Putting your sourdough starter on hold
For best long-term storage, dehydrate sourdough starter.

Sooner or later, most of us need to put our sourdough baking on hold. Maybe we're going on vacation; perhaps the schedule is just too crowded at the moment for the ritual feeding/discarding/feeding/baking process. Whatever the reason, there comes a time when we need to put our sourdough starter to bed for awhile. So what's the best way to keep your starter happy, healthy, and vibrant, when you know you won't be using it for an extended period?
Refrigerate it and hope? Freeze it and forget it?
Neither of the above. The best way to preserve your starter – for a couple of weeks, a month, or even years – is to dry it.
Let's see how to dry sourdough starter for long-term storage.
First, feed your starter as though you were going to bake with it. If it's been stored in the fridge, take it out, and feed it with equal parts unbleached all-purpose flour and lukewarm water. Let it rest, covered, until it becomes very bubbly and healthy looking.
Next, spread it – all of it* – onto two pieces of parchment. It helps to set each piece of parchment on a baking sheet, simply for ease of transportation.
*Don't want to dry all of it? See the end of this post for advice.
The starter should be spread as thinly as possible; use a spatula, an offset spatula, or a bowl scraper to help the process along.
Let the starter dry at room temperature until it's completely and utterly dry. This will take a day (if you live, say, in Arizona, in a house without air conditioning); or up to three, four, five days – it totally depends on the weather. In Seattle, in winter? Count on a long dry.
If you live somewhere humid, can you dry your starter in the oven? Yes; but be careful. Rather than turning the oven on to warm it, I'd advise using only your oven's electric light, which will produce very gentle, even heat. You don't want to risk turning the oven on and accidentally making it too hot, which would kill your starter. (See step #8, below.)
Completely dehydrated starter should peel easily off the parchment; when you pick a piece up, it will be brittle and easily snap between your fingers. If you have a scale, weigh it; if you started with 4 ounces starter on your parchment, it should weigh 2 ounces (or very close) when it's completely dry.
Your starter is completely dry! Now what? Read on.
Break the starter into small chips with your hands; or place it in a plastic bag and pulverize it with something heavy.
Can you run it through a food processor? Yes, but it's not necessary; just break it into chips as best you can.
Store the dehydrated starter airtight, preferably in a glass container. You want something totally inert, with an airtight cover; a glass jar is perfect. Date the jar and label it; you don't want someone throwing it away during the course of some pantry spring cleaning.
Keep the jar of dried starter in a cool, dark place, if possible. Not cool as in refrigerator; just not sitting in the hot sun, or over your woodstove. Be sensible.
You've returned from a long trip, or maybe you've finally got more free time on your hands. Either way, your ready to start baking with your saved starter again. Here's how to bring your sourdough starter back to life.
When you're ready to revive the starter, measure out 1 ounce (or about 1/8 of it, if you'd been following a regular feeding pattern and had about 8 ounces starter on hand at the beginning of the drying process).
Don't have a scale? Well, depending on the size of your chips, this will be between 1/4 and 1/3 cup.
Place the dried starter chips in a large (at least 1-pint) container. Add 2 ounces (1/4 cup) of lukewarm water. The water should barely cover the chips; tamp them down, if necessary.
Stir the chips/water occasionally; it'll take 3 hours or so, with infrequent attention, to dissolve the chips.
Once the mixture is fairly smooth/liquid, with perhaps just a couple of small undissolved chips, feed it with 1 ounce (about 1/4 cup) of unbleached all-purpose flour. Cover it lightly (a shower cap works well here), and place it somewhere warm.
I like to use my electric oven with the light turned on. Even without ever turning on the heat, it holds a constant temperature between 85°F and 90°F.
You can certainly keep your starter out of the oven, at room temperature; just understand that this whole process, as I'll describe it, will take longer. The cooler the room, the longer it takes sourdough starter to work.
Let the starter work for 24 hours. At the end of that time, you should see some bubbles starting to form. Remember, this is at about 85°F; if your temperature is lower, this will take longer.
How much longer? Totally depends on temperature. Once you do this process once – in your kitchen, in your climate, accounting for your weather – you'll have a better idea.
Sourdough isn't one of those things you can be all engineering about. Forget your timer; just wait until your starter looks like the picture above.
WITHOUT DISCARDING ANY OF THE STARTER, feed it with 1 ounce of lukewarm water, and 1 ounce of flour. Cover, and put back in its warm spot. After "X" hours (depends on your kitchen), you should see some serious bubbling; mine took eight hours to become nice and bubbly.
Feed the starter again – 1 ounce of lukewarm water, 1 ounce of flour – cover, and wait. Again, you're not discarding any at this point.
Here's my starter 12 hours later. It's exhibiting a host of tiny bubbles, and has expanded. You may also notice, from the side of the container, that it's risen, and then fallen; this is completely natural.
Your starter is ready to return to its former life – and its regular schedule. DISCARD all but 4 ounces (about 1/2 cup). Feed it again, this time with 4 ounces each lukewarm water and flour. (That's 1/2 cup of water, and 1 cup of flour, for those of you without a scale. Tell me again why you don't have a scale?)
