The eternal dilemma: What to do with the discards when you feed your sourdough starter? A: Make sourdough crackers.

This recipe is a doddle, if a bit labor intensive. Simple ingredients, but you need a pastry blender, a rolling pin, and a pastry brush and a rolling pizza cutter are very helpful.

Ingredients:

4 Tbps. butter, at room temperature (IMPORTANT!)

1/2 tsp. sea/kosher salt, or scant 1/2 tsp. regular salt

1 C. flour (Any kind. I used atta, which is Indian buckwheat flour, but unlike many Western whole wheat flours, is ground very finely)

1 C. sourdough starter discards

(Optional) 2 Tbsp. of dried herbs or grated cheese of your choice. I’m using these crackers for cheese, so wanted to keep the taste fairly neutral, and didn’t add either.

Oil (any kind, for brushing)

More salt (for sprinkling)

Method:

Using the pastry blender, combine the flour, salt and butter until you have a fairly homogeneous mix. This will take about 3-4 minutes.

Stir in the sourdough discard. Add water or flour as needed. You want a dough that is pliable but not sticky.

On a floured surface, pat the dough into two rectangles (try to get them more equal than I did), then wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for an hour. DO NOT skip the refrigeration, it’s your key to success!

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Flour a piece of parchment paper, your rolling pin, and the dough.

And roll it out. Thinness (1/16″) is your friend here, but it’s okay if it’s thicker. The thinner the dough, the crispier the cracker.

Brush lightly with oil.

Sprinkle with salt. Using a knife (but much easier with a pizza cutter) cut the dough into squares of your preferred size. Or go nutz and make some diamonds!

IMPORTANT! Prick the crackers with the tines of a fork. If you don’t, they will puff up in the oven, and it will hard to balance the cheese on them.

Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the pan front-to-back and bake for a further 12 minutes, or until they are golden brown (these are a bit over-done, could have done with a minute less). Allow to cool.

They will keep just fine in a sealed container at room temperature for a week or so.

From top, clockwise: My First Blue, Jarlsberg, Gorgonzola Piccante, Shropshire Blue, Ricotta Salata, Appenzeller:

Yum!

-R