I’ve put together a collection of recipes that use sourdough discard. If you’re a sourdough baker, you know how painful it is to throw away that hard earned yeasty goodness each time you have to feed the starter.
If you love to bake bread but haven’t delved into the world of sourdough yet, I encourage you to dive-in head first. But, in order to have sourdough “discard” you need to first build a sourdough starter and then begin feeding it.
When you add unfed sourdough discard to a recipe, it’s not really there to add extra leavening since it’s not fully active. If the sourdough starter is not a leavener, why is it in there?
The sourdough discard imparts an interesting texture and lovely complex flavor even if it’s not adding a big rise. The discard also improves the keeping quality of baked goods.
Try my Sourdough Discard recipes or create your own. Each cup (about 8 oz) of sourdough discard can replace 4 oz of flour and 4 oz of liquid in almost any recipe.
Introducing a whole new way to store and use sourdough starter or sourdough discard. After you dry your sourdough starter, you can grind it into a powder and add it directly to a recipe for a flavor boost or rehydrate it to use in any sourdough recipe.
Sourdough discard brings out the banana flavor in this bread. Sour cream adds moisture and reinforces the sourdough flavor. The chocolate chunks are a bonus. If you like nuts, a cup of chopped walnuts is a nice addition to this bread.
These Sourdough Blueberry Muffins are made with a whole cup of sourdough discard for an ultra tender crumb. The muffins are full of juicy berries and topped with lemon butter and sugar.
A Perfect Pie Crust is a thing of beauty. The addition of a little sourdough discard adds an intriguing depth of flavor to a basic pie dough. This makes enough dough for a double crust pie.
Sourdough Irish Soda bread is an easy and delicious way to use sourdough discard. Homemade soda bread is so much better than what you’ll find in the grocery store. This recipe makes 1 large loaf. The exact number of servings will vary based on how the loaf is sliced.
Sourdough Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Glaze is a perfect snack cake. The tangy-sweet buttermilk glaze forms an ultra-thin coating over the melt-in-your-mouth cake.
Sourdough Irish Brown Bread is hearty and savory because it’s made with whole wheat flour and a cup of sourdough discard. It's super easy to make and super tasty. This recipe makes 1 large loaf. The exact number of servings will vary based on how the loaf is sliced.
Super moist pumpkin bread has a wonderful background tang from “discard” sourdough starter. Fresh cranberries add another tangy pop to the flavor of the bread.
I never ever have sour dough to discard. What is left goes into the freezer. From there it needs to be revived after defrosting for 12 hours and it is perfectly fine. Or I add flour until it is a verydry dough. Then i make small rolls about 5 mm thick ore smaller and dry them in a warm space until it is completely dried out. Store it open or in a jar. For resuscitation add water, let it soak overnight and then add flour. Perfect sour dough starter again.
Love many of your sour dough recipes including the discard use in Irish soda bread and biscotti. I would love some discard recipes for rye starter but am not having much luck finding any. Would love if you have any to direct me to or may develop. I use so many of your recipes I cannot list them all. I have made almost all of your ice cream recipes, sour dough bread and rye bread recipes. Thanks for any suggestions.
Thanks for the feedback, Jenny. Do you have a all-rye starter? I may have to make one to play with it, but I think the discard from the rye starter could work in a lot of my discard recipes. Rye would add a very interesting flavor the to soda bread and even the biscotti.
Ii am enjoying. Treading these comments as these are all questions I have. I have made my starter and my first sourdough bread looked fine but did not have the tangy sourdough taste. Is the starter supposed to smell as my starter doesn’t smell very much. Should I use different flour to feed it to make it more tangy? The starter was started with whole wheat flour but then I have been feeding it with all purpose flour.
Actually, a well-fed starter won’t smell or taste very acidic. A well-fed starter has a sweet, yeasty smell. As the starter ages it becomes more acidic, which also makes it more difficult to use since an acidic starter compromises the gluten in the dough. If you notice, a starter that hasn’t been fed in a while gradually becomes thinner and sharper in taste. I do like to use a very ripe sourdough discard for some of the discard recipes (like brownies & blondies).
Just recently found your page,
Tried your muffin recipe, but as it was late at night left the dough in a bowl with towel over.
the next morning it had risen three times, I was worried as I hadn’t rolled the dough, however went ahead gave it a light need then cut the muffin shapes leaving it for a while to hopefully rise again. not having a griddle used a very heavy flat pan cooked them in batches, they are AMAZING, risen beautifully lovely golden colour will definitely be making these again.
