Whether you're wanting to add discarded sourdough starter to your favorite quick breads or the banana bread recipe that was handed down from your grandmother, I'm going to show you the easiest way to do it.
Using a simple calculation is the best way to add discard to a recipe, however once you're more experienced, you might like to just follow your instincts. But the first time, I definitely recommend following this guide.
What Is Sourdough Discard?
Sourdough discard can be defined as the portion of unfed sourdough starter that you remove from the jar before adding fresh flour and water. This "leftover sourdough starter" is called discard because it can be discarded or thrown away. Remember, you can't use your sourdough discard until your starter is at least 7 days old.
Why Add Sourdough Discard To Non Sourdough Recipes?
There are many reasons to add sourdough discard to non sourdough recipes. These can include:
- adding more complex flavor to your baked goods
- reducing food waste by using up your discard in non traditional ways
- can be used as a thickener (in soups, gravies, sauces, curries etc)
- can be used as a binder (for breading chicken or making granola)
- discard from a mature sourdough starter can be used as a leavening agent in some cases
When you want to add discard to a recipe, you should follow these steps:
- Weigh out how much discard you want to add to the recipe (no more than 200g).
- Divide the weight into 2. Subtract this amount of flour and water (or other liquid) from the recipe.
- Add the sourdough discard in place of these amounts of flour and water.
- Bake the recipe following the instructions. Treat sourdough starter as a liquid.
Example Recipe:
1 egg
50g Vegetable Oil
125g Milk
100g Caster Sugar
200g All Purpose Flour
12g Baking Powder
5g Salt
100g Blueberries
So if we take out the liquid and flour weights, we have 125g of milk and 200g of flour. These are what we will need to change in order to add in some sourdough discard. Let's say we have 100g of sourdough discard to use up.
Step 1 - Weigh out 100g of sourdough discard
Step 2 - Divide 100g into 2 = 50g (so we need to take out 50g of liquid and 50g of flour from the recipe)
Step 3 - 125g Milk minus 50g = 75g Milk and 200g of flour minus 50g = 150g of flour so we would add in 100g of discard plus 75g milk and 150g of flour (as opposed to the original amounts in the recipe)
Step 4 - Bake the recipe following the instructions. Add the sourdough starter to the liquid ingredients in the recipe.
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