This time, it should really expand quickly. In my 85°F oven, it took just 4 hours for it to triple in size. Your starter is now revived and healthy.
To ready the starter for baking (while saving enough for another day), feed it again. Discard all but 4 ounces; and feed the remainder with 4 ounces each lukewarm water and flour. Let it become bubbly – and let the baking begin!
Q. Do you have to dry all of your starter?
A. No. Store half in the fridge, if you like. Just don't store any in the freezer; freezing will kill your starter (more on that in a future post).
Q. If you dried all of your starter, and you only revive 1 ounce of it – what do you do with the rest?
A. Give some to a friend (with a link to this blog post, of course). Or just save the rest for sometime in the future.
Q. How long will dried starter stay good?
A. Not sure, but we've heard cases of dried starter remaining viable for over a decade. Thorough drying should preserve your starter indefinitely – just ask King Tut!
Finally, I couldn't possibly end this post without showing you what happened to my dried, revived, fed, and baked-with starter. This Extra-Tangy Sourdough Bread has NO commercial yeast; it was entirely leavened with my reconstituted starter. Success!
For an answer to all your sourdough questions, check out our Complete Guide: Baking with Sourdough.
September 7, 2024 at 11:57am
Is it ok to store sourdough starter in the fridge until I use it next. I normally take it out to come to room temperature then feed it before using it again.
September 7, 2024 at 3:27pm
In reply to Is it ok to store sourdough… by Juanita (not verified)
Hi Juanita, if you're not able to feed your starter, the refrigerator is generally a safe place to store it. However, we recommend giving it a feeding, leaving it out at room temperature for a few hours to start bubbling, and then placing it in the refrigerator. This will ensure that your starter has some nourishment while it's in the fridge. While a generally well-maintained starter can survive in the fridge for a month or even longer, the longer the starter has been stored in the refrigerator, the more room temperature feedings may be required to bring it back to its normal aroma and rising behavior. If you're able to give your starter a feeding once a week while it's stored in the fridge, this will help to keep it more active.
September 2, 2024 at 6:27pm
I have been feeding my starter for 31 days in line with the recipe. It bubbles each day, but doesn't grow very much, only about 40-50%. I've tried increasing the ratio of flour to starter, water which helped for a bit but as soon as I went back to the regular recipe it stopped doubling in size. How can I tell if it's active? Or what else should I try?
September 6, 2024 at 12:00pm
In reply to I have been feeding my… by Valerie (not verified)
Hi Valerie, are you feeding twice a day, or only once a day? How warm is your house this time of year? It sounds like your starter is just a bit sluggish, but it's a good sign that it is rising routinely after a feeding, even if it isn't doubling. I suspect adding a small percentage of whole wheat flour (15-25%) as part of your feedings for a few days may prove helpful, and if you're only feeding once a day, I would definitely start feeding twice daily. For more help troubleshooting, please don't hesitate to contact our Baker's Hotline at 855-371-BAKE (2253). We're here M-F from 9am-7pm EST, and Saturday and Sunday from 9am-5pm EST.
June 28, 2024 at 9:37am
I followed your recipe (here in the UK) and it worked like a charm. I now have a really vigorous starter going for making white/wholemeal bread and regularly use it to make my bread. Because it is such a vigorous one, I've dried some - just in case. The next plan is to make an organic rye starter to make schwarztbrod and Polish sunflower bread (rye and sunflower seeds). Have you any tips for making a rye starter? I'm thinking exactly the same process should work the same.
June 28, 2024 at 1:49pm
In reply to I followed your recipe (here… by John Boulton (not verified)
Hi John. We are thrilled to hear of the success with your starter! We absolutely do have some information on making a Rye Sourdough Starter. I'll link to our recipe and tips right below for your review: Rye Sourdough Starter The process is very similar but there are a few differences. Let us know if any additional questions come up during the process! Happy Baking
May 9, 2024 at 12:27pm
I love King Arhur recipes and all but you just made me dizzy when you are talking about ounces, pints and cups, I think all in grams would be perfect. A real nightmare for me.
January 27, 2025 at 4:54pm
In reply to I love King Arhur recipes… by Mirtha Durand (not verified)
Agreed!!
April 7, 2024 at 6:52pm
Hi
I basically killed my starter
However when I was feeding it way back when there was always dried starter on the jar and on the sheet I kept it on.
However it is no way as much as your example
It is a few grams at most.
So my question
Can I start with this tiny amount and grow it over time.
I remember a story of a baker in Brooklyn who had a coworker who threw his starter in the street and he ran with a teaspoon and saved a little bit and he remade it from that
Hopefully I can do the same.
Or just send for another batch for King Arthur
Thanks for listening
April 8, 2024 at 11:51am
In reply to Hi I basically killed my… by Michael Heit (not verified)
Hi Michael, it's certainly worth a shot, but if your starter doesn't respond well within a few days, you might just want to start over and create a starter from scratch. If you're starting with a very small amount of dried starter, I would scrape what you can of your dried starter into a small jar and only add about 1 ounce/28 grams of water. Let that sit for up to 48 hours (stirring well after 24 hours) and see if you get any bubbling. If you do, I think it will be worth proceeding with the process.
Pagination