3 Ways To Revive A Sourdough Starter

I'm a bad dad. I totally let my dough baby Tiffany, die. I know, I know. Bad Dad! The good news however is that there are three things you can do to revive a dead starter.

Reviving Sourdough Starter

1. Feed The Sourdough Starter Every 24 hrs

Add the same amount of bread flour as there is dough starter with a tiny bit of water. Mix until the flour and the starter come together to form a stiff dough that holds together. Let it rest at room temperature inside of a covered jar that has been lightly sprayed with olive oil. Allow it to rest 24 hours, then repeat the first step only this time throw half of the starter out, otherwise you will have WAY too much starter. Do this until the dough doubles within 6 hours of resting. The baby is alive again!

2. Add Organic Rye Flour

If the first step doesn't work after a week, try adding organic rye flour instead of bread flour. Only do this once, then continue using bread flour as instructed in the first step. Rye flour has wild yeast in it (well, technically all flour does, but rye flour has WAY more!) and this sometimes helps revive the yeast in the starter.

3. Place Sourdough Starter In Warm Place

Try step #1 & #2 but instead of letting it sit at room temperature, turn the oven on and place the jar on TOP of the oven. Leave the jar there for a few hours, but not longer than six. Yeast tends to activate faster in warm temperatures, so the heat from the oven gives the starter a jump-start.

If these three steps don't work then I'm afraid your dough baby is totally dead. Sorry. Let the resuscitation begin!

All tips and instructions taken from Rose Levy Beranbaum's fantastic book,The Bread Bible