
​
Kate

​
P.S. If you'd like to access an archive of all previous Floury Friday emails, simply visit http://katedownham.kit.com.

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​