When I started making sourdough in 2013, a little bit before I started writing this blog, I knew I’d have to find uses for the discard left over from feeding the new member of our family, my sourdough starter, Eleanor. I couldn’t simply waste all that flour and water! Since then, I’ve come up with many recipes for the discard. Even if you never bake the bread, you may want to keep a sourdough starter on hand just for these 18 recipes.
- Go here to start a sourdough starter that won’t take over your life
- Go here to troubleshoot your troublesome starter
This recipe helps clear out random seeds from your pantry—sunflower, flax, poppy, hemp, caraway—while putting a 1½ cup-size dent in your sourdough discard jar.
GO TO RECIPE
Just before baking, if desired, top your prepared dough with little bits of produce on hand to reduce wasted food. This sourdough discard focaccia won’t go uneaten!
GO TO RECIPE
These crackers taste cheesy but contain no cheese. Make the dough in advance, refrigerate it for up to five days and bake crackers when you crave them.
GO TO RECIPE
For this recipe, I sourdoughized this soft pretzel recipe that my daughter Charlotte makes. Like Charlotte’s recipe, this one calls for some active dry yeast. The discard doesn’t have enough life in it to make dough rise, but it has loads of flavor.
GO TO RECIPE
Since the birth of my starter Eleanor, I doubt a week has gone by during which I haven’t made these at least once. During Covid, I’ve eaten more than usual. Last year when I found myself stranded at my mom’s in Canada at the beginning of lockdowns, I cooked—and ate—stacks and stacks of these pancakes (I always travel with my starter).
GO TO RECIPE
Fortunately, just before lockdowns last year, I had come up with a vegan version of my popular pancakes. I had no idea at the time that sourdough was about to explode (not literally, but that can happen also).
GO TO RECIPE
Start the sponge in the morning for these and enjoy breakfast for dinner. They are crispy on the outside, soft-and-fluffy on in the inside. You can use the batter to make pancakes as well, if desired.
GO TO RECIPE
These flakey, scrumptious sourdough biscuits are one of the easiest recipes you can make with sourdough discard and they call for an entire cup.
GO TO RECIPE
These fritters make a nice side dish for dinner or a tasty breakfast that uses up random vegetables. Their portability also makes them good for packing in lunches.
GO TO RECIPE
Last year during the first lockdown, I needed chocolate. I had lots of sourdough discard at my mom’s but few other ingredients so I came up with this cake—a sourdoughized version of Depression era wacky cake.
Since I first posted this, loads of people have tagged me on Instagram with all kinds of variations of it—with sour cherries or nuts or orange liqueur or coconut… Lately I’ve been making it with unsalted broth left over from cooking black beans, a quarter cup of chocolate chips and a tablespoon of fresh orange zest.
GO TO RECIPE
When we ran out of cocoa at my mom’s, I made a carrot version of the chocolate cake.
GO TO RECIPE
Thanksgiving. More lockdowns. More cake. This dessert will satisfy your vegan guest’s sweet tooth (or anyone’s for that matter).
GO TO RECIPE
Make these with leftover pumpkin or winter squash and ensure two types of food are eaten—vegetables and sourdough discard.
GO TO RECIPE
This pumpkin (or kabocha squash) quick bread tastes like pumpkin pie in bread form.
GO TO RECIPE
Mashed bananas, like so many foods, freeze very well, which prevents food from going to landfill where it emits methane gas,a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide. So if you see a good deal on brown bananas at the store, grab them, mash them, make this quick bread and freeze the excess mashed bananas to make more banana quick bread later.
GO TO RECIPE
This works so well for cookies! To adapt a cookie recipe that calls for flour, replace each egg with a sourdough discard egg and reduce the amount of flour in the recipe by three tablespoons. This works well for chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies and so on.
GO TO RECIPE
The sourdough discard flax egg in action! These contain only a small amount of discard but it all adds up. If desired, let the cookie dough ferment for a short time (four to six hours) on the counter.
