An easy recipe for crispy, savory, tangy Sourdough Crackers using your sourdough discard. Video in recipe card.
What you can plan is too small for you to live. ~David Whyte
Now that you have practiced your sourdough baking skills, you may have extra sourdough discard on hand to use up. These sourdough crackers are deliciously crispy and flavorful, made with sourdough discard. Simple and easy.
Using heartier flours such as rye, teff, cornmeal, and with the addition of seeds and spices, the flavor and texture are elevated to almost perfection. I throw on whatever seeds I have around. Fennel seeds, sesame seeds, or nigella are favorites. These crackers are full of savory goodness and sturdy enough to dip or top with your favorite accompaniments.
Why You’ll Love These!
- Quick and easy! Once the dough has been refrigerated, only about 20 minutes of hands-on time is required.
- Very adaptable. Add herbs, spices, seeds, nuts, or zest to your crackers!
- Waste not. This is a perfect way to use up sourdough “discard”.
- Perfect texture and flavor. Sturdy enough for dips, a crunchy snack, and rich with flavor.
- Control your ingredients. Made with wholesome ingredients vs. a long list of unheard-of ingredients on a store-bought box.
what is sourdough discard?
Sourdough Starter is often referred to as “wild yeast”, made from flour and water and the wild yeast in the air around us, and it is typically used as the “yeast” when baking Sourdough Bread. The sourdough “discard” – the part of the starter that often goes to waste- can be used to make flavorful crackers, biscuits, waffles and pancakes.
Sourdough Discard Crackers Ingredients
- All-purpose flour: Or use rye, whole wheat flour, teff, or cornmeal.
- Sourdough starter or discard: Unfed. Cold out of the fridge or room temperature.
- Unsalted butter: Or use olive oil.
- Salt: Sea salt or kosher salt.
- Fresh herbs: Or sub 2 tablespoons fresh herbs with 2 teaspoons dried.
Optional Additions
Add in seeds, spices, and fresh or dried herbs. Have fun experimenting with flavors!
- Fresh herbs: rosemary, thyme, sage, chives, etc
- Dried herbs: basil, oregano, thyme, Herbs de Provence, etc
- Spices: zaatar, dukkah, sumac, pepper, coriander, Aleppo, chili flakes, garlic powder, dukkah, etc
- Seeds: fennel, sesame, poppy, nigella, Everything bagel seasoning
- Finely chopped nuts: hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds
- Zest: Meyer lemon, orange, or lemon
- Coarse or flaked salt
- Nutritional yeast
- Parmesan cheese
How to make Sourdough Crackers
Step 1: Mix the dough. Combine together flour, sourdough starter, butter or oil, salt, and herbs in a large bowl.
Using your hands, mix or kneed.
The dough is very forgiving. Mix until everything is fully incorporated.
Work with the sourdough cracker dough until it comes together into a ball.
Step 2: Refrigerate. Cut the dough into two pieces and refrigerate for half an hour or up to a day.
Step 3: Roll it out. Working with one portion of dough at a time, place the ball on a piece of parchment paper or a silicone mat. Flour your surface and dough as needed.
Roll out thinly and evenly to about 1/16 of an inch.
If adding spices and seeds, sprinkle on top of dough and lightly roll the rolling pin over to get them to stick.
Step 4: Transfer dough and parchment paper to a baking sheet.
Step 5: Cut and prick. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife score into desired shapes. Prick with fork. This allows any steam to escape while baking and makes for fewer bubbles resulting in a sturdier cracker.
Step 6: Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350F, turning the pan halfway through baking.
Storage
Let them cool completely before storing your sourdough discard crackers in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
serve Sourdough Discard Crackers with
- A beautiful Cheese Board
- Smoky Harissa Red Pepper Dip
- Lemony Artichoke White Bean Dip
- Muhammara Dip
- Rainbow Veggie Hummus
- Tandoori hummus
- Baba Ganoush
- Charcuterie Board
- Winter Cheese Board
FAQs
You can store sourdough discard as long as you’d like, but be sure to inspect it for mold. You may find a grayish liquid on top (“hooch”). This can be poured off or stirred in. If stirred in, the flavor will taste a bit sour.
These save beautifully in an airtight container for several weeks. Store the crackers at room temperature.
Enjoy how good it feels to use up your sourdough discard and make these homemade sourdough crackers. Have fun with this one and tell us about your creations in the comments below!
xoxo
More sourdough Discard recipes
Sourdough Crackers
- Prep Time: 45
- Cook Time: 18
- Total Time: 1 hour 3 minutes
- Yield: about 80 crackers
- Category: sourdough, appetizer
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: american
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Easy and adaptable homemade sourdough crackers are full of tangy wholesome flavor. A perfect use for your sourdough discard! Add seeds and herbs or keep them simple! (Adapted from King Arthur Baking) Watch the video!
Ingredients
- 1 cup or 113 grams flour (AP, or use 1/2 rye, teff, cornmeal whole wheat etc.) plus a little for rolling out if needed
- 1 cup or 227 grams sourdough discard starter, unfed
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter or olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh herbs, chopped or 2 teaspoons dried
- optional: whole spices like fennel seeds, sesame seeds, everything bagel spice, zaatar (see notes)
Instructions
- Combine together flour, sourdough starter, butter or oil, salt, and herbs until in comes together into a ball. Cut the dough in two pieces, and refrigerate for a half hour or up to a day.
- Set oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Working with one portion of dough at a time, place on a piece of parchment paper.
- Flour your surface and dough as needed.
- Roll out evenly to about a 1/16 of an inch.
- If adding spices and seeds, sprinkle on top of dough and lightly roll the rolling pin over to get them to stick.
- Transfer dough and parchment to a baking pan.
- Using a pizza cutter or knife score into desired shapes. Prick with fork.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350F. Turning pan halfway through baking.
- Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Notes
Experiment with alternative flours for flavor and texture such as cornmeal, semolina, rye and teff.
Tailor to your tastes! Add fresh herbs, spices, coarse or flaked salt, dukkah, zaatar, seeds, lemon zest, garlic, nigella, sumac, fennel, chili flakes, nutritional yeast…..have fun experimenting with flavors.
Optional: Brush top of crackers with olive oil or melted butter before baking if desired. This is especially helpful if adding spices to help them adhere.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 crackers
- Calories: 64
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 58.7 mg
- Fat: 2.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 9.2 g
- Fiber: 0.8 g
- Protein: 1.5 g
- Cholesterol: 6.1 mg
So I ignored the instructions to divide the dough so my crackers came out a little more puffy than thin. Which was fine! I added some olive oil and sprinkled more salt for flavor. When I was making the dough I added rosemary to the mix and it came out so good. Next time I bake this recipe, I will try a bit of whole wheat flour as well as dividing the dough to get thinner crackers. Great recipe, awesome instructions
Glad it all worked out Josie!
These were excellent. I could really taste the sourdough. I have a white flour starter and I used whole wheat flour for the flour used in the recipe. I sprinkled with kosher salt, rosemary and pepper. Be generous with the herbs; I was a bit too restrained this time but will add more next time.
Glad you enjoyed these Ava! Thanks for the helpful review.