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!
Ingredients
- 3/4 Cup sourdough discard that is flat and runny
- 3 Tablespoons butter that has been melted then cooled
- 2-3 teaspoons of "salad supreme" seasoning see DIY recipe
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325° F and prepare a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper.
- Combine discard with butter and the salad supreme seasoning. Mix well.
- Spread cracker batter out on the baking sheet in a thin and even layer.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven and score with a pizza cutter.
- Put back into the oven and bake another 25 to 35 minutes- checking crispiness of the crackers over the last few minutes.
- Cool completely and enjoy! Add a little extra salt to taste if you want. The crackers stay good for several days in a plastic bag.
I am so dense….So can we refrigerate discard until we get 3/4 cup or ?
Author
You can always refrigerate discard. But if you’re trying to work your way up to having 3/4 cup discard you can simply feed it and it will go through the process of becoming active and then turning into discard again. It depends on if your goal is to increase the overall volume of your starter.
My sourdough starter is not even close to that runny. Do I just add water? Thank you!
Author
Cold sourdough starter will always be a lot more thick and rubber-like. Starter that is discard and fermented, will always be more runny. Having said that, you generally don’t need to add any more water to the discard. Just make sure that when you are feeding it that it is enough flour and water that it makes a thick pancake batter consistency.
These never last long enough for me to “store”! They are delicious!
Author
Haha I feel that same! So glad you like them Jennifer.
Hi! I must be missing the DIY salad supreme mix but I can’t find it. Can you tell me what you did? Also, did you add any cheese at all? Or they just resemble cheez it’s?
Author
The supreme mix is on this blog if you search “salad supreme blend”. But thank you for bringing that to my attention, there should be a link for it now on the Cheeze-Its post. And yes they resemble Cheeze-Its but there is no actual cheese in the recipe. I would love to hear about if you add cheese to them somehow!
This was AMAZING!!! These are the best discard crackers! My husband said they are better than traditional Cheez-Its. I substituted 2T. nutritional yeast for the parmesan cheese so they are dairy free. Did I mention how good these are?!?😋🤤
Author
Hi Kathy, yay so glad you like these! Good to hear that they work out to be dairy free too!
Is it possible to keep the dough in the fridge for a long ferment? They sound delicious!
Hi Ana, it does not need a long ferment.
This was AMAZING!!! These are the best discard crackers recipe I have tried! So easy to make and bake. My husband devoured them and said they are the best crackers I have made. I made the Salad Supreme seasoning with parmesan cheese it was so easy to make and made the crackers zing😋
Did this used to have Parmesan cheese in it? Trying to find the recipe I used a while back and I thought it was this one.
The recipe calls for “Salad Supreme Seasoning” which has Parmesan Cheese in it.