16 Creative Ways To Use Discarded Sourdough Starter - FoodPrint

One of the original DIY projects, baking your own bread is a great way to cook sustainably and produce your own food. Once an iconic homesteader’s activity, this age-old craft became a popular hobby during the COVID-19 crisis, when some Americans turned to stress baking to calm anxious nerves, while others aimed to provide their own bread supply as grocery stores and online retailers ran out. But in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic (thankfully) abated, sourdough baking has seen a resurgence — perhaps driven by a rise in grocery prices, more data about the ubiquity and risks of ultraprocessed foods, and social media trends that keep home baking in the zeitgeist.

Building on a more niche trend that started in the late 2000s of growing interest in whole grain and artisanal baking, sourdough loaves — and their “crumb shots” — hit the mainstream in 2020, when Google searches for “sourdough” more than doubled, use of the #sourdough hashtag increased 100 percent on social media (peaking in early April) and many online retailers and grocery stores saw temporary flour shortages. These days, it seems you haven’t really baked if you haven’t baked sourdough. To be sure, sourdough bread baking is a detailed, time-intensive project, one that can take up to 36 hours, depending on the method you choose. And for some, the drive to iterate on the process in pursuit of a perfect loaf can border on obsession. As both enthusiastic new bakers and old pros know, with all that sourdough baking comes potential waste, in the form of sourdough discard.

Building a strong sourdough starter — a mixture of water and flour that yields natural bacteria and wild yeast, which both give that signature sour flavor and leaven the dough — requires frequent “feeds” of freshwater and flour to encourage active yeast and bacterial growth. During the feeding process, a portion of the starter — known as the “discard” — is generally tossed away.

Luckily, there are ways to reduce or cut out that waste, by either storing the sourdough starter in a way that eliminates the need for a discard step or using one of the many recipes that feature the discarded sourdough starter, including biscuits, crackers, pancakes and more. Use our guide to understand the best ways to maintain and store sourdough starters, and explore our list of sweet and savory recipes to make use of your sourdough starter discard.