What Happens If You Bake Sourdough Discard?

Discarded sourdough is often used in recipes without extra flour, meaning it can be baked immediately. The discard is already fermented, therefore producing loaves that impart sourdough flavors. Often an additional leavening agent is required, i.e. commercial yeast.

Is Eating With Sourdough Discard Healthy?

While sourdough discard may contain nutrition, it is not as nutritious as an active sourdough starter, or sourdough loaf.

How Long Will Sourdough Discard Last?

Typically, a jar of sourdough discard will remain fresh when stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Is Sourdough Starter and Discard The Same Thing?

A sourdough starter and discard are essentially the same things. However, the discard refers to a portion of the sourdough starter that is removed before feeding. It is called a discard because it is often "discarded" during your starter's feeding. Discard or not, you can use it to make wonderful breads, like my sourdough pull apart finger bread recipe!

Tasty and Easy Sourdough Discard Bread

Ingredients

Scale

Equipment

Mixing bowl or stand mixer
Digital scales
Dutch oven

Ingredients

240g warm water
4g dry active yeast
277g sourdough starter discard
9g salt
8g white granulated sugar
300g all-purpose flour

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Start by combining the yeast and warm water in a large bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer. Stir the yeast until it has dissolved, and allow this to sit for 15 minutes. This should permit the yeast to activate so that it can help the bread rise.
If you wish to skip this step, then replace active dry yeast with instant yeast, and combine it with the rest of your ingredients to produce an instant rise.
Once the yeast appears a little puffy and bubbly, add the sourdough discard it, and stir until the mixture dissolves.
Take a break, and let the discard and the yeast rest for another 15 minutes. Next add flour, sugar, and salt to the stand mixer and turn it on so that it mixes your ingredients.
After a few minutes, a shaggy dough will form and begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Allow the mixer to knead your dough for a few minutes longer then turn off the machine.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. If you don’t have a stand mixer, simply mix your ingredients using your hands, once a shaggy dough has formed, transfer the dough to a work surface, and knead the dough until it’s smooth. Sprinkle a light dusting of flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface.
Shape the dough into a smooth ball. Lightly grease a large bowl, then carefully drop your dough into the greased bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let your dough rise until it has doubled in size.
Depending on the yeast and sourdough discard, this process can take 1-2 hours. Keep an eye on your dough, you wouldn’t want it to over-proof!
As soon as your dough appears larger and puffier; transfer the dough to a floured surface and punch the dough. Stretch and reshape the dough into a smooth ball once again.
Set the dough ball aside, meanwhile line a bowl with a tea towel and add a heavy dusting of flour.
Set your dough ball into the bowl, seam side up. Allow the dough to rise once again. The rise should take around 45 minutes to an hour depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
In the meantime prep your cooking equipment. Place a Dutch oven with its lid in your oven; preheat to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once your dough has doubled in size, give it a gentle poke to test its readiness. If the dough bounces back immediately, give it some more time to rise. However, if the dough bounces back slowly, it’s time to place it into the oven.
Gently place your dough into the hot oven – be careful, and make sure you’re using oven mitts for this step!
Use a bread lame or sharp knife to score the top of the dough. You can engrave any design you like, but I like to take the safer option and swipe a quick cross.
Once you’ve scored the dough, replace the lid on the Dutch oven and bake for 20 minutes in your preheated oven.
Then, carefully remove the lid, and bake for another 25 minutes. Once your bread has finished baking, transfer the sourdough discard loaf to a cooling rack, and take a moment to admire the beautiful golden brown crust.
It’s important to resist the urge to cut your sourdough discard bread immediately. Although your bread is no longer in the oven, it still contains enough heat to continue cooking. Therefore, allowing your discard bread to cool for 1-2 hours will ensure the perfect crumb.

Author: Natasha Krajnc
Cook Time: 45 mins
Category: bread