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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I don't because I love using it in sourdough discard specific recipes. Does the discard still have health benefits? The discard itself does. But if you add it into a recipe, the recipe won't have those health benefits unless you give it a long time to ferment.
Sourdough discard is the unfed portion of your sourdough starter that you remove before you add fresh flour and water. Because of it's unfed state, it's not used to bake the delicious bread you know as sourdough, but more often than not, used in sourdough discard recipes.
Experts recommend feeding a starter twice daily. And at each feeding, you hold onto 1/2 cup of your original starter, discard the rest, and then add its same weight in water and flour. With this schedule, you'd discard almost a cup of sourdough starter every day.
Sourdough discard works well in many baked goods that don't require lively yeast—flat foods like crackers, tortillas and pancakes. Or you can use it to flavor recipes that rely on leavening from other sources, such as active dry yeast, baking soda and baking powder.
Sourdough bread may be easier to digest than white bread for some people. According to some studies, sourdough bread acts as a prebiotic, which means that the fiber in the bread helps feed the “good” bacteria in your intestines. These bacteria are important for maintaining a stable, healthy digestive system.
The best bread to reduce gut inflammation is bread made from whole grains. Refined grains, such as the grains found in white bread and white pasta, are known to increase inflammation across the whole body. Sourdough bread and rye bread are both good options for an anti-inflammatory diet.
Discarding some first allows you to add this fresh food, whilst maintaining your starter at a manageable size. Not discarding your starter will also affect the flavor of your starter. Not discarding before you feed will cause too much acidity which may eventually be detrimental to your microbes.
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.
Yes, you can give your friend a portion of sourdough discard to start their own sourdough starter, however it's best if your starter is mature (at least 3 months old) when you do this, so that your friend can start baking straight away.
You can use 1-2 week old discard in “discard recipes”… think cookies, brownies, muffins, non-yeast breads, tortillas (pretty much anything that doesn't require active starter (aka wild yeast). I have TONS in my digital cookbook if you need some good recipes.
I don't recommend using starter discard from the fridge to make sourdough bread. Why? The discard could be sitting in the fridge for several days, up to 2 weeks, which is far too long without feeding in an environment that's too cold.
Compared to whole wheat flour, rye flour is said to be the most nutrient- and amylase-dense option for a sourdough starter. Overall, it has a lower gluten protein content than wheat flour, which means it produces slack, sticky, and dense doughs.
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.
If your starter is immature, it will need a boost from another leavening agent — baking powder, yeast or even Greek yogurt, which is filled with active cultures, will usually do the trick. Another tip: You can store discarded sourdough starter in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
Covering your sourdough starter jar to prevent fruit flies or other foreign debris from falling inside is a good idea. When covering, I recommend using a lid that doesn't fasten tightly so that excess gasses produced during fermentation can escape.
You can always use this discard by directly mixing it into a dough for baking. Your discard, as long as it's in good shape, will leaven any bread dough just as well. The discard is just like a levain you would make for a recipe. The only difference is it's the same makeup as your starter.
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.
I recommend keeping sourdough discard for about one week, but I do know others who keep it for much longer. After one week, there is a higher risk of mold or bad bacteria growing on the discard.
The discard is not active enough to make sourdough bread rise but it does have many other uses and baking powder can be added if required. Savoury options include English breakfast muffins, pretzels, caramelised onion biscuits, and sourdough pizza dough.
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