GO TO RECIPE
Ranger cookies are like oatmeal cookies with shredded coconut and dried fruit upgrades. No one can tell I’ve substituted the egg in these. They just ask if they can have some more.
GO TO RECIPE
GO TO RECIPE
If you’re more of an oatmeal chocolate chip type.
GO TO RECIPE
For this recipe, you can make the pita bread dough in advance, store it in the refrigerator and when you crave pitas, tear off a few hunks of dough and quickly make them. I’ve also frozen the dough.
GO TO RECIPE
This pizza and the pita bread are the most popular recipe on my blog. Just about everyone likes pizza. My recipe calls for active dry yeast for leavening (my book includes a recipe for sourdough pizza made with a sourdough leaven only). Like the above pita dough, you can refrigerate or freeze the dough and bake later. The pizza blog post also includes a formula for sourdoughizing other recipes.
GO TO RECIPE
Similar to pizza, you can tailor these based on food you have on hand: sauces, vegetables, cheeses and so on.
GO TO RECIPE
Related
Insights, advice, suggestions, feedback and comments from experts
As an expert and enthusiast, I have personal experiences or a blog. However, I can provide information related to the concepts mentioned in this article. The article discusses various recipes that can be made using sourdough discard, which is the portion of sourdough starter that is removed and discarded during the feeding process. These recipes aim to reduce food waste and make use of the discard in creative ways. Here's a breakdown of the concepts mentioned in the article:
Sourdough Starter
A sourdough starter is a fermented mixture of flour and water that is used as a leavening agent in bread baking. It contains wild yeast and lactobacilli bacteria, which give sourdough bread its unique flavor and texture. The starter needs to be regularly fed with fresh flour and water to keep it active and healthy.
Sourdough Discard
During the process of feeding the sourdough starter, a portion of the starter is removed and discarded to maintain the desired consistency and balance of the starter. This discarded portion is known as sourdough discard. Instead of wasting the discard, it can be used in various recipes to add flavor and texture.
Recipes Using Sourdough Discard
The article mentions several recipes that can be made using sourdough discard. These include:
- Sourdough Discard Focaccia: A focaccia bread topped with bits of produce and flavored with sourdough discard.
- Sourdough Discard Crackers: Cheesy-tasting crackers made with sourdough discard and other ingredients.
- Sourdough Discard Soft Pretzels: Soft pretzels made with a combination of sourdough discard and active dry yeast for flavor.
- Sourdough Discard Pancakes: Pancakes made with sourdough discard, which adds flavor and texture.
- Vegan Sourdough Discard Pancakes: A vegan version of the sourdough discard pancakes.
- Sourdough Discard Biscuits: Flakey and scrumptious biscuits made with sourdough discard.
- Sourdough Discard Fritters: Fritters made with sourdough discard and random vegetables.
- Sourdough Discard Cake: A cake made with sourdough discard, with variations such as sour cherries, nuts, or orange zest.
- Sourdough Discard Quick Bread: Quick bread made with pumpkin or winter squash and sourdough discard.
- Sourdough Discard Banana Bread: Banana bread made with mashed bananas and sourdough discard.
- Sourdough Discard Cookies: Cookies made with sourdough discard, replacing each egg with a sourdough discard egg.
- Sourdough Discard Ranger Cookies: Oatmeal cookies with shredded coconut and dried fruit, made with sourdough discard.
- Sourdough Discard Pita Bread: Pita bread made with sourdough discard, with the option to refrigerate or freeze the dough.
- Sourdough Discard Pizza: Pizza made with sourdough discard and active dry yeast for leavening.
These recipes provide creative ways to use sourdough discard and reduce food waste. They offer a variety of flavors and textures, making use of the unique qualities of sourdough discard in different culinary applications.
Please note that the information provided above is based on the content you shared. If you have any specific questions or need further information, feel free to ask!
