Why Dehydrated Sourdough Starter Is Good Insurance

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out last spring and there was a run on stores for flour and yeast, among other things. Luckily we could turn to our food storage with its wheat and dehydrated starter.

For three years, that dehydrated starter just sat on the top shelf of the pantry. I made it on Martha Levie’s advice from one of her free classes, but I also froze some too.

Then, when the freezer went out a year ago, I was able to move my collection of starters, (a pioneer starter, a 1920 Czech Republic source, a rye starter I grew, an Alaskan, and a San Francisco start), to a freezer in the garage, but this gave me pause. So I tried the dried starter just to make sure it works, and to my delight it did. And a good thing too, since last summer my counter start failed when it was attacked by black mold.

You can purchase a dehydrated starter from Abigail’s Oven or Cultures for Health, for example, but like I said, I made mine shortly after Martha’s class.

In all of her classes, she advises students to take their new sourdough starter home and to feed it right away. Then once it is active, use some to make bread, but put part of it in the freezer and dehydrate some of it. While I didn’t do that right away, it did not take long to have enough starter on hand to follow her admonition.

First, I filled a plastic sandwich bag with a starter and tucked it away into the freezer. Then a few weeks later, I spread some onto a silicone baking mat nestled inside a baking pan and placed it in a warm oven. It dried up okay but was not as flakey as Martha’s. Still, I now had some dried starter and popped it into our storage pantry, high up on that top shelf.

Food Storage: Wheat, Sugar, Dry Milk, Salt, Water, and Starter

My wife and I have been married for 45 years this month. Right after we got married in 1975, we took our church leader’s counsel to store the basics needed to survive. “Wheat (or grain from your locale), sugar or honey, dried milk, salt, and water.” They said that, “Most of us can afford such basics.” But not us as newlyweds, at least not all at once.

However, we were able to buy a 25-pound bucket of wheat once a while. We also asked for some for Christmas. And soon we had 600 pounds of wheat stored, but sadly, we had no idea how to use it. Happily, someone had given us a book on baking with wheat for our wedding, but it read more like a bad chemistry book than a baker’s guide; the things we baked were dense and the flavor was not great. Eventually, we got a hand mill, ground our own wheat, and made bread. But this was more out of duty than desire. It gave us practice using some of the wheat, not that we liked it, but we did it just to be sure we knew to do it if we had to. Over time, and as we adopted four children, and with them, that wheat stockpile grew, but not our interest in using it. I dreaded the day we might have to live on wheat as our “staff of life.” I could bake bread and kept yeast around to do it, but no one at our house really liked it all that much. That all changed, after taking one of Martha’s free sourdough classes. She taught us that a long ferment would release flavor into wheat bread, but more importantly, it could increase nutrition and digestibility. Suddenly we liked homemade bread. I mean we really liked it. After that, I slowly but surely began using that old, stored wheat. I did if for the amazing flavor it added to white bread flour. However ever since Abigail’s Oven started selling its Premium White Whole Wheat Flour, I have moved entirely to whole wheat. And for good measure, about once a month I mill fresh ancient grain, (mostly einkorn and rye) and some of our storage wheat, to add to the dough. This keeps the grains rotating and delivers even more flavor to our bakes. The surprising thing is this, that old wheat grinds up well, tastes fresh, and makes great bread now even after 45 years of storage. But the star of our food storage, and taking center stage, is that old dry starter. Without that there would be no sourdough insurance.

“Creating Sourdough Insurance: How to Dehydrate Your Own Sourdough Starter” Cultures for Health strung those words together in a blog post that captures my sentiments about the matter perfectly. And they share some good reasons why you should: • “An extended vacation • “Switching a sourdough starter to a new type of flour • “Moving house • “Birth of a baby • “Wedding • “Just because you need a break from maintaining your starter” And of course to that list, I would add in case of emergencies or shortages like those we have experienced this year.

Dehydrate Your Own Starter

To dehydrate your own starter, begin with an active start, and spread a thin layer of the starter on a flat surface. I like to use the sides of a large TakeAlong Container, with the lid off, but I have also done it on a silicone baking sheet. Then allow this to dry completely at room temperature or in a slightly warm oven. You will know it is ready if the dried dough separates easily from the surface you dried it on.

To check this, you can push and squeeze the bowl or roll the silicone sheet to make the dried sourdough flake off. Keep it as flakes, crush it, or grind it to powder for long term storage in an airtight container.

In his book, The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers, Caleb Warnock, explains an alternate method: “To dry yeast [referring to sourdough as wild yeast], spread a very thin layer on a cookie sheet or wax paper and let it air dry on a window sill or in direct sunlight, taking care not to expose it to insects. You can also warm an oven to its lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then put the thinly layered yeast in the oven to dry. Once thoroughly dried, scrape the flakes and store in a cool, dark place in a sealed container.”

“The advantage of dry yeast, both today and in the pioneer era, is that if your wet yeast dies, you have a backup. Dry yeast keeps many years, if not indefinitely.—Caleb Warnock

 At her Baking Sense site, Eileen Gray, explains her method using a silicone baking sheet or parchment paper.

1. Line a cookie sheet pan with either parchment paper or a silicone mat. “The silicone mat works best so use it if you have one,” she says.
2. Pour your starter onto the surface and spread it out evenly into a thin layer.
3. She suggested placing “the pan in a cool, dry place, uncovered. I put mine,” she explained, “into the oven with the convection fan on and no heat.”
4. After a day or so, it should peel easily off the mat or parchment, but if you find it “is still moist you can peel it off, flip over the pieces and leave them to continue drying,” she continued.
5. The dehydrated starter is done when it is crisp and dry. “The texture,” she clarifies, “should be like a potato chip that snaps when broken into pieces.”

The dehydrating process should leave you with half the volume, by weight, that you began with. For example, If you start with 1 cup/ 8oz (222 g) of starter you will get 4 oz (111g) of dried starter. Once dried, it can be broken into chips or chopped in your food processor or blender until powdered. Store it in a covered container and it should keep indefinitely.

Martha Explains How to Rehydrate and Use a Dehydrated Starter

“Pour the flakes into a shallow bowl and barely cover with water. Let it sit until they rehydrate, 24 hours or so, occasionally breaking it up with your fingers to help hydrate the larger flakes. Once it is reconstituted, your start is ready to activate.

Begin by placing the rehydrated starter into a large glass jar. Then mix it with ¼ cup (60g) water with ⅓ heaping cup (60g) of flour. Cover it loosely with a lid for 8–12 hours. Then, says Martha, “Four to eight hours before you make the dough, you must activate the start. Mix ¼ cup (56.5g) start with ½ cup (120g) water and ¾ cup (96 g) flour. Let it sit, covered, until it is bubbly and thick and smells sweet (approximately six hours). Your start is ready when it floats in water.

“Always save a small bit of the start for your next batch. Store the start in the refrigerator between uses, or leave it on your counter and feed it flour and water daily. It can stay in the fridge indefinitely, but the longer has been in the fridge, the longer it will take to activate. Do not store start in a metal container,” she concluded. Of course, if you’d rather, you can buy a Sourdough Starter from Abigail’s Oven, where Martha is head baker.