Ready to rehydrate your dried sourdough starter? This is a simple and easy-to-follow method, perfect for beginners, and ready in just two days. Need instructions for an active starter? Read this post.
From my understanding, there isn’t an expiration date on dried stater. With that being said, I encourage you to keep a small, dried amount (after you hydrate what you just received), as a backup in your pantry if you find yourself without an active starter or accidentally kill it. No shame in that, I have almost killed my stater but alas, she’s still kickin’!
Plan Ahead – this needs to have 2-3 days to hydrate before you plan to bake any bread.
*editing to add* In an attempt to help the starter rise, overheating seems to be a common and unfortunate mistake! Avoid killing your starter by steering clear of these common mistakes:
- Some ovens have a ‘proof’ setting, which is typically too warm for both sourdough starters and dough. Unless you can set an exact temperature (80 degrees or below), do not use this setting. The same is true for the “warm” setting.
- The same can be true when using the oven light to keep it warm. If you have an oven with multiple light bulbs, it may be too hot for fermenting unless used for short periods of time. If your oven only has one bulb, aim to only leave the light on for an hour at a time. Test it out sometime and use a thermometer to gauge how your oven responds.
- Leaving your starter in the oven also runs the risk of accidentally forgetting about it and preheating to 350 for dinner… I’ve done it myself!
Overall, the moral of the story here is don’t get carried away with keeping your starter in a warm place and accidentally kill it. Do the best you can and roll on.
If it’s in your budget, here are my two favorite gadgets for safely warming your starter!
Goldie by Sourhouse: The perfect space for your sourdough starter! Use this link for 10% off your order.
Breville Toaster Oven with a customizable proof setting. Yes, you can set the temp of the oven and how long it stays on for! My husband bought this for me last year and it is my favorite kitchen gadget! In my opinion, the many many uses for this little oven easily justifies the price! I even use it to bake my sourdough loaves. Buy it on amazon here.
Tools Needed
- Organic Un-Bleached All-Purpose flour. Costco often has a good organic all-purpose flour
- Filtered water (filtered is ideal but tap is fine if that is all you have)
- A kitchen scale. This is a good scale on Amazon if you don’t have one
- Glass jar with lid
- A warm environment: The starter will do best in a warm area. However, the countertop will be 100% fine if that’s best for you.
WATCH THE VIDEO – day 1
WATCH THE VIDEO – day 2 & 3
Day One
7 am: First, place all of the dried starter into a glass jar. A 16oz jar seems to work best. Tare the scale and add 25 grams of warm water (lukewarm is fine) and give it a little stir. Then, cover loosely and leave the jar on your counter or warm environment for 8-12 hours.
7 pm: After at least 8 hours, add 10g of flour, 10g of water and mix well. Loosely cover the jar and let sit on your countertop or in a warm area for 8-12 hours.
Day Two
7 am: discard at least half the starter. Then, add 25g of water and 25g of flour to the jar and mix well. Loosely cover the jar and let sit on your countertop or in a warm area for 8-12 hours. It is okay if you don’t see any bubbles.
7 pm: Now you may start to see bubbles! Just to be sure it is strong enough to make your dough fully rise, I suggest doing one last feed. Discard half the starter and add 25g of flour and 25g of water to the jar and mix well. Loosely cover the jar and let sit on your countertop or in a warm area for 8-12 hours.
Day Three
7 am: Look at you, you’re doing it! Your starter should be nice and bubbly. I would suggest doing one last discard (remove 1/2 or 2/3) so you are left with about 25g of starter in the jar. This will help ensure the 1:2:2 ratio stays consistent which I talk about in my digital guide, Sourdough Simplified.
Now, you are left with two options: feed your starter again for a recipe. This would be considered Day 1 if you are following the timeline in the digital guide. Or you can simply place the jar in your refrigerator until you are ready to bake!
Learn more about basic care instructions here.
Want all my secrets for baking beautiful sourdough bread, every time?
Learn more about my digital guide: Sourdough Simplified