Creative uses for sourdough - there's more to this stuff than just bread

When I had my sourdough going, I made biscuits with my discard everyday. I liked them better than the loaf bread.

r ranson wrote:

Judith Browning wrote:Sourdough doesn't have to be sour

So very true.

If you are willing to ignore all the modern stuff about the proper way to use sourdough, then it is more than willing to do your bidding.  There are ways to make it so the bread lasts 2 weeks at room temperature, or more before going moldy, ways to make it sweet and light with only the tiny hint of sourdough taste (and no sugar added).  So many wonderful things you can do with sourdough if you're willing to do it 'wrong'.

So very true. I make perfect Paleo breads using sour dough starter and techniques, but it’s not sour and never has been. What it is, is the perfect artesian bread. Mine doesn’t last for 2 weeks though it’s usually eaten within a few days. I bake bread every 2-3 days and rolls or sweet breads about once a week. The recipe doesn’t change, only the way I use it changes.

I love sourdough anything.  Pity that I'm Keto now for health reasons.  This thread has made me so hungry...

Oh I get a little confused about sourdough baking, especially because I don’t want to eat any unfermented or unsoaked grains, to do away with the phytic acid, or phytates or whatever you call it.

And so I guess that means that I have to decide what I’m making, then use some starter to start a fermented batch of something or other, to  which I add other things, and then bake after eight hours, that’s the time frame I think I have read.

If that’s the way it works, where I get confused is: is eight hours really enough fermentation time for the phytase to metabolize or convert  all the phytates?

r ranson wrote:
There are ways to make it so the bread lasts 2 weeks at room temperature, or more before going moldy, ways to make it sweet and light with only the tiny hint of sourdough taste (and no sugar added).  So many wonderful things you can do with sourdough if you're willing to do it 'wrong'.

How do you make sourdough light and sweet with no sugar? That is one of the reasons I don't make it very often, sourdough just doesn't go with peanut butter.

H Hardenberg wrote:

r ranson wrote:
There are ways to make it so the bread lasts 2 weeks at room temperature, or more before going moldy, ways to make it sweet and light with only the tiny hint of sourdough taste (and no sugar added).  So many wonderful things you can do with sourdough if you're willing to do it 'wrong'.

How do you make sourdough light and sweet with no sugar? That is one of the reasons I don't make it very often, sourdough just doesn't go with peanut butter.

In my experience, sugar doesn't make sourdough sweet - instead, it makes it more sour. What makes it sweet is baking soda - and it doesn't take much.

H Hardenberg wrote:
How do you make sourdough light and sweet with no sugar? That is one of the reasons I don't make it very often, sourdough just doesn't go with peanut butter.

You'd want to minimize acidity, so make a loose, well-fed starter at around room temp. Then use a higher starter to flour weight, I do 30-50%, so it proofs quickly. In my experience this yields a very subtle sourdough flavor. Although that might be because I'm so used to a strong sourdough. Also when making biscuits the butter definitely seems to lighten up the flavor.

Carla Burke wrote:What makes it sweet is baking soda - and it doesn't take much.

That's certainly true, except it's cheating! To me at least.

Thank you both for your answers! I will be trying them as soon as my starter is fully activated again. I've left it in the fridge for far too long.... But I fed it and it still has a small amount of bubbling.

I might take advantage of the baking soda method.  Since I want thorough fermentation of the flour for the phytic acid, and I don’t know how long is required, I leave it 12 to 16 hours after the last addition of flour.  It gets very sour.

Nate Davis wrote:

H Hardenberg wrote:
How do you make sourdough light and sweet with no sugar? That is one of the reasons I don't make it very often, sourdough just doesn't go with peanut butter.

You'd want to minimize acidity, so make a loose, well-fed starter at around room temp. Then use a higher starter to flour weight, I do 30-50%, so it proofs quickly. In my experience this yields a very subtle sourdough flavor. Although that might be because I'm so used to a strong sourdough.

