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
Right?!! So good. If you roll them even thinner, they will be crispy all the way through and likely store longer. My entire family loves these, including my 1 yr old grandson who obsesses over them.
Yes! Feels so satisfying when the kids love what is good for them!
I’m just starting my sourdough journey and I gave this recipe a try. I’m not sure if I’m doing this whole process right, you know the sourdough game, but let me tell you these came out super delicious. They are crunchy on the outside but soft to bite. I mean I loved them and so did my family. And they are so easy to make. Thank you for this recipe.
Great to hear! My favorite way to use up the discard.:)
I make these now every few weeks and always love them. Getting them thin enough has been tricky so I use parchment below and plastic wrap on top when I roll them out. I find I can get them thinner that way and not stick to the rolling pin. I love adding ground rosemary since it make the house smell amazing. Thanks for an awesome recipe.
Great tips! Glad you are enjoying 🙂
These are absolutely delicious. I used my starter and whole wheat pastry flour. I added black and regular sesame seeds and olive oil. I also sprayed them with olive oil and salted. Delicious!
Sounds perfect!
Just made these tonight with my sourdough discard. WOW! I added in dried chives (only because I didn’t have any fresh) and then sprinkled on Everything Bagel seasoning. They were fantastic! Even my hubby, who is very picky about trying new experimental foods, loved them. Now the trick will be to hide them so he doesn’t gobble them up in a single sitting! Thank you for this terrific recipe. I’ll be making these often and experimenting with a variety of flavours.
Great to hear Janice. They disappear fast around here too!
These sound delicious. I’m hoping to make some to add to some Christmas hampers for friends. Any idea how long they might stay fresh in heat sealed plastic bags (not vacuum sealed)
I keep these in sealed jars for a month or so with great success, plastic bags will probably be similar.
what happens if i use sourdough starter that has been fed?
It should work just fine. These are really forgiving. If your dough is soft just add a bit more flour.
These were great! I used some whole wheat flour in my starter and a blend of flours, sea salt and sesame seeds on one and parmesan, salt and olive oil on top of the rolled dough for one batch. Easy and quite tasty!! Thank you!
Nice Cat! The flavors sound yummy!
I can’t wait to try them is this good for keto diet used bagel seasoning I will let u know tks for the recipe
Thanks Mary!
I love these. This week had a huge amount of starter so quadrupled the recipe. Can I freeze the dough and bake later?
Hi Ann, I haven’t tried freezing the dough. It should work, though you just may need to use extra flour when rolling out as freezing may create more moisture.
Thank you! I think I’ll freeze one of the 8 I have in the fridge and see how it worked. Will let you know.
Great, would love to hear how it works!
Loved them! 🙂
Used bread blend flour(wheat,rye, flax) Robin Hood w my white sour dough starter.
Made poppyseed and chia!
Didn’t have any sesame seeds ;-(
Thyme rosemary basil garlic!
Great w my pinto/northern bean beet garlic hummus!! (Type A blood type-can’t eat chic peas)
Perfect Eileen!
Super yummy super easy thanks for the recipe !!
Thanks Esther!
These were very good. They rolled out easy + baked nicely. I used a little sesame oil and the flavor was nice with my choice of seasonings.
Great to hear! And I like the sesame oil idea!
What temperature do you bake it at?
350F
These crackers came out so GOOD, They were easy to make, rolled out easily, baked quickly. I topped them with everything Bagel seasoning, sesame seeds. I used an organic BASIL-PARMESAN extra virgin olive oil. I will make these over and over!
great! yummy additions!
I make this recipe all the time now and it’s really versatile. Highly recommend, sometimes I switch up the flour and herbs, etc.
Love it Stephanie!
I’ve made these twice – added homemade dukkah first time, then chopped fresh rosemary. Great way of using sourdough discard if I’m not baking. Love them – lovely and crisp and fabulous with cheese.
So easy to make and so tasty. I have experimented with adding Parmesan cheese and various seeds. My daughter commented “these taste like gourmet crackers”.
Just watch the crackers when baking as they can burn – depends on your oven.
Do you have any suggestions to make these with cinnamon sugar crackers. Thanks for your fantastic recipes
that sounds fun! you could try 2 teaspoons each mixed together and sprinkle over crackers just before baking? let us know how it turns out!
I made the rosemary with Meyer lemon zest crackers, nice flavor. To spread the dough very thinly without adding flour, I rolled the dough balls between 2 parchment papers, then removed the top paper and baked it. A tortilla press is also useful to flatten the dough balls between parchment papers.
that sounds so good!
thanks for the rolling tips!
These were amazing! Making home snacky things was on my to do list and these were perfect for munching.I also love recipes that have room for a lot of improvisation. Hard to fail recipe and they taste great, I used them with soup too.
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed.
I’ve just made these with rosemary and olive oil and they are delicious! So easy to make.
Great to hear Carolyn!
why divide the dough into two pieces.
Hi Patricia, Good question! Half of the dough, rolled out, fits on one baking sheet. Hopefully that makes sense.
Hi Sylvia,
Did you make this whole wheat starter in the same way as your tutorial with white bread flour?
I’m not sure if Tonia did, but either way it should work? Hoping!
yes, this starter is made the same basic way. I often feed my starter with rye flour but that is just my preference. Whatever your starter is fed with, white or wheat flour, should not effect this recipes results. Hope you give them a try!
I did yesterday. Turned out lovely. Thank you for your recipe
oh good! 🤗
I love this recipe – I’ve been making it since I saw it posted on King Arthur Flour. Not sure if it’s a coincidence, but your recipe is identical to theirs 🙂
Yes, adapted from there- will note the recipe and link it.