If you’re feeding and feeding and ending up with lots of excess starter, this recipe will change your sourdough baking life. These crackers involve just 7 ingredients, one of which is your discard, or unfed starter, and only take about 15 minutes of active time, plus some resting in the fridge and fewer than 25 minutes in the oven.
They are addictively crispy, with a cheesy and nutty tang from the sourdough starter. And they are versatile. I like this combination of rosemary, thyme and parsley with the olive oil, but sometimes swap in my herbs de provence blend to get a broader assortment of flavors like fennel and lavender. My son likes replacing the rosemary and thyme with smoked paprika, garlic powder and cumin seeds. Any oil or melted butter will work (although olive oil is king). You do you.
In case you think you will need a storage solution, let them cool completely and then transfer to a plastic container or canister with a tightly fitting lid. However, I bet most of them disappear while you leave them out to cool.
Tips for using your sourdough discard
Discard is the excess starter that you pour off of your starter before feeding it. We pour off the discard to prevent the starter from growing out of control and having to feed it exponentially each day. When I go to feed my starter, I pour off all but a few tablespoons or about 25 grams. The rest goes into a separate jar labeled “discard” that I keep in the fridge. When this 8-ounce jelly jar is full, I can make sourdough crackers (or some other recipe, but there’s hardly ever any left for anything else).
Herb and Olive Oil Sourdough Crackers
Yield: about 4-6 dozen thin crackers
What You Need:
1 cup sourdough starter, unfed or discard
1 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon fine sea salt or kosher salt
¼ cup olive oil
2 teaspoons dried rosemary, plus more for sprinkling on top
2 teaspoons dried thyme, plus more for sprinkling on top
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling on top
What You Do:
In a medium bowl, combine the starter, flour, fine sea salt, olive oil, 2 teaspoons rosemary, 2 teaspoons thyme and parsley. Mix together well with a wooden spoon.
Cover the bowl or wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Remove dough from the fridge and unwrap or uncover it. Using a bench scraper or knife, divide the dough into two equal halves. Press each into a 1-inch thick square.
On a piece of parchment paper (or a lightly floured surface), with a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until ⅛ inch thick.
Using a pastry cutter, pizza wheel or a knife, cut into evenly sized squares or rectangles. You can peel away ragged ends or extra small bits to re-roll. Repeat with other square of dough.
Transfer each sheet of parchment with the cut squares on top to a baking sheet. Prick each square with a fork.
Brush lightly with water and sprinkle with additional rosemary and thyme and coarse sea salt.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and tap the pan on the stove top to separate the crackers. Rotate pan and return to oven and bake another 2-5 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Transfer crackers to a cooling rack to cool completely.
