JoeV
Washing Up
I was cruising Bread Making Videos — Bread Baking Instructional Videos and Baking Supplies. looking for some more ideas for using my sourdough starter, when I came across a video for drying your starter for long term storage or for sending your starter to a friend. He makes the point that it's also prudent to have some dried starter on hand in case you lose your starter through a disaster or neglect, and if you have a backup of your Mother Starter you can be back in the sourdough baking business in as little as a couple of days with your original starter.
I'm in the process of making a batch of dried starter by drying a thin layer of starter on parchment paper.
I will then crumble it and put it in a small ziplock bag and store in the freezer. You can even crush it into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle before storing.
This would also be a good way to preserve your Mother Starter if you know you won't be baking for an extended period of time, like during the summer when it's too hot to bake for some folks. This way you would not have to be concerned with feeding the starter if you will not be using it for several months. Just dump it out and restart it later in the year.
Eric even has a video and written instructions for reviving your dried starter.
JoeV
I'm in the process of making a batch of dried starter by drying a thin layer of starter on parchment paper.
I will then crumble it and put it in a small ziplock bag and store in the freezer. You can even crush it into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle before storing.
This would also be a good way to preserve your Mother Starter if you know you won't be baking for an extended period of time, like during the summer when it's too hot to bake for some folks. This way you would not have to be concerned with feeding the starter if you will not be using it for several months. Just dump it out and restart it later in the year.
Eric even has a video and written instructions for reviving your dried starter.
JoeV
