Sourdough Starters!

Even though it is not "officially" Fall yet, I am so in the mood for baking.  So I got a couple of my favorite sourdough starters out of the refrigerator and started feeding them yesterday.  Hopefully, they survived the summer living at the back of my refrigerator!  I love some of the names of the starters - Joshua (I am guessing someone name Joshua created it - this is my most favorite starter!), Family Jewels (hmmm - wonder how that name came about!!), Naples - obviously an Italian starter, Okie is from my good friend Old Camp Cook who lives in Oklahoma.

The starters that I am trying to revive are Joshua and Naples.  So far Joshua is showing signs of life (yeah!!).  I will probably bring my sourdough rye starter out next week.  If Naples doesn't respond, I will throw most of it away except for a tablespoon or two and start from scratch to see if I can revive it.  This is a good example why you should always make "back-ups" of your favorite starters.  I have done this with Joshua.

To Create a Back-up Starter

What you want to do is create a dry starter that you can revive at any time.  You will need parchment paper which you can get at any grocery store or Walmart.  Line a cookie sheet with the parchment paper.  Take about 1/4 cup of starter and dump that on the parchment paper.  Add a little bit of water to the starter to make it slightly runny and smear it all over the parchment paper.  Now put this somewhere to let it dry for the next couple of days.  When it has completely dried, I crumble this up into a blender and pulverize it into a powder.  Put it into a baggie with a label - now you have a back up.  I keep this in my refrigeator so I know where to find it.

To Revive Your Dry Starter

Put one teaspoon of the dry starter in a clean container. Add 4 teaspoons of flour* and 3 teaspoons of  water. I have always used tap water without any problems.  Some believe that you should use Spring Water that you buy in the store.  Your choice.  Cover the jar with cheesecloth or a jar lid with a whole punched in the top.

You will "feed" your starter at 12 hour intervals which means you will take a teaspoon of the starter from the jar and throw away the rest.  I know this seems wasteful.  Add 4 teaspoons of flour* and 3 teaspoons of water to the teaspoon of starter in the jar.

*I use all purpose flour for this.

Do not throw the excess starter down the drain - this is like paste.  I just put it in a baggie and throw in the trash.  Saves on plumbing bills!

Continue doing this until the starter is nice and bubbly, then you can start building up to the quantity you need for your recipe.(i.e, you don't need to throw away the excess starter).