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One of the positives emerging from the current Covid-19 crisis is the increase in home cooking and baking everywhere. So unless you are living under a rock, you will have seen the sourdough bread baking craze that has caught on. Hence I am happy to report that I have also officially joined the sourdough baking club. I baked the first sourdough bread loaf of my life on Sunday 17th May 2020. In addition to this, I have been experimenting with sourdough discard recipes . This includes the above chocolate sourdough madeleines. I maybe pretty late to this whole sourdough baking thing, but in my mind it is better late than never. Besides this is a new life skill that I hope to continue learning and practicing. And best of all are the recipes I have been exploring using the excess sourdough starter discard.
To start with sourdough baking requires a starter. A starter consists of wild yeast created from bacteria in the air when a mixture of flour and water is kept in a warm place for a few days. This starter is a living being that needs feeding and nurturing with flour and water every day. Over time the starter develops complexity and strength . One also needs to remove or “discard” some portion of the fermented starter every day to ensure the starter lives and becomes strong. Now because I believe in avoiding food waste as much as possible, I am aghast at having to throw the starter discard every day. Hence after searching for the numerous sourdough starter discard recipes, below are 5 of the best I have found so far.
Table of contents
However before moving on to the recipes and links, I put together the following FAQs for a newbie who maybe just starting out with sourdough baking and starters. I had all these questions when i started out, so think it will be helpful for the novice sourdough baker.
FAQs on Sourdough Starter Discard & Recipes
As I mentioned above, a sourdough starter is a natural yeast formation that needs feeding with water and flour to stay alive. However after few days of feeding the starter it will get large quickly as it doubles in weight each time it is fed. To avoid the starter getting too large, discard a little portion of it depending on your feeding schedule.
The discard from the sourdough starter is nothing but equal parts water and flour. Hence most recipes that use the discard use it to replace some portion of the flour and liquid. This is particularly helpful in baking that includes flours and liquids( think melted butter, oil , egg whites)
When kept at room temperature, most sourdough starters require to be fed once a day with flour and water while also removing half the starter (known as the discard). This is because at warm moist temperatures fermentation occurs quickly , the sourdough starter grows quickly and gets more hungry. When not in use, I keep my sourdough starter in the refrigerator, so fermentation is slowed down. Hence I feed it once in 2 days.
e.g. if your starter weighs 300 gm, then discard 150 gm. After that feed it with 75 gm flour and 75 gm water, mix well , put the lid on and put it back in the refrigerator.
I prefer to accumulate the excess sourdough discard in a large bowl in the refrigerator as if I were collecting cream in a jar. I normally don’t keep the accumulated discard for longer than 7 days . I have read some people even freeze the discard. I haven’t tried that so I am not aware how that works.
If you throw out half the sourdough starter after each feed, it will result in considerable food waste. I definitely don’t like this approach. Hence as mentioned in my above answer, I prefer to start accumulating the discard in a bowl after each feed. Then I refrigerate this discard and use it across various recipes like pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies, quick breads, pizzas, crumpets etc. I have written about the 5 best recipes I have discovered till date using the sourdough discard below that you may find helpful.
The 5 Best recipes using Sourdough Starter Discard
Below are 5 of the best recipes I have been baking on repeat using all the excess sourdough starter that I have been collecting in a bowl. Hope you give these a try and enjoy baking them as much as I did. I have included all the necessary links from the websites where I found these recipes. Please let me know in the comments on what you think and if you have any other favourite sourdough starter discard recipes to share.
- Brown Butter Chocolate Madeleines using Sourdough Starter Discard
- Banana Bread using Sourdough Starter Discard
- Neapolitan Style Pizza using Sourdough Starter Discard
- Blueberry Pancakes using Sourdough Starter Discard
- Crumpets using Sourdough Starter Discard
1. Brown Butter Chocolate Madeleines using Sourdough Starter Discard
Below is my brown butter chocolate madeleines recipe using sourdough starter discard that is perfect for an afternoon tea time snack. The recipe is similar to my Blueberry Chia Madeleines that I posted years ago except for the following changes
- Chocolate Flavour – I used chocolate as the primary flavour here as opposed to using the very traditional citrus and vanilla scented madeleines.
- Sourdough Starter – I have used the excess sourdough starter discard which is something new for me while baking madeleines. The baked goods don’t turn sour. In fact they are soft and moist while reducing food waste at the same time.
- Brown Butter – Browning the butter creates a deep nutty and toasty flavour perfectly paired with chocolate. It also cooks out a portion of the water in the unsalted butter. Removing water from the ingredients is essential as we are using the sourdough discard which contains 50% flour and 50% water. So we want to remove the same quantity of water from the other ingredients equal to the sourdough discard water weight (50% of water weight of the discard in this case ).
