Restoring Dried Starter
Posted On 16 August 2021
If you’re trying to restore your starter from a backup, or someone gave you some of their dried starter, here’s the steps to restore it and make it your own.
- First of all, weigh it. You need to know how much dried starter you’ve got. For the sake of examples, I’m going to say you’ve got 10 grams.
- Put it into a container and add an equal amount of good, warm water. Filtered water, bottled water, etc. Not tap water as most tap water has a bit of chlorine and that won’t help. (10 grams in our example.)
- Mix with a toothpick until hydrated and cover well and let sit at room temperature for 8-10 hours.
- Add equal amounts of all-purpose flour and good warm water, equal to what you’ve already got. (So, in our example you’ve now got 20 grams [10 grams of dried starter and 10 grams of water], so now add 20 grams of all purpose flour and 20 grams of warm water.)
- Mix well, cover, and let sit at room temperature another 8-10 hours. You should start to see some bubbles forming.
- In the example above, now you’ve got 60 grams of starter.
- Add 60 grams of all-purpose flour and 60 grams of good, warm water.
- Mix, cover, and let sit until bubbly.
- You should now have 180 grams of starter.
- You can keep doing this until you feel you have enough to work with and maintain.