So I built up my starter quite a bit (ended up weighing 1700 grams) and used this in my normal bread recipe. My recipe is for 1100 grams of flour, so with the hydration of the starter I had to add more flour than usual. Everything else I kept the same. The finished loaves had a harder crust than typically but I used what was left on a butter wrapper and rubbed the top of them. By the time they were cool, they were much softer. As toast, it does have a more sourdough flavor but all my previous sourdoughs would break your teeth after being toasted. But this one toasted like normal bread. And for peanut butter sandwiches, couldn't tell it was sourdough. A little dense/dry but just needs a little working the future. Thanks for the tip! I never got around to trying the baking soda though I might in the future.

I feed my starter daily and use up most of my discard by making crumpets:

2 cups discard
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

Fry on a griddle with ghee or other high temp oil.

I got tired of using crumpet rings, so I just fry them like pancakes.

I like making sourdough English muffins, and pancakes. My wife eats gluten-free and her favorite bread is gluten-free sourdough (mostly) buckwheat. We wish we knew the recipe. The baker keeps it a secret, but it really is the best gluten-free bread I've ever had.

Jerry McIntire wrote:I like making sourdough English muffins, and pancakes. My wife eats gluten-free and her favorite bread is gluten-free sourdough (mostly) buckwheat. We wish we knew the recipe. The baker keeps it a secret, but it really is the best gluten-free bread I've ever had.

I was looking up something related to sourdough and this thread was found by the search.
Regarding your search for buckwheat bread, you might try out one of these two recipes. If you swith your google to English you should be able to understand it.

Buckwheat bread - in this recipe with conventional rye starter, but could be switched to home-made buckwheat starter:
Ploetzblog buckwheat bread

Buckwheat bread with rice, psyllium and potato:
Rice buckwheat bread

I have been on a bit of a rye bread making kick lately. I grew up eating rye bread and moved to a place where it doesn't exist, and every so often I get a hankering....
My daughter has decided she also misses it, so we've been making it every week and introducing her friends to what a good seeded sour rye tastes like.

My original recipe involves boiling a potato and making a sour wet starter that sits for two days before adding the rest of the flours. Lack of preparation led me to substitute that business entirely with the same volume of sourdough discard, which made a fabulous bread (which we could eat that same day!).

I used to have a book on Alaskan sourdough recipes. Don't have it now (gave it to one of my daughters) because youngest and I both have celiac disease, and I can't eat carbs. But the cookbook had everything in it, from regular bread to all kinds of quickbreads, to cakes and other desserts. Worth hunting for in second-hand bookstores.

I think my book was an early edition of this: https://www.amazon.com/Alaska-Sourdough-Revised-Stuff-Alaskan-ebook/dp/B091CVN3VX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NBSFMV4EYIBD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CpuG-FY_Co1PDf0dxEYyvsHkDhbAmJKNB97fFPzPGNNEu-HjUS4DKxMUnDCwkOf5HVNYOfLjGUG4qrAtmGrvKrNPFzWm7bNw6rX7PW6vLGSumYqg6CviYAybV8Ofj8fMsKfqtiJPYi6fFaN3UAIMKbUygK8zViUdmee_rAs1SVXZZY7IcGMZhieoxvpv0WvlSE3fBZb4Bpzal-IBVxavlOsLAb-RqwFhDlhV52sirfs.tGAcmWvv_uml_gXgAvdQ6uLLKmP2qYBnJvx5gLwTO3g&dib_tag=se&keywords=Alaska+sourdough+recipe+book&qid=1782586848&s=books&sprefix=alaska+sourdough+recipe+book%2Cstripbooks%2C227&sr=1-1

I use sourdough frequently. Not that often for a loaf of bread though. Always have pancakes & tortillas in the freezer for quick meals. Sourdough pizzas every other week or so. Sometimes I make cakes or cookies with it. Fresh pasta made with sourdough is excellent tasting & easy to do. Chicken & dumplings using sourdough for the dumplings is probably my favorite.

