King Arthur has many recipes on their site that use sourdough discard. Heres another take on their sourdough discard crackers.
Bruce loves these crackers as he is a big fan on lemon, poppy seed, and salt.
Makes about 100 sized at 1 1/4 inches. I like bigger crackers and make 1 1/2 or 2 inch crackers. Sometimes, I just make cracker strips, and they are great for dipping!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (113g)King Arthur Premium 100% Whole Wheat FlourorKing Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour or King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 teaspoonsalt
- 1 cup (248g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (4 tablespoons) or 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons of lemon zest, fresh or dried (zest of 2 lemons)
- extra flour for rolling out dough
- water, for brushing
- coarse salt (such as Maldon sea salt flakes or kosher salt) for sprinkling on top
- poppy seeds for sprinkling on top
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest for sprinkling on top (zest of 1 lemon)
Tools:
- Ideally, 2 half size sheet pans, but you can use one. It just takes more time.
- Parchment paper, cut to fit the sheet pans.
- Rolling pin
- Pastry brush
Directions
- Mix together the flour, salt, sourdough starter, oil or butter, and lemon zest to make a smooth(not sticky), cohesive dough. (You may need a little extra flour depending on how wet the sourdough starter is.)
- Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a small rectangular slab. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to a couple of hours, until the dough is firm. (If you dont stack them on top of each other, they chill faster.)
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Very lightly flour the cut piece of parchment, your rolling pin, and the top of the dough.
- Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough to about 1/16 thick. Try to roll it to the edge of the parchment. The dough will have ragged, uneven edges; thats OK. Just try to make it as even as possible. Trim the edges to square them up, if you dont want rustic looking crackers.
- Cut the dough into 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 or 2 squares; I use a metal ruler and knife to mark out the spacing at the top and bottom and left and right sides. If I am making 1 1/2 crackers, the bottom crackers are smaller and the ones on the right side are smaller. I lay the ruler on the dough so it aligns with the markings, and I cut the dough by following along the edge that aligns with the markings.
- Carefully, transfer the dough and parchment together onto a baking sheet. I put the sheet pan at the edge of the counter and pull the parchment paper into the pan.
- Prick each square with the tines of a fork. I like prick the dough by following the cut lines, half the fork on each side of the line, and then I put 2 pricks in the middle of each square.
- Lightly brush the dough with water and then sprinkle the coarse salt, poppy seeds, and lemon zest over the top of the crackers. Sprinkle the salt, poppy seeds, and lemon zest from at least 10 above the dough.
- Bake the crackers for 20 to 25 minutes, until the squares are starting to brown around the edges. Midway through, reverse the baking sheets: both top to bottom, and front to back; this will help the crackers brown evenly.
- When fully browned, remove the crackers from the oven, and transfer them to a cooling rack.
- Store airtight at room temperature for up to a week; freeze for longer storage.
Some tips from the King Arthur web site:
- The thinner you roll the crackers the crisper they will be.
- If youre baking in a humid kitchen environment, allow your crackers to cool in a turned-off oven with the door propped open slightly. This will help the crackers crisp up better.
- A great trick: If you have a pasta machine (or the pasta attachment with a KitchenAid), use it to roll your cracker dough into thin sheets.
