Beginner Guide: Sourdough Discard - Amy Bakes Bread (2024)

FAQs

Can I bake with my first sourdough discard? ›

You can always use this discard by directly mixing it into a dough for baking. Your discard, as long as it's in good shape, will leaven any bread dough just as well. The discard is just like a levain you would make for a recipe. The only difference is it's the same makeup as your starter.

Absolutely! A jar of sourdough discard serves as an insurance policy against starter death. If you have some discard on hand, remove a spoonful of it and feed it fresh flour and water in a clean jar. You should have a bubbly starter ready to bake with after a couple of feedings, depending on the discard's condition.

Remember, you can't use the discard from your homemade sourdough starter for the first 7 days. You can use sourdough discard in all kinds of sourdough discard recipes, including these no wait sourdough recipes, overnight sourdough discard recipes and sourdough discard recipes that use up a lot of discard.

The discard is not active enough to make sourdough bread rise but it does have many other uses and baking powder can be added if required. Savoury options include English breakfast muffins, pretzels, caramelised onion biscuits, and sourdough pizza dough.

You can use old sourdough discard if it's been stored in the fridge, however, you really want to use it up within a week - 2 weeks max.

Use it immediately for baking: If you are going to bake something right away (same day), you can keep the discard at room temperature until you're ready to bake. Cover it with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out until you're ready to use it. Check out a few of my favorite sourdough discard recipes here.

You can store mature sourdough discard in the refrigerator indefinitely. As long as there is no mold, it is good to use. It may develop a grayish liquid on top called “hooch” which can be poured off before use or stirred in. If you stir it in, the flavor will become more sour.

stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.

How to increase a starter. If your recipe calls for more than 227g (about 1 cup) of starter, feed it without discarding until you've reached the amount you need (plus 113g to keep and feed again).

Can I leave sourdough discard out overnight? ›

As long as your kitchen isn't too warm (I'd say 78°F or higher) your starter/discard will be fine stored at room temperature for at least a few days without feeding. The flavor will get more acidic the longer it sits.

If you need your starter to take a nap or be babysat, just stick it in the fridge! I have kept my inactive starter or “discard” in the fridge for six months and brought her back to life in three feedings. Make sure you store it in a locking lid jar, that is essential!

You can take a portion of sourdough discard and add a few grams of flour and a few grams of water to create a healthy active sourdough starter. You may need to feed your revived starter a few more times before its ready to make bread.

Sourdough discard can also be used to start a new sourdough starter. You can gift the discard to a friend looking to start their own sourdough journey; all they need to do is feed it with water and flour to have a thriving starter of their own.

Remove and discard half of your sourdough starter from the jar. Feed what's left in the jar with equal parts flour and water by weight (1:1:1 feeding ratio). You need a digital kitchen scale for this. Because we all work with different quantities of starters, this 1:1:1 feeding ratio is best understood by example.

It's not a good idea to use a sourdough starter right after feeding. Ideally you should wait at least 2-4 hours. When you first feed a sourdough starter, it's at its weakest point. It has not had time to consume the sugars in the flour and is flat and inactive.

You can store sourdough discard in a separate container, then bake with it when you want — for instance, maybe you fed your starter on Tuesday, leaving you with discard that you want to use to bake pancakes on Saturday.

When your starter is reliably rising to double or triple its size and falling in the jar anywhere between 4-8 hours after you feed it (dependent on your ambient conditions and the flour you feed with) it is ready to bake with.