Reviving Frozen Sourdough Starter

I hadn't been baking bread for a while, so I froze some of my sourdough starter for later use. Unless you plan to be baking at least once every two weeks, I would freeze your starter. That is the way I plan to maintain my starter. I don't bake every day or several times a week. It's easier just to freeze it and forget it. You can go on a trip and leave it in the freezer and not have to worry if your starter will still be alive when you get back. This is a great way to maintain your starter for those with very busy schedules, who just don't know when they will get the time to bake bread. I highly recommend freezing your starter in batches.

Reviving a frozen starter is very easy but first I will tell you how to freeze it. Simply feed your starter and allow it to set at room temperature for about two hours. Then divide the starter into freezer baggies. I did about two to four tablespoons per baggie. Then seal the baggie, forcing out as much air as possible. Next, place it into a second freezer baggie. This will protect it better from freezer burn. I write the date on a piece of tape or on the second baggie. Never write on a baggie that contains your food because the ink can leach into the food. Place in the freezer as flat as possible. Once it has frozen you can stack it or push it into an out of the way spot in the freezer. You can see in the picture below that I froze more than a couple tablespoons for this one and didn't lay it flat to freeze. It still worked but not as nice if you leave it flat to freeze.

To revive your frozen starter, simply choose one that has the oldest date. I keep more than one starter frozen. This assures that if you lose your fresh starter for some reason, you don't have to start over, simply take one out of the freezer and revive it. So, now take the frozen starter and leave it in it's baggies in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, the starter should be thawed. Scrape the starter out of the baggie and place it in a jar big enough to expand to the amount of starter you plan to use. I always make more than I need and freeze a new starter.

Now, that you have your thawed starter in a jar, add an equal amount of water and flour to feed. If you had 2 tablespoons of starter, add 2 or 3 Tbsp each of water and flour. I think feeding it more than it's own volume helps it to revive better. Stir well, cover and leave at room temperature. About 4 to 5 hours later, feed it again. Again, with equal amounts of water and flour, equal to or slightly greater than the volume of the starter. Stir, cover and leave at room temperature for about another 12 to 16 hours.

 
Now there should be signs of life and increased in volume as shown in the picture above.

Feed again with equal amounts of water and flour, equal to or slightly greater than the volume of the starter. Stir, cover and leave at room temperature for 3 to 5 hours. It should have gained a lot of volume and be ready to use. It's that easy!

In the picture below I put a piece of tape so you could see how much volume it gained in such a short time.

 
This picture below shows the consistency of my starter. It's like a very thick batter. It's very wet but not too wet. Most of the time I just eyeball the flour and water to get a consistency that looks like this and I've been very happy with the bread I make with it.

 
Note: It can take up to 48 hours to revive a starter. The instructions above is what I did and it worked perfectly. My kitchen was fairly cool for the most part too. It did heat up more for the last 6 hours but it had already shown good signs of life and increasing in volume.

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