10 Easy Sourdough Discard Breakfast Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Is eating sourdough discard good for you? ›

Sourdough discard recipes not only reduce waste but also offer health benefits, making them a wonderful addition to a balanced diet. The fermentation process of the sourdough starter increases the availability of certain nutrients and can help improve digestion.

With each sourdough starter feeding, you'll be discarding some to avoid it from becoming overly acidic. Most will compost or trash this discard, but you can save it and use it in other recipes!

When you feed sourdough starter, you must remove a portion of the starter to make room for the flour and water you're adding to the mixture. Sourdough discard is the portion of starter that gets removed as part of its routine maintenance.

Can I use sourdough discard to make a new sourdough starter? Absolutely! You can take a portion of sourdough discard and add a few grams of flour and a few grams of water to create a healthy active sourdough starter. You may need to feed your revived starter a few more times before its ready to make bread.

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.

It is edible for around 3 days. Between days 3 to 5 it would need to be toasted or warmed before consuming. After day 5 your sourdough bread would be stale (but not moldy).

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).

It is important that you stir the sourdough starter every day in the morning and in the evening. Feed the starter. Add 60 g flour and 60 g lukewarm water, stir well to combine, and let sit out for 24 hours.

Can I leave my starter out overnight after feeding it? Yes, if you have just fed it.

Although you need an active, well-maintained starter for certain artisan breads, you can still make tasty bread with a sluggish, slow starter so you don't have to discard sourdough starter daily. In fact, many of my favorite sourdough bread recipes use discard for flavoring to give bread that classic tang.

How long is sourdough discard good for? ›

Sourdough discard only lasts a day or two at room temperature. As such, it is best to keep your discard in the fridge, where it will last for up to one week. Of course, you can only rely on it lasting that long if you store it correctly.

If you didn't discard a portion of your starter each time you feed it, two things would happen: Your starter would grow to an enormous, unmanageable size. Your starter would likely become more and more inhospitable to the bacteria and yeast we want as the mixture would become ever more acidic.

Therefore, you can store discard indefinitely, but I suggest using discard within 1-2 weeks. Over time, the discard will become more sour-tasting as it continues to ferment and develop lactic acid. That's why I like to use fresh discard for more sweet recipes, and older discard for more savory recipes.

Over the past decade-plus of baking, I've tested all manner of flour from whole grain wheat to spelt to einkorn, and while they all do work, my preferred flour to use when creating a sourdough starter is whole grain rye flour and white flour (this can be all-purpose or high-protein bread flour).

To know that you have an active starter, look to see how it's grown — as you've fed the starter, it should have doubled in volume. It should also look very bubbly and slightly foamy at the surface. The scent is as important as the look.

I don't like to use discard that is more than one week old in discard recipes . After about a week, the discard can become very sour and impact the flavor of the discard recipe. If you like a strong fermented flavor, you might be okay with letting the discard sit longer in the refrigerator.

Can I eat raw sourdough starter? No, it's not advisable to eat raw sourdough starter. 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.

In addition to ensuring no sourdough starter is wasted here are 4 reasons to use discard in your recipes. The acidity of the sourdough discard helps prevent tough gluten strands from forming. This results in tender and moist baked goods!

And the answer to that is an absolute yes, and even beyond data, in that carbs are *the* necessary input for the sourdough cultures to feast upon (and yield carbon dioxide, prebiotic fibers, acetic acid etc).