I going to show you how to dry sourdough starter. Why? Because drying is the best way to preserve your sourdough starter for the long term.

an image of a jar full of dried sourdough starter chips

So you’ve jumped on the sourdough bandwagon, YAY! It’s so much fun, isn’t it?

But, there are times when real life interferes and you may not be able to bake for quite a while. Or maybe you want to share your starter with a friend who lives far away. Or maybe you just really hate to discard that discard.

The solution is this incredibly easy-to-do process for drying your starter. Once the starter is completely dried, your hard-won wild yeast goes dormant. The dried starter chips can then be stored indefinitely.

You can also pack some chips into a small envelope and mail them to a friend. I mailed some to my daughter who lives 3000 miles away. It’s a nice way to share from afar.

two photos showing fed and unfed sourdough starter ready for drying on a sheet pan. — I dried both a sourdough discard (left) and recently fed starter (right). Both dried well and were easy to revive. The discard did need an extra feeding before it was active enough to bake with.

FAQs about drying sourdough starter and preserving sourdough starter:

Can I dry sourdough discard or does the starter need to be fed?

I dried both a recently fed starter and sourdough discard which hadn’t been fed in over a week. I was able to revive both, but the dried sourdough discard did need an extra feeding before it was ready to use.

Can I use the oven to dehydrate sourdough starter?

Yes, but don’t turn on the heat. Use the convection fan without heat or just leave the tray in the cool oven with the oven light on.

Can I use a food dehydrator to preserve sourdough starter?

Yes.

Can I just leave the starter out in the kitchen to dry it?

Yes, it may take a bit longer but just leave it out at room temperature until it is completely dry and brittle. The time will vary based on the ambient humidity in your kitchen.

How long does dried starter keep?

Indefinitely.

How do I use dehydrated starter?

Add water and flour and wait for it to come back to life. Follow the instructions listed below.

a jar of dried sourdough starter chips behind a container of revived starter

If you find this information helpful, I’d really appreciate a 5-star review!

How to Dry Sourdough Starter

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 5 minutes

Drying Time: 1 day

Total Time: 1 day 10 minutes

Difficulty: easy

Drying is the best way to preserve your sourdough starter for the long term.

Materials

Active Sourdough Starter

Tools

Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment paper
Half sheet pan
Small spatula

Instructions

To dry the starter:

Line the sheet pan with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. The silicone mat works best so use it if you have one.
Pour the starter onto the sheet pan and spread it out to a thin, even layer.
Place the pan in a cool, dry place, uncovered. I put mine into the oven with the convection fan on and no heat.
After 18-24 hours check the starter. It should peel off the mat. If underneath the starter is still moist you can peel it off, flip over the pieces and leave them to continue drying.
The starter is ready when it is completely dry and crisp. The texture should be like a potato chip which snaps when broken into pieces. You should have half the weight that you started with. If you started with 12 oz of starter you will get 6 oz of dried starter.
Break the starter into chips and store in an airtight container at room temperature.
The dried starter will keep indefinitely.

To revive the dried starter: (yield 9 oz of starter)

Place 1/2 oz (14g) of starter chips in a plastic or glass container. Pour 1 oz (28g) of warm water over the chips and stir to cover the chips with water.
Cover the container and set it aside until all the chips have melted into the water. This usually takes about 3-4 hours. The starter will not look active at this point.
Add another 1/2 oz (14g) of warm water and 1 oz (28g) of unbleached flour to the starter. Stir to combine. Cover and set aside for 4-6 hours. Now you should begin to see activity in the starter.
Add 3 oz (84g) of warm water and 3 oz (84g) of unbleached flour to the starter. Stir to combine. Cover and set aside for 3-4 hours or until the starter has doubled in size and looks quite active.
If after 4-6 hours the starter still seems sluggish, discard all but 3 oz of the starter and do one more feeding.
Use in your recipe as needed.
The amounts listed can be multiplied out to yield more starter.

Impatient_Teacher

Saturday 7th of August 2021

Superb article. Thanks for your effort to write it to help us.

Paul

Thursday 20th of May 2021

About 20, 25 years ago l bought what was claimed to be "oragon trail" sour dough starter. It arrived as a powder in the mail. The starter was weak. I messed around with it for a spellbut it was an underperformer. So, I dehydrated the starter, blended in into a powder, vaccumn sacked some small sacks with a foodsaver and tossed the lot into the chest freezer and moved on. About 3 months ago I removed a sac of the stuff. I used pineapple juice and water to revive it. It came back to life after more than 20 years in the slammer. It was sill sluggish but it was alive. So you can store this stuff long term, atleast the way I did it. Not sure about the freezing part but removing the O2 I think is a must. Iv had whole wheat flower stored in a sealed plastic bag with O2 absorbing packets stored in the freezer for 6 years, was still fine to use.

Eileen Gray

Friday 21st of May 2021

Fascinating!

Rita Jackson

Sunday 7th of February 2021

I found some dried sourdough starter in my cupboard. Thank you for the directions. I am trying to revive it. Today 7 February 2021.

ponyboy

Monday 23rd of November 2020

please learn to provide proper units of measure. learn the difference between volume and weight and when to use which.

ie: 14 grams of water?! your article while probably helpful reads ridiculously fast.

Jami Cunnagin

Thursday 21st of October 2021

@Liz Reynolds, I never measure my starter feedings and all four of them are alive and well...so many happy bubbles. I go off of texture, look, and smell somehow I imagine 100+ years ago cooking in a cast iron pot over an open fire they didn't really have a gram scale:-)

Fred

Sunday 3rd of October 2021

@ponyboy, this is a very valid measurement. As we know 1 liter of water equals 1000 g or ml of water. It is just much easier to measure 14 g on a kitchen scale than 14 ml in an container. Possibly on a not plum surface.

Srobyn

Saturday 14th of August 2021

@Impatient_Teacher, no need to be insulting. Many if us have years of valid experience without a scale. Scales are useful but much excellent baking had been done for centuries without one. Metrics have not always been taught in school..thank you for your help

@ponyboy, It seems you haven't been able to pass elementary school. Let me enlighten you. The SI standard of weigh based on the volume of water. 1 liter of water in room temperature is 1 kg. 1 kg = 100 dkg = 1000 g 1 kg water = 1000 ml 1 dkg water (10 g for the weak in mind) = 1 cl (10 ml)

Liz Reynolds

Sunday 3rd of January 2021

no need to be rude., Instead of learning about sourdough you need. learn to be polite If you are unhappy with the way the author writes recipes simple go to another site. Sourdough really isn't rocket science. .It has been around for centuries and they certainly did not have the conveniences for measurement that are available today I appreciate the authors willingness to share her thoughts and ideas

Danielle

Thursday 19th of November 2020

Thanks so much for this post! I hope you can help!

I dried my starter in a thin layer on parchment and kept it in my oven (off) for 18 hours. I just peeled it up to flip any still moist pieces and some moister bits have almost a brown but greenish tint on the underside. Is this normal? It doesn’t look like mold, but just made me nervous...

It's hard to say without seeing it, but when I dried mine the top and bottom sides were different colors. The top got a kind of grayish/beige color and the underside was whiter. I'd be surprised if it would grow mold within 18 hours. Were you drying active starter or a more dormant discard? Discard can become grayish if it's been unfed. Are there any off odors or does it just smell fermented? My first suggestion would be to let the underside finish drying and see what it looks like. I dried one of my trays at room temp for several days and didn't get any mold at all. In the end, if you're still nervous maybe you can just break off the discolored pieces and use the rest?