15. Home-Drying Starters
Description
This article is from the Sourdough Starters FAQ, by Brian Dixon briandixon at hotmail.com.
15. Home-Drying Starters
Drying starters results in a powder suitable for long-term, no-care,
storage of starters, or for convenient mailing to friends or
relatives.
Dried starters may be kept for long periods of time outside the
freezer, and even longer when stored in the freezer. The freezer is
the best place for dried starters.
Since yeast has the natural survival mechanism of being able to
sporulate upon drying or refrigeration, it tends to survive quite
well when stored in this manner. The 'sour' in the starter though,
is from lacto-bacilli. Lacto-bacilli do not have a natural mechanism
for surviving drying or refrigeration (or freezing).
Before relying on any dried starter for maintaining the original
starter and all of its characteristics, it is best to test it. That
is, dry enough starter so you have numerous 2-tablespoon packets of
dried starter, then restore one of the packets and compare its
qualities to the original. Taste and smell are good enough tests.
Rising time is a tempting test, but remember that given proper
feeding, a restored starter can easily resume the raising of bread
just as well as it did prior to the freezer storage. No need to
prepare an entire recipe. If the 'sour' is missing, or the powder
doesn't easily restore, then another try at drying is in order. Once
you've successfully dried the starter, place it in the freezer or
mail it immediately.
The following technique is thought to work in most cases. Note that
the technique may actually diminish yeast concentrations while at the
same time maximizing lacto-bacilli concentrations. This is
purposeful since it will also maximize the chance that the
lactobacilli will survive the drying process.
Here's what to do:
* Using 1 cup of your starter, replenish this starter as described in
the instructions above, but rather than proofing for only 8 to 12
hours, proof the starter for about 18 hours at 85 degrees.
* To restore the starter in the starter container, just follow the
normal, unmodified, replenishing directions above.
* Tear off a piece of wax paper about three feet long, and lay it on
your working surface, making sure the wax side is up.
* Place a few tablespoons of the overproofed starter on the wax paper
near one end and spread thinly across the wax paper using a dough
blade or flat knife.
* Allow to dry at room temperature overnight.
* When dry, the wax paper will probably have curled up. Just press
the wax paper flat to free the dried starter from the paper. Place
the flakes of dry starter into a bowl. Scrape or crack-off any
remaining starter into the bowl. Using your fingers, crunch up the
starter until it is a fine powder.
* Place 2 tablespoons of the dried powder in individual plastic bags.
I prefer the zip-type sandwich bags available at most grocery stores.
* Test the newly-dried starter by restoring it as described above.
If it resembles the original starter fairly closely, then you're in
business...store the rest of the packages in the freezer. If the
starter does not resemble the original, repeat the drying process and
try again. I have heard about, but have not tested, people having
good success with even longer proofs at lower temperatures. For
example, if you're not having good success, you might try proofing at
75 to 80 F for 20 to 24 hours prior to the drying process. If you
discover an exceptionally good way to dry starter, please email the
idea to me at briandixon at hotmail.com.
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