Sourdough Discard Crackers

Since first making my Sourdough Starter, I have been actively using the discard to make the most delicious and easy Sourdough Discard Crackers! These crackers are seriously the best thing you can make with your discard (aside from actual Sourdough bread) and they come together in minutes. Rather than taking your discard and well… discarding it, you can use the discard and add in a few other ingredients to make these crackers. I made this recipe out of feeling so guilty every time I threw out the approximately 200g of discard. If you are like me and feel guilty too, this recipe is for you! They are perfectly crunchy, salty, and herb-flecked, you will love them. I also add parmesan cheese to the batter, which makes them so addictive! You won’t ever need to buy crackers again, and you will actually look forward to discard time! Since most everyone needs a kitchen scale to accurately feed a sourdough starter this recipe is entirely in grams, which is very easy because everything is added to a large bowl sitting on top of a kitchen scale. So here is the easy recipe for my Sourdough Discard Crackers:

Sourdough Discard Ingredients:

185g to 200g of Sourdough Discard*
100g of Whole Wheat Flour
60g Unsalted Butter (Melted)
15g Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
5g Salt
Herbs: about 2g each of garlic powder, and onion powder, and 2 grams combined of additional herbs of choice such as parsley, chives, Italian seasoning, pepper, etc… (6g total, approximately)
*Additional flaked salt, olive oil for brushing on top*

*Depending on your starter, you may have more or less discard, I find that anywhere from 185g to 200g of discard works best for this recipe. My Sourdough Starter calls for 25g of starter + 100g of water and 100g of flour, so that is why, once I discard and am left with about 25g of starter, I usually have about 200g of discard (more or less). You can find my Sourdough Starter video recipe HERE.

Sourdough Discard Instructions:

Before a feeding of your sourdough starter, remove all the discard but the 25g needed for the feeding. This leaves me with usually around 190g or more of discard. Set the approx. 190g discard aside in a small bowl for now, feed your starter, and then carry on with the crackers.

Melt the butter in a separate bowl, this usually takes about 30 seconds in the microwave. While the butter is melting…

I do this using the bowl of my stand mixer, but you can even mix this with a spatula. So, place the large bowl of your stand mixer on a kitchen scale, and add ALL the ingredients. I like to add the flour first so that sticky discard does not stick to the bottom of the bowl when mixing, so first flour, then melted butter, discard, salt, cheese, herbs, and spices, re-setting the scale in-between additions.

Once everything is in your bowl, mix using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, or simply mix by hand using a spatula. This takes about 1 minute on a low to medium speed. As soon as you see the ingredients come together in a rough ball-like shape, you are done. Do not over mix.

Take the cracker dough out, and place onto plastic wrap. Roughly shape it to be a rectangular shape and flatten with clean hands. Then cover with additional plastic wrap, and place the disk-like dough into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes (you can even keep this in the fridge for 24 hours before baking off).

Set your oven to 350 Degrees F.

After the 30 minutes or so of resting time, take out a large baking tray and measure the appropriate amount of parchment paper.
Take the parchment paper and for now, lay it outside of the baking tray. Lightly flour the parchment paper, and place the flattened dough on top, lightly flour the top of the dough as well, and then take a roller, and gently roll out your dough to be as thin as you can get it, without it ripping of course. Usually once my dough has reached the sides of the parchment paper, I know I am finished rolling. You can watch me do this HERE.

Add the parchment paper with the cracker dough rolled out to the baking pan, and brush with about a tablespoon or so of olive oil (I use extra virgin).
Then cut the dough into cracker like shapes about one inch in size. You can make these square or rectangular, these are rustic, so no need to be perfect. I cut out this dough using a pizza cutter, cutting first into strips horizontally and then diagonally.
Once cut, lightly sprinkle with salt, if you can use a flaked salt, about 1/2 tsp or so. I then take out the middle 6 crackers and place them on free space along the sides, I do this because I found the crackers bake more evenly this way.

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 Degrees

*You may need to bake for 25 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven. Usually half way through the baking time, at about the 15 minute mark, I rotate the pan for more even cooking.

After baking let cool for about 5 to 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool completely, or simply on a plate.

Ta-da! Your crackers are done and ready to eat plain, with your favourite dips, in a soup, or salad, on a cheese board, etc…
I usually store these crackers in a bowl, on my kitchen counter top, you can also store them in a plastic bag. These will be good to eat for about 4 or 5 days, but I wouldn’t exactly know as they never last more than a day or 2 in my house. Everyone loves these crackers so much, and so I hope you do as well 🙂 It might seem like a lot of steps, but really once you make these you will realize how simple and easy they are to prepare. This is such a great way to use up that extra discard so that you don’t have to constantly throw it away! These crackers are also very versatile so you can mix in any herbs you like. I’ve done these with dill, and chill flakes as well and they were delicious.

Thanks so much for trying this recipe! If you would like to see how I make these, as visuals always help, you can watch me HERE:

Love: Lisa (@ladolcelisa)