Mother yeast or sourdough starter is like a pet, you have to feed it every 4-5 days…. but when you have to go on holiday and you cannot bring it with you, what should you do???
Don’t worry, there’s always a solution…. in that case you’re lucky, there are 3!
- Freezing
Refresh your mother yeast as usual and at the end of the rising process put it in the freezer.
After your holiday you will have to let it thaw before use.
- Drying
Weigh your mother yeast, put it in a mixer then add the same amount of flour, let it process until it became uniform (no lumps).
Put the mixture on a flat surface and allow to dry completely (1-2 days).
Store in a cotton bag in a dry place up to three months.
To revitalize it, put dry mother yeast in a bowl, add half its weight of warm water (necessary to form a smooth dough) then proceed the refresh as usual.
These 2 solutions will reduce mother yeast strength, so you’ll have to refresh it consecutively 3 times at least (refresh, let it rise then refresh it…).
- Increase amount of mother yeast
This is the solution I like the most because doesn’t stress mother yeast too much.
Take all of your mother yeast and refresh it. Do this until it weigh more than 800gr/1.75 lb.
Store in the fridge as usual for 10-15 days, but remember to refresh it when it’s dropped by a third or you will lose it.
