Sourdough discard biscuits (2017 photo).
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Bit late to the thread but I keep my discard in a bowl in the fridge – it can sit for months, no problem – and once I get to 500g+ I make crepes. The batter is super simple and scales up or down nicely:
75g starter
1 egg
1.5g salt (2% of starter weight)
3g sugar (4% of starter weight)
Instructions: Mix well. Cook. (I use about 1/3c of the batter per crepe but whatever works for you.)
They’re a bit chewier than “traditional” crepes (I think in a pleasant way) and of course they’re also a bit sour, but not as much as you’d think. This actually works best with older/thin starter - so no rush at all as long as you’re willing to sacrifice some space. My family likes to eat them either with smoked salmon and accompaniments, or gianduja. (Usually both in the same meal, for my kids.) They freeze well too.
Enjoy!
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Just wanted to share some photos of what these crepes are like; I made a huge batch of these tonight – I had amassed over 1200g of discard! (I overfeed my starter specifically to make these.) …and I just realized that I messed up the numbers above. It’s supposed to be 1% salt and 2% sugar. Adjusted for flour, in baker’s percentages for a 100% hydration starter, that would be 2% and 4% respectively. So please, don’t make the version above as written!!! It will be way too salty. Cut those salt/sugar numbers in half.
Anyway:
Here’s one of them cooking on the first side… I don’t (yet) own a crepe pan so I just use a (ceramic) nonstick pan. I put a tiny bit of oil in, wipe it around, and then remove as much as possible with a paper towel before making the first one. That little tiny bit seems to help. After that, no oil at all.
Takes about 45s on the first side. (Obviously depending on stove temp; I look for browning around the edges, and flip it with the help of a small offset spatula.) And here’s the flip side; you can see that they’re kind of rustic. I do the flip side for an additional 45s or so. These cook quickly. I just want to make sure they’re totally set.
Here’s the full stack of 28 that the ~1200g of starter produced (not counting a couple that went into the discard pile…snack for me while I’m working and one was thoroughly enjoyed by our dog). 16 eggs. I like to fold the crepes in half once they finish and stack them, both to help keep them warmer, and to make them easier to store them after the fact.
We ate 3-4 each tonight. The rest, I froze with a layer of waxed paper between each one. Defrosting is as simple as popping it in the toaster direct from the freezer for about 30-45 seconds, until it can unfold, and then giving it maybe another minute unfolded. I regularly eat these for lunch with various fillings.
Hope this will inspire some discard usage!
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Am I missing something? Percentages are percentages, irrespective of quantities.
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Baker’s Math is just math. Doubling the quantity of flour doesn’t mean doubling the percentage of other ingredients.
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That’s not at all what I said to do.
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[lightbulb goes on]
Ok, I was missing something: I failed to read your post to which you responded! Sorry for my error!
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I had some starter to use up as well as some leftover roasted pumpkin from dinner that I pureed with the immersion blender, and I made these pumpkin muffins which were really excellent:
I usually add chocolate chips to this kind of thing, but my youngest prefers without and I’d just made some pumpkin bread with chocolate chips so I didn’t add them, and I think I’d keep these without chips going forward. So good!
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I’ve recently been messing around with discard crackers, and have gone through a bunch of iterations.
I first tried a couple of recipes like the one linked earlier in this thread, but I was unhappy with the results. Flavor was pretty good but I found that I didn’t really enjoy their sort of “hard tack” texture.
I started working on improving this and wound up with a kind of different approach: First off, I switched from adding wheat flours, to using gluten-free flours. Right now I’m working with a mix of rice and tapioca flours, which seems to be working pretty well and is giving me more of a light and airy feel. Second, I started adding some rising agents to the mix, which really makes a huge difference. Bubbles create a nice light cracker rather than something hard and dense. This is something that needs to be done at the last moment, so that the bubbles can be maximized in the final product. And finally, I found that low and slow baking, with some convection, really helps. It’s more of a drying-out process.
My current working base:
1 c discard
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp rice flour (Thai or Vietnamese)
3 tbsp tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt
[seasoning]
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
[top seasoning]
Procedure: Preheat oven to 300F, convection. Line a sheet pan with parchment or nonstick foil. Mix everything but the rising agents and top seasoning. At the last moment, mix in the rising agents. Spread on the sheet pan as evenly as possible (this is probably the toughest part), generously top with the top seasoning (it can handle a lot!), then into the oven for around 10-12 minutes before scoring. Now rotate once every 15 minutes for the next 75 minutes or so, until the crackers feel totally dry. Rest on a wire rack until cool, then store in a sealed bag or container. They last at least a couple of weeks. (Haven’t had any stick around longer than that.)
Seasoning variations:
Savory (photo below)
Seasoning:
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp chili flakes (something aromatic - I’ve been using Aleppo)
Top seasoning:
Garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt
Sweet (surprisingly good…I need to make more of these)
Seasoning:
3 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp sugar
Top seasoning:
Cinnamon, allspice, sugar
Hope this helps someone use up a bit of discard! Enjoy!
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I find the texture varies wildly depending on the state of thr discard. Leaving it a bit longer makes it thinner and also has a good flavor, sometimes I’ll just leave the discard out a while (even a day) before making crackers. That makes the crackers easy to spread out and nice and delicate and crispy. I only add olive oil or butter, salt and herbs to mine, no flour.
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My discard lives in a bowl in the fridge. Hard to say how old it is but the bulk of it is probably a couple of months old by the time I use it – totally liquid. I had a spectacular fail when I tried to make crackers with it, with no flour additions; it broke itself into tiny bits and I wound up with something closer to hard breadcrumbs. (Which were not too bad as a salad topping.)
Wow that has never happened to me! But usually my starter has only been in the fridge a few weeks at the most and I let it warm up a little before using. The kids consider the discard crackers a treat so I make them somewhat regularly, and so am feeding my starter pretty often. I have to make a bread for a potluck on Sunday so there will be crackers tomorrow as I wake up my starter!
These are really really good
https://homebyhaley.com/cheddar-and-chive-sourdough-scones/#recipe
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