The resulting madeleines were nutty owing to the brown butter. They are not too sweet in part because I use less sugar and also because of the bitter chocolate. Note the distinct bump or the “nipple” of the madeleines as they are called, just seems perfect. I have learnt that the key to achieving this bump is to do 2 things – One chilling the madeleine batter preferably overnight but atleast for 3-4 hours. Two pour the chilled batter in a floured and buttered madeleine tray . Then quickly place it back in a preheated oven to bake. The chilled batter in the warm oven causes the bump formation in the madeleines.
Check out the brown butter chocolate recipe and notes below
Jump to Recipe
2. Banana Bread using Sourdough Starter Discard
This baker’s banana bread recipe from The Perfect Loaf website was the very first one that I tried using the excess sourdough starter discard. I followed the recipe exactly without any change. For the record I used equal parts wholewheat (Atta) flour and spelt flour. The bread turned out super moist and we snacked on it continuously. Very addictive.
3. Neapolitan Style Pizza using Sourdough Starter Discard
The sourdough pizza over at Joshua Weissman’s youtube channel created a nice chewy crust for a homestyle pizza. It is a bit lengthy process of making the dough, proofing it, keeping it in the refrigerator and then shaping the pizza. However most of the time the dough is just resting and will require minimal effort from your side. Also it is totally worth it once the pizza is fresh out of the oven and you bite into the chewy crust feeling happy that this is something that you have created with your own hands.
4. Blueberry Pancakes using Sourdough Discard
I made a batch of sourdough blueberry pancakes courtesy of a recipe from Jordan Bourke from his Healthy Baking cookbook. However the recipe itself was also published in the e-cookbook “Staying In : Recipes and stories from Isolation” that I happened to have my hands on. In this e-cookbook, 30 chefs and food writers have come together with their recipes to support the Chefs in Schools’ emergency appeal in the UK. The book is being sold on a pay as you can basis from GBP 5. I was happy to donate for this cause while cooking food recipes from some of my favourite food writers. The sourdough blueberry pancake recipe in this book is perfect for breakfast or brunch . It uses all the ingredients I love – spelt flour, sourdough starter, coconut oil, blueberries and maple syrup. So good!
5. Crumpets using Sourdough Discard
I fell in love with these sourdough crumpets when the talented team at Bondi Harvest published the pic of this recipe over their instagram page. I love the fact that you prepare the crumpet batter the night before and set aside. Then wake up in the morning to discover the batter fermented and all bubbly. And finally just pour it over a hot pan to make quick & easy crumpets perfect for brekkie/brunch as well as to impress anyone you make it for.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions or if you have any sourdough starter discard recipes to share. If you like this recipe, please do leave a rating below. Don’t forget to tag #urbanfoodlover and follow along on Instagram for lots of foodie inspiration 🙂
Other Baking Recipes You May Like
Brown Butter Chocolate Madeleines using Sourdough Starter Discard
Equipment
- oven
Ingredients
- 40 grams spelt flour See notes on flour
- 80 grams sourdough starter discard
- 80 grams melted unsalted butter See notes on browning butter to reduce water
- 80 grams coconut palm sugar
- 2 medium eggs beaten
- 1 tbsp cacao powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 deg centigrade
Browning the Butter
- To brown the butter, pour the melted butter in a saucepan and heat on medium heat until the butter solids start separating out. The melted butter will turn a light brown from the yellow liquid. Keep stirring the butter and ensure that it does not start to burn. The butter will turn brown once it is a deep brown (not black) along with a nutty toasted aroma. See notes
Baking the Madeleines
- In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients i.e. flour , coconut palm sugar and cacao powder.
- In a bowl using a hand or electric mixer, whisk in the eggs until light and fluffy.
- Then In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients i.e. cooled brown butter, vanilla extract and beaten eggs.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients followed by the sourdough starter. Mix well until everything is a homogeneous mixture.
- Chill the batter in a refrigerator for atleast 4 hours and preferably overnight. Chilling the batter is essential to form the bump or nipple in the madeleine as they bake
- Before baking the madeleines, butter a madeleine tray and dust with flour. Pour the batter with a spoon taking care not to overfill each mould completely as the madeleines will rise when baking.
- Bake the madeleines in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg centigrate for 18-20 min until fully baked. You should be able to see the "nipple" or bump in the madeleines.
Notes
- Browning the butter – Measure the weight of the brown butter once done. It should have reduced 30-40% in weight depending on the butter fat percentage. For instance my butter reduced from 80 grams to app. 55 grams after I had browned it.
- On flours – I like to use wholegrain spelt flour in all my baking. However if you can’t get spelt flour, then use standard all purpose flour fit for baking.
