Sourdough ‘discard’ is the sourdough starter that’s not ‘active‘… the stuff that’s no longer good for making loaves of bread. If … if… the whole point of sourdough is to make loaves of bread, then the ‘discard’ is exactly what is says… to be discarded. But wait… for me, the whole point of sourdough isn’t just to make loaves of bread. I don’t discard the ‘discard’. Actually, I do far more with the sourdough starter in its ‘discard’ state than I do when it’s ‘active’. If you Google ‘sourdough discard recipes’ you’ll find lots of lovely stuff to make with sourdough discard. Here are my favourites that I find easy for overlanding
Quick Sourdough Discard Flatbreads
Makes 2 large or 4 small flatbreads in around 10 mins.
Mix 120g white all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add 120g sourdough discard and 45g milk or water. Mix with a spoon then bring together with hands and gently knead until smooth. Divide dough and roll-out thinly on a lightly floured surface. Cook in a hot, dry frying pan for a few minutes each side.
- Dry-mixing: I’ve learned the hard way that it’s important to do a thorough mix of the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients. If they’re not mixed properly and the minor ingredients aren’t evenly dispersed within the flour, you can get a blob of unmixed/undissolved baking soda in the finished product. This… believe me… is truly, truly disgusting! If you want to be fancy, mix-in a few dried herbs or spices at this dry-mix stage.
- Kneading & resting: I find anything from 1 to 4 minutes kneading is fine. If it’s too sticky to knead, sprinkle a bit more flour as you go, just enough to make it kneadable (every sourdough discard is different, so it’s difficult to be accurate with the exact measurement of flour and liquid here – just adjust it as you mix/knead to get a nice smooth dough. Once it’s smooth and a bit stretchy, you can wrap it in a bag/clingfilm and leave it for 30 mins if you want, but there’s no need to wait if you want it quickly – I usually use it within just a few minutes of preparing.
- Cooking: I find a dry, non-stick frying pan or griddle is best. Pre-heating the pan on a high heat before adding the flatbread to the hot surface will help them to puff-up nicely. Depending on your heat (and let’s face it, overlanding stoves can be unreliable in heat levels!) it should take just a couple of minutes on each side until puffed-up and nicely browned. I use a dry pan as think oiling the pan/griddle makes them a bit greasy, but you can add a bit of oil/butter if you like, particularly if your pan/griddle isn’t non-stick. Keep the first ones warm in a clean tea-towel until they’re all done, then serve and enjoy the applause 🙂 .
Sourdough Discard Four Tortillas
Makes 6 taco-sized tortillas in around 20 mins.
Mix 105g all-purpose white flour with 3g salt then mix in 25g softened butter with the back of a fork. When the butter is evenly incorporated, add 50g water and 50g discard sourdough starter. Bring together with hands to a ball and gently knead until smooth. Cover and let it rest anything between 5-30 mins. Divide dough, roll-out as thinly as you can and cook around 1 min each side on a very hot and dry pan/griddle.
- Kneading & resting: I find anything from 1 to 4 minutes kneading is fine. If it’s too sticky to knead, sprinkle a bit more flour as you go, just enough to make it kneadable (every sourdough discard is different, so it’s difficult to be accurate with the exact measurement of flour and liquid here – just adjust it as you mix/knead to get a nice smooth dough. Once it’s smooth and a bit stretchy, wrap it in a bag/clingfilm and leave at room temperature for anywhere between 10-30 mins (if you want to leave it longer, put it in the fridge and return to room temperature when you want to use it).
- Cooking: I find a dry, non-stick frying pan or griddle is best. Pre-heating the pan to the highest heat that you can is quite important. They don’t cook and brown nicely in a warm pan/griddle. Depending on your heat (and let’s face it, overlanding stoves can be unreliable in heat levels!) it should take just 60 seconds(ish) on each side (a bit longer if you like the charred taste). Keep the first ones warm in a clean tea-towel until they’re all done 😋.
Sourdough Discard American-style Pancakes
Makes 8-10 pancakes in around 20 minutes.
Mix 95g all-purpose white flour with 8g sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking/bicarbonate soda. Then add 120g sourdough discard starter, 1 med/large egg, 120ml milk and 20g melted unsalted butter. Mix thoroughly. Heat pan & cook each pancake around a minute or so on each side. Serve with fruit… maple syrup… whatever.
- Dry-mixing: I’ve learned it’s important to do a thorough mix of the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients. If they’re not mixed properly and the minor ingredients aren’t evenly dispersed within the flour, you can get a blob of unmixed/undissolved baking soda in the finished product. This… believe me… is truly, truly disgusting! I use minimal sugar at this stage as I prefer to sweeten with syrup when eating, but if you like them sweeter, add up to 10-12g sugar.
- Butter: If I only have salted rather that un-salted butter, I omit the 1/4t of salt and rely on the salt in the butter for the flavour.
- Cooking: If you have a good non-stick pan you can cook them in a dry frying pan/griddle. If not, add a little butter to the pan and swill around the surface to help prevent sticking.
Sourdough Discard French-style Crepes
Serves 4 in around 20 mins
Mix thoroughly 240g sourdough discard starter with 2 med/large eggs, 25g melted butter, 3g salt and 55ml milk. Heat frying pan (very hot for best results) and ladle-in just enough mixture to swill-around the pan and thinly cover the base of the pan. Wait a minute or so until it’s lightly brown underneath, then flip and cook a further minute or so. Yummy with fruit & syrup, but can be savoury too.
Sourdough Discard Scones
Makes 8 or 9 scones in around 35 mins.
Mix 190g all-purpose white flour, 35g sugar, 15g baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Then add 70g cold unsalted butter (grated or chopped into small cubes) and rub-in quickly with finger-tips so the butter is incorporated and the mixture is like crumbs. Add dried fruit now if you want to. Then add 250g sourdough starter discard plus 120g milk or cream. Mix first with a spoon or fork, then bring together with hands to form sticky dough (it will probably be too sticky to knead properly) .
Lay a piece of baking parchment-paper over your oven tray and dolop-out the mixture into 8 or 9 blobs of dough evenly spaced. Do your best to push the dough-blobs into neat little piles; they will spread a bit when they bake, but you want to try to keep them the size/shape of round little scones. Brush the tops with cream or milk and sprinkle with sugar.
Ideally now you’ll have an oven preheated to around 420°F/215°C – but how many overlanders can set the temperature that accurately, eh? My oven has three settings: high, low or off. If I leave it on ‘low’ for too long, it reverts to ‘off’ (so I guess that’s only two settings really). So I pre-heat it on ‘high’, then try to turn it down a bit when I put the scones in to bake. Ideally with baking you shouldn’t open the oven door mid-way, but the heat in my oven is so uneven, I have to move the scones around after 10 mins to stop burnt sections. They’re done in around 15-20mins, but due to the inaccuracies of our unique, pre-historic (overlanding) baking methods, you’ll have to judge the time for yourself. I haven’t seen these done in an Omnia, but I see no reason why it shouldn’t work.
A bit more hassle than some of the other things, but they’re really