Check out Kate Downham’s sourdough book. You might never wonder what to do with Sourdough again.
Best kickstarter ever. (Sorry Paul).

I agree. Kate's book is excellent.

Kate Downham’s sourdough without fail!

I am also a fan!

Mike Barkley wrote:I use sourdough frequently. Not that often for a loaf of bread though. Always have pancakes & tortillas in the freezer for quick meals. Sourdough pizzas every other week or so. Sometimes I make cakes or cookies with it. Fresh pasta made with sourdough is excellent tasting & easy to do. Chicken & dumplings using sourdough for the dumplings is probably my favorite.

Mike, are you just using your starter for the dumplings?  Or do you throw a few other things in?

I use about 1/3 very ripe starter & 2/3 flour. Add enough chicken stock, or reduced water from boiling the chicken first, to make a sticky dough. Not super sticky dough but I like it to be a moister dough than bread dough when it is ready to cook. The liquid needs to have a nice strong chicken flavor. Sometimes I cook some onion in the stock while it reduces. Let it rise an hour or two but less than bread dough. Roughly 25% risen compared to fully proofed bread dough. Then mix some salt into the dough. Let it rest another 1/2 hour or so. Roll pieces into golf ball sized balls & flatten them so they cook evenly. The dough should stick to your hands a little. Gradually drop them into the boiling pot with the deboned chicken. Keep the liquid boiling hard until they are all in. Then reduce the heat & let them simmer quite a while. Until the sauce thickens up & the dumplings are perfect.

I prefer dumplings that are dense but somewhat moist after cooking. If you like poofy dumplings let it rise longer &/or add some baking soda. I'm sure my grandmother would rise from her grave & slap me down if I ever made poofy dumplings.

Thanks Mike!

I’m going to copy that one down and put it in my SD recipe collection!

I will definitely be digging into this post!  I have made sourdough successfully (even using fresh ground wheat, which seems to be elusive according to some people), but I do not care for the sour flavor.  So, I have been trying to figure out how to make it without the strong flavor.  My family loves it, though, and I would like to get the health benefits of the sourdough.  I would like to try some other uses for the it, as long as it doesn't have the sourdough flavor .... makes me a bit nervous to try recipes.  : )~

Making sourdough bread for just myself was fun and delicious and all but unless I overate it I would unfortunately end up wasting some.

The solution for me turned out to be only using the discard for two staples. Bagels and quiche crust.

I can now make a batch of bagels (plain or flavored in any way) and freeze them and take one or two out as needed. No more waste.
I have also been told that freezing or even just cooling completely any starch converts some of the "bad starch" into "better, less blood sugar spiking starch" I forget the details but I think it works for me.

The quiche crust is made in a 9 inch cast skillet. Preheat it to 450F. Pour in 100% hydration starter discard and swirl around the hot pan as it quickly cooks and coats the pan. bake in 450F oven for 5 minutes or so before loading with quiche ingredients and baking the quiche at 325F for 50 minutes or so. Can also cook at 400F for 30 minutes to save time. If you're picky, the egg texture will be slightly more scrambled at the higher temp.

Jennifer Life wrote:I will definitely be digging into this post!  I have made sourdough successfully (even using fresh ground wheat, which seems to be elusive according to some people), but I do not care for the sour flavor.  So, I have been trying to figure out how to make it without the strong flavor.  My family loves it, though, and I would like to get the health benefits of the sourdough.  I would like to try some other uses for the it, as long as it doesn't have the sourdough flavor .... makes me a bit nervous to try recipes.  : )~

I feel the same way about overly sour.  I have learned a lot from Kate.  My understanding at this point is that the soir develops from length of getment time… which I am definitely prone to.

I have a jar in the refrigerator where I used to keep my starter.  It just has some starter stuck to the sides and bottom.  When I am getting ready to bake, I get out the jar and add equal weights of water and flour, and let that get bubbly.  I look at the recipe i want to make, and if I am going to need more starter, I add more flour and wateronce it’s bubbly.

