If you have been following along with my sourdough starter blog and if you have been saving your discard this blog is for you!!
So, just for a moment, let’s imagine that your sourdough starter is a baby! The whole idea behind making your own starter is that you only have to feed one “baby” every day. When you feed your “baby” it will quickly multiply to 5-10 babies, but you only want to feed one! In order to maintain just one “baby”, you will need to discard all but 10-25 grams of your starter. Instead of throwing the discard out, you can actually store it in the fridge and make some amazing recipes with it.
Over the last couple of months, I’ve made a few discard recipes that I LOVE and I have a few on my list that I am hoping to still try! Today, I’m sharing all of my favourite discard recipes and resources with you!!
If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that I have been raving about these discard crackers from King Arthur Flour. This is honestly my go-to discard recipe because the kids Justin and I love it SO much! I’ve made it a few times and I’ve slightly tweaked the original recipe which I will share with you below. The only modifications that I made were I added some nutritional yeast and doubled the salt (I’m not much of a sweets person, but I sure love my salty/savoury snacks! LOL!). These crackers taste like natural Cheez-It’s, but are homemade and so much better for you!
I LOVE this recipe so much that I asked Rachelle if she could whip up a quick video of the process for you! You can find the video below.
Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and mix until it becomes a soft dough consistency. Cover the bowl with reusable plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for up to 30 mins or 2 days.
When you are ready to make your crackers, preheat oven to 350. Cut a piece of parchment paper and leave it on the side. Dust the counter with some flour.
Cut your dough in half and with a rolling pin, roll out the dough and make it as thin as possible about 1/8 of an inch thick. Try to avoid rolling it out too thin as it will just break. Lift up the dough (carefully) and place it onto the parchment paper.
Once you have successfully transferred the dough to the parchment paper cut the dough into little squares and then pierce each cracker with a fork. Dust the crackers with sea salt and place parchment paper onto a baking sheet.
At 350, bake crackers for about 7-11 minutes just until they are golden brown. You will want to keep an eye on them as they go from raw to golden brown very quickly. Remove from oven and let cool.
Once crackers are cool place them in a container in the fridge and you are good to go. The recipe will make about 60 crackers, but they will be gone in seconds because you will want to eat them all to yourself! LOL
A few weekends ago I decided that I was going to make this for breakfast for Justin and the kids. As I was prepping the cinnamon raisin bread I decided that I wasn’t going to use the commercial yeast that the recipe called for. The cinnamon aromas filled the house and I was so excited to take a big bite, but it turned out to be really heavy. If you are going to try this recipe I would highly recommend using commercial yeast that the original recipe calls for, don’t skip that step! LOL!
When I first took a stab at making a sourdough starter one of the first discard recipes that I ever tried was homemade pizza dough! At first, I wasn’t really following a recipe and I really wish that I had of been taking notes while I was whipping random ingredients together! LOL! It was one of the BEST pizza’s I have ever made and now I can’t remember what the heck I did! I am determined to figure out what ingredients I used because that recipe was seriously delicious. Since I can’t share that with you today, I’m linking the King Arthur Flour pizza dough recipe for you! So far, all of the discard recipes that I have tested out from King Arthur Flour have been amazing and I have no doubt that this one will be incredible too (but probably not as good as mine though … LOL)!
These are just a few of the recipes that I have tested out, but there are so many amazing discard recipes that I would still like to try! King Arthur Flour and Little Spoon Farm are my go-to resources for simple and amazing discard recipes. A few that I have to try next on my list are waffles, pretzels, and crumpets!
There are a few reasons why I LOVE baking with sourdough discard so much. First of all, I really hate wasting food! I love that instead of wasting the discard you can actually make some amazing recipes with it. Another reason I love baking with discard is that the dough is fermented it gives your recipes a bit of a tangy taste (which I LOVE!) and due to the fermentation process, there are some great health benefits to baking with discard!
In the next few days, I am going to experiment with tomato paste and fennel and try to create pizza flavoured discard crackers. If it’s a success I’ll be sure to share the recipe!
Enjoy!
xo
Jilly
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Technically, sourdough discard has the same benefits as sourdough starter, since they are both wild yeast ferments. In terms of beneficial lactic acid bacteria, natural yeasts acetic acid and colonies of microbes, they are both full of them.
You can store mature sourdough discard in the refrigerator indefinitely. As long as there is no mold, it is good to use. It may develop a grayish liquid on top called “hooch” which can be poured off before use or stirred in. If you stir it in, the flavor will become more sour.
Daily Feeding: If you maintain your starter at room temperature (around 70-75°F or 21-24°C) and want it to be ready for baking within a day or two, daily feedings are recommended. Discard a portion of the starter and feed it with fresh flour and water every 24 hours.
Store it for future baking: You can store sourdough discard in an airtight container in the refrigerator for future baking with sourdough discard recipes. When you're ready to use it, let the discard come to room temperature before using it to bake. I will keep sourdough discard in the fridge for about one week.
Yes you can use sourdough discard straight from the fridge, you don't need to let it come to room temperature if you don't want to. What is this? If you are using it straight from the fridge it may be a little stiff or thick, so you'll need to ensure you mix it really well.
fuzzy mold that you might normally see on food. or something else. But it can also look like odd colors, particularly like an orange or a pink. So if you see, like, orange or pink streaking in your sourdough discard, that's bad bacteria, and you don't want to eat that, so it's time to throw that one away.
If your recipe calls for more than 227g (about 1 cup) of starter, feed it without discarding until you've reached the amount you need (plus 113g to keep and feed again).
At room temperature (70 F), sourdough discard should last about 1-2 days. Beyond that, it won't go bad necessarily, it will just become more acidic as time goes on (especially in warm weather). Not ideal for sweet recipes. In the fridge, it will keep for about a week or so, and in the freezer it will last indefinitely.
stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.
If you smell it, you will smell that it is alcohol, a common byproduct of the yeast when it has consumed all of the available food. How to Recover a Neglected Starter: If your starter is covered with a layer of gray liquid (a.k.a. “hooch”) pour off that liquid, then scrape off the gray layer on top.
What to do with sourdough discard? Don't throw it away! Instead, use it to make delicious and nutritious treats like pancakes, waffles, muffins, and bread. Sourdough discard is a great source of natural yeast and flavor, and can add a unique tangy taste to your baked goods.
If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.
It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.
The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour. Why do you need to use these two types of flour?
It adds a delicious flavor and imparts moisture to recipes which keeps bakes tasting fresher for much longer. You can also use sourdough discard to ferment recipes which makes them healthier and easier to digest.
While some people claim to have healed their gut problems by eating probiotic rich sourdough starter, it's not really advisable. Raw sourdough starter contains uncooked flour which can harbor harmful bacteria among other things. You can read more about why you shouldn't eat raw flour here.
Although the beneficial microbes in the starter tend to be lost during the baking process, the fibre and plant compounds, called polyphenols, become more bio-available. These act as an important fuel source for our gut microbes, which explains why sourdough is a gut-friendly choice.
Too long at room temperature without feeding and you risk your sourdough discard starting to grow mold (usually fuzzy) or bad bacteria (red, orange or pink streaks). If that happens, you need to throw it out. (King Arthur Baking has some good sourdough troubleshooting visuals here.)
Introduction: My name is Lidia Grady, I am a thankful, fine, glamorous, lucky, lively, pleasant, shiny person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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