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What is sourdough discard?
Sourdough discard is unfed sourdough starter. To make a sourdough recipe, you typically feed your starter 4-12 hours before making the recipe so that your starter can reach it’s peak level of activity. Before you feed the starter, you typically will throw out some of it in order to create room for it to grow, this is called the discard.
In other words, sourdough discard is a less active sourdough starter. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have benefits! It’s still full of nutrients and can be used for recipes.
Why use sourdough discard?
I like to use my sourdough discard so that I’m not throwing it in the trash, because it’s essentially throwing money in the trash. I buy expensive, non-GMO, properly milled flour, and considering you use flour to feed your starter, I feel like I’m throwing away perfectly good flour! Obviously, it’s hard to feed your starter without throwing some away since it grows so much after feeding it and you end up running out of space, so instead of truly throwing it in the trash, you can just go ahead and use it in other recipes, such as this one!
Why is it best to use “fresh” sourdough discard?
So technically, when you feed your starter, you can just put the discard into another container to use later if you don’t have time to make a recipe right away. However, the longer the discard sits unfed, the more sour it becomes because it runs out of food, therefore causing more acetic acid to develop. This isn’t inherently bad, but super sour discard doesn’t taste that great in recipes! So it’s best to use fairly fresh discard (aka, you removed it from your starter within the last few days, 5 days at most). You can also adjust the honey in the recipe to sweeten it up a bit, but it’s hard to undo sour discard at some point.
Where should discard be stored?
If you don’t use your discard right away, store it in a container, cover it, and put it in the refrigerator. I don’t recommend leaving it in room temperature since it ferments so much faster.
PrintSourdough Discard Oat Pancakes
These pancakes are a perfect way to use up sourdough starter discard rather than throwing it out!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 9 pancakes 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
100 g sourdough starter discard*
200 g oat flour
200 g unsweetened almond milk**
3 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 rounded tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Mix together all ingredients.
- Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium heat for a couple minutes. Turn heat down to low-medium then pour 1/4 cup of batter into skillet for each pancake. Cook both sides to desired doneness.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days or the freezer in a freezer-proof container for up to two months.
- Please leave feedback and your review if you made this recipe, this helps me tremendously! Thanks!
Notes
*Be sure your discard is fairly fresh (is from starter that has been fed within the last 5 days at least) because the older it is, the more sour it will be. The sour taste isn’t the best for these pancakes!
**Adjust the milk to make a pancake batter texture. You’ll need less milk if your sourdough starter is super runny, vs more milk if it’s super super thick. Mine was between the two.
