This is a fantastic use of sourdough discard. Incredibly delicious and easy!

MAYBE YOU’RE THINKING “WHAT IS SOURDOUGH AND WHAT IS DISCARD?”

If that’s you, stay with me for a second.

Sourdough is a synonym for “wild yeast” or “natural yeast”. It’s basically fermented flour and water. Sounds weird, right? Well did you know that ever since bread was invented, thousands of years ago, it was made with this “natural yeast” or “Sourdough”. Commercialization of quick, dehydrated yeast went into production in the 1930’s, but all bread before that time was sourdough! Sourdough is a natural yeast that breaks down, ferments, and predigests the grain (flour) in our bread. As this yeast is hard at work fermenting the flour, it creates little pockets of gas, or air bubbles that give bread it’s rise and softness.

SOURDOUGH STARTER

All sourdough bread has to be made with a SOURDOUGH STARTER. As is stated above, this is just a fermented flour and water. If you don’t have a starter and would like one, reach out to friends and family or even to a local bakery. If you aren’t having any luck tracking one down, then you can buy dehydrated starters online.

Once you have a starter, it’s almost like having a pet. You use some starter in a recipe, and then you feed the remainder some flour and water. I always recommend refrigerating your starter unless you plan on using it within 24 hours. Getting the hang of using the starter can be a learning curve. I recommend at first just start by adding some of the inactive, unfed, runny starter to some recipes that aren’t depending on that starter to rise, (such as bread). I would start out by adding starter to waffle batter, German pancake batter, Muffin batter, and obviously to these amazing discard crackers.

After using some of the starter, give what’s left a feed of flour and water. Try not to get hung up on or stressed about how much to feed it. I generally always try to have a cup or two of starter in a jar most of the time. More than that can be high maintenance, and less than that is too small of an amount to add to most recipes. For example, if you have have 2 tablespoons of starter in your jar, give it about a cup of flour and just under a cup of water. Mix together until it resembles a thick pancake batter. The starter will work on digesting/fermenting the food you’ve given it, and you can cover it and refrigerate until you are ready to use it again.

Starters are notoriously hardy and difficult to kill. It can survive in your fridge for months, years or even longer. I do recommend freshening up your starter with some fresh food every month or so but it will survive for quite a long time without a feed (assuming it is refrigerated).

Starter is always in two forms. 1 form is “active” and the other form is “discard”.

More detailed instructions about how to maintain your sourdough can be found in my
Natural Yeast Sourdough Sandwich Bread post.

WHAT IS ACTIVE STARTER?

Active starter means starter that has recently been fed and is ready to be used in a recipe that will rely on it to do the heavy lifting of raising bread. The best way to know if it is active is by what it looks like. Has it risen up and filled with air bubbles? Is there a slight foam on the top? These would both indicate that this starter is active, bubbly and ready to be used in a bread recipe.

WHAT IS DISCARD?

Discard is what happens to unused active starter a few hours down the road. Active starter eventually deflates, goes flat and runny. It is done eating and now it’s just reserving itself until it starts to get hungry. If your discard has a layer of liquid on the top, that just means its very hungry. I generally pour off any liquid from my starter since that is what gives it the most pungent sour flavor. Like I mentioned above, Discard can be thrown in so many recipes and won’t mess with the texture much. Add a 1/2 cup of discard to waffle, pancake, or muffin batter. It will increase the nutrition of the food that it is in since it is full of prebiotics and has neutralized phytic acid in the grain.

This recipe is a FANTASTIC way to use up discard. The sourness of the starter translates into a fantastic cheesy flavor in the crackers. They are addicting and so yummy. And I love knowing that the sourdough crackers have so many health benefits to them as well.

Since I didn’t have any Salad Supreme seasoning for this recipe, I whipped up my own DIY version. I actually prefer the DIY recipe since it doesn’t have any anti-caking agents or MSG. Plus you can modify it to your liking.

SALAD SUPREME SEASONING

This homemade variation of salad supreme goes great on almost everything! Potatoes, pasta salad, salad dressing, and ESPECIALLY these homemade Cheeze-Its!

See the DIY recipe here!