Using up stale bread and sourdough starter discard

[user 246304]

A new member just came on board and she does a pretty cool thing - she uses up a member-brewer's spent grains in baking crackers and other things. So timing is nice, since I'm doing something similar as I write.

I do a lot of German and French sourdough baking and am just literally finishing up a run of altbrot (actually, technically today, röstbrot) and fleur de levain as I write this. For those who may not know, altbrot-röstbrot is a way to use up the butts or stale pieces of dark rye breads (typically). Altbrot is just old bread that is cubed and allowed to dry completely, whether air-dried or in a very low oven. I tend to prefer röstbrot - I cut the crusts off and cut them into 1"ish cubes, then dry-roast the cubes in the oven at 325F for about an hour. They have to dry completely. Then I grind them to a fine powder in my blender and freeze the powder. It allows bread doughs to retain more water (hydration) with the beneficial effects on the finished loaf. It also lends a deep, complex character to the bread.

Fleur de Levain is a way I learned to use up old or tired sourdough starter (there's always a ton left over after refreshing the starter). I hydrate it to the consistency of a pancake batter and then brush it in a thinnish layer on a silicone baking pad and dry at 200F x 90 minutes or so. It can then be broken off in chunks or ground to powder. Purely a taste addition - some sour and other flavors for bread baking. It adds no leavening so can be used alongside levain starter or cultured yeast without any adjustments.

 

[hottpeper13]

Cool, I make pancakes with my discard when making a new culture. When it gets to the flavor or tangyness I want I start making bread.

 

[Miraculix]

I leave only about 10g to 20g behind after preparing the starter, so I have no overbuild sourdough material I need to get rid of.

 

[hottpeper13]

In the beginning I do the throw out 1/2 method, but can't stand to throw anything out. PANCAKES baby!

 

[user 246304]

For my liquid rye starter, a 100% hydration starter, I always do 1:1:1, to keep it fairly mild (I also ferment it at 28C, and use Roggen T1150 v. Roggen VKM, for the same reason). It gets 4 hours only, then kept in the refrigerator. I typically refresh it every 3-4 days.

Here's what the fleur de levain looks like, before grinding into powder. It's great if using a mild starter like Hefewasser (yeast water), and you want some more "sourdough" acid and character.

 

[Yooper]

I've been making pizza with my discard.

It's just that- pouring a thin layer of discard into my piping hot cast iron skillet and then sticking it in a hot oven until browned a bit. It's very thin in my case (I'm pretty low-carb as a rule) and my husbands is a little thicker. Then I take it out of the oven, top with our precooked (sausage) or raw toppings (sun dried tomatoes, jalapenos, etc) and then shredded cheese and then back into the oven for about 10 minutes. Quick and easy, and a great way to have a lower carb awesome thin crust pizza.

 

[Oldskewl]

I usually make crackers or thin crust pizza like Yooper does. For crackers you mix 1TBS of butter with 100g of starter. Spread it out on parchment paper, top with salt or everything bagel seasoning. Bake at 375F for 5 minutes, take out and score with a pizza cutter into bite sized crackers, and then back into the oven for 20-25 min depending on how thick you spread it. You can also mix shredded cheese into it with the butter to create more of a cheez-it type cracker. They are best eaten that day. They do get chewy if you try to save them til the next day.

 

[Yooper]

I usually make crackers or thin crust pizza like Yooper does. For crackers you mix 1TBS of butter with 100g of starter. Spread it out on parchment paper, top with salt or everything bagel seasoning. Bake at 375F for 5 minutes, take out and score with a pizza cutter into bite sized crackers, and then back into the oven for 20-25 min depending on how thick you spread it. You can also mix shredded cheese into it with the butter to create more of a cheez-it type cracker. They are best eaten that day. They do get chewy if you try to save them til the next day.

I do that too! I don't eat a lot of crackers, but took it to a bi-weekly game night and those crackers were just as you said, a little butter with some discard/starter. I sprinkled with Penzey's seasoned salt, and baked. Every single piece of cracker disappeared!