Thank you for you valuable tips.
@Eileen Gray, I was very tired one night as I was making my dough to rise overnight and grabbed my “powdered sugar” sifter shaker by mistake. I could not understand why my dough was getting so sticky, then I found out what I had done. Well, I let it rise over night, the next morning it was so wet, the liquid was pooling up around the dough. I drained off as much liquid as I could, dried the outside with paper towels, formed my loaf, let it rise and baked it. To my surprise it was very good. Will I do it again that way…NO I will not. Sourdough is very forgiving.
I tried your fudgy brownies with leftover starter. They came out an odd texture. Is it correct to use 1 cup of starter and 1 tablespoon of vanilla? The taste was good but they were crumbly.
Yes, that is correct. They are a little lighter than a regular brownie, but I wouldn’t call them crumbly. Was your starter still pretty active? Maybe the brownies got a little too much lift from the starter. I used sourdough discard that hadn’t been fed for about a week.
I never ever have sour dough to discard. What is left goes into the freezer. From there it needs to be revived after defrosting for 12 hours and it is perfectly fine. Or I add flour until it is a verydry dough. Then i make small rolls about 5 mm thick ore smaller and dry them in a warm space until it is completely dried out. Store it open or in a jar. For resuscitation add water, let it soak overnight and then add flour. Perfect sour dough starter again.
Yes, there are endless ways to use “discard”. Rather than freezing you can also try to dry your discard.
Love many of your sour dough recipes including the discard use in Irish soda bread and biscotti. I would love some discard recipes for rye starter but am not having much luck finding any. Would love if you have any to direct me to or may develop. I use so many of your recipes I cannot list them all. I have made almost all of your ice cream recipes, sour dough bread and rye bread recipes. Thanks for any suggestions.
Thanks for the feedback, Jenny. Do you have a all-rye starter? I may have to make one to play with it, but I think the discard from the rye starter could work in a lot of my discard recipes. Rye would add a very interesting flavor the to soda bread and even the biscotti.
Ii am enjoying. Treading these comments as these are all questions I have. I have made my starter and my first sourdough bread looked fine but did not have the tangy sourdough taste. Is the starter supposed to smell as my starter doesn’t smell very much. Should I use different flour to feed it to make it more tangy? The starter was started with whole wheat flour but then I have been feeding it with all purpose flour.
Actually, a well-fed starter won’t smell or taste very acidic. A well-fed starter has a sweet, yeasty smell. As the starter ages it becomes more acidic, which also makes it more difficult to use since an acidic starter compromises the gluten in the dough. If you notice, a starter that hasn’t been fed in a while gradually becomes thinner and sharper in taste. I do like to use a very ripe sourdough discard for some of the discard recipes (like brownies & blondies).
Just recently found your page,
Tried your muffin recipe, but as it was late at night left the dough in a bowl with towel over.
the next morning it had risen three times, I was worried as I hadn’t rolled the dough, however went ahead gave it a light need then cut the muffin shapes leaving it for a while to hopefully rise again. not having a griddle used a very heavy flat pan cooked them in batches, they are AMAZING, risen beautifully lovely golden colour will definitely be making these again.
Thank you for you valuable tips.
You’re welcome. Sourdough is much more forgiving than we think. Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
@Eileen Gray, I was very tired one night as I was making my dough to rise overnight and grabbed my “powdered sugar” sifter shaker by mistake. I could not understand why my dough was getting so sticky, then I found out what I had done. Well, I let it rise over night, the next morning it was so wet, the liquid was pooling up around the dough. I drained off as much liquid as I could, dried the outside with paper towels, formed my loaf, let it rise and baked it. To my surprise it was very good. Will I do it again that way…NO I will not. Sourdough is very forgiving.
I tried your fudgy brownies with leftover starter. They came out an odd texture. Is it correct to use 1 cup of starter and 1 tablespoon of vanilla? The taste was good but they were crumbly.
Yes, that is correct. They are a little lighter than a regular brownie, but I wouldn’t call them crumbly. Was your starter still pretty active? Maybe the brownies got a little too much lift from the starter. I used sourdough discard that hadn’t been fed for about a week.