Then when it’s bubbly again, I make the recipe.  I either leave about a tablespoon of starter in the jar, or I put the lid on the “dirty”-with-starter- only jar and put it in the refrigerator for next time

Has anyone mentioned biscuits? They probably have because I didn't read through the whole thread very closely.

Anyways, tlhis is the recipe I always make that's not just a sour dough loaf. I love it because it uses the discard so I can just pull my starter out of the fridge, get a cup of discard, feed my sourdough starter, and stick it back in the fridge.  Or I could until I killed my sourdough starter. I need to get it started back up again.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/buttery-sourdough-biscuits-recipe

Anna there’s a whole thread here on permies on how to catch or start a starter.  Kate has also included it in her book.

The starter I have had for 4 or 5 years, I used live kombucha to start.  I don’t mean the mother… I mean the part we drink.  symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast= SCOBY.

I just substituted kombucha for the water.  I use GT Dave’s

The sourdough starter that I killed had just been yeast from the air. My husband had started it so I feel a little bad.  I'd be willing to try kombucha.  

Funny how we can get attached to sourdough starters and such.  It’s sad to lose something we love

If your old starter was from an open bowl or jar, and had been colonized by airborne organisms, there’s a good chance you had some bacteria in it

You probably already know you can buy starters.  Cultures for Health is a reputable company and they sell all kinds of starters.

You also might find someone locally who might take pity on you, and give or sell you some of their’s



Good luck!

I'm delighted to see that within this sourdough group, the "cast-off"... isn't.

We've kept our sourdough starter going since the lockdown, for over six years now. Since neither of us came from bread-making families, I'm entirely self-taught. That means I knew no better than to use the liquid part of the starter to feed my bread dough, leaving the thick stuff on the bottom of the jar to inoculate the next feeding. I have since come to understand that this is a terrible mistake, but I'm stubborn and lazy, and slow to change my ways.

So far this tragic error hasn't caused a problem. In fact, we're so used to my round skillet bread, we've stopped buying store bread completely. And yes - as previous commenters noted, my runny starter also makes wonderful pancakes, pizza dough, muffins, sandwich buns and cinnamon rolls. Next, I'll have to try my hand at crackers. They sound wonderful.

I highly recommend Kate's book featured in today's dailyish. It is very informative & loaded with many excellent recipes.

Yeardly Arthur wrote: muffins

any chance of a recipe? those are some fine-looking muffins!

and if it makes you feel any better, for years I threw away the liquid hooch, until recently when someone told me that was a useful part of the starter. I drain it off of my discard, but I stir it back into the actual starter. I love that most people's starters are survivors and put up with most anything and keep chugging along!!!

I've had a few starters over the years, but I tend to get lazy feeding them in the summer heat when I don't do much baking. My personal favorite thing to make with them were always crackers, the tangy lactic acid bite almost makes them taste like cheese crackers! I also love to bake cookies, and it turns out sourdough adds a lot of depth to chocolate chip cookies.

Tereza Okava wrote:

Yeardly Arthur wrote: muffins

any chance of a recipe? those are some fine-looking muffins!

Sadly, no recipe. If I recall, these were made by adding more starter and an extra egg  to leftover pancake batter, plus whatever fruit was on hand.
Most of my cooking involves upgrading leftovers*. My wife always tells visitors to enjoy whatever I might put on the table, because you're not likely to see it again.

*Yes, I do have my mother's and my grandmother's recipe boxes. I peek at them now and then, always linking their handwriting with fond memories.

Yeardly Arthur wrote:adding more starter and an extra egg  to leftover pancake batter, plus whatever fruit was on hand.

That is enough for me to go on! This house basically runs on fruit muffins, and it looks like a great base for a savory muffin as well.

I don't have any family recipes (I'm the cook in the family) but I do love seeing what other people have passed down. Such a wealth of ideas! Thanks for sharing.