Now that you have spent time and effort developing your sourdough starter, wouldn’t it be great to “hit the save” button like on your computer? What if you could just take some starter and put it somewhere out of sight/mind, knowing that it is an exact snapshot of your starter. Well, you can by dehydrating your sourdough starter
Dehydrating your starter is a great way to preserve your work as well as package it up and share with a friend. The great thing about this method is how easy it can be. I have a dehydrator with a thermostat on it, you do not need this. For all intents and purposes we need the starter to dry, that is all. I bet if you look at your starter jar right now you will see some fully dry spots. It is that easy.
Step 1: Take a sheet of parchment paper and place it in a cookie sheet. This would be optimal, use whatever you have that is approximately the same size. You want this to be non-stick as well. Placing the starter directly ON the cookie sheet would be ill advised. We are not going to heat this up so cling wrap, parchment, wax paper will work.
Step 2: Pour out and spread a layer of starter onto your surface.
Step 3: Place the starter in your oven (with light on) until dry. There are things you can do to speed this up. Any type of airflow will help. I used an Excalibur dehydrator with a fan, it took about 6 hours. Check in on it after a few hours, when you can, flip the drying starter to ensure thorough drying.
Step 4: Once you have a completely dry sheet of starter you can remove it and break it up. The easiest way to get this into powder form is a blender or food processor. Break it down until it forms a nice power, package it up in a air-tight container and store in a cool dark place.
To re-hydrate the starter, you are going to want to use a 1:1:1 ratio of water, starter, flour.
