sourdough discard crackers

use up that sourdough starter in something other than pancakes! this recipe is loosely based on King Arthur Flour's sourdough cracker recipe, with some changes

ingredients

• 230g sourdough starter, unfed/discard
• 50g dark rye flour (or any other whole grain flour, or all purpose flour, if that's all you have)
• 85g bread flour (or all purpose flour; use what you have)
• 1 tsp Diamond Kosher salt (if using another salt, use 1/2 the amount)
• 60g extra virgin olive oil or combination
• about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil for brushing on the crackers
• flaky salt (like Maldon), regular sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, dill seeds, black onion seeds, all the seeds you want for topping

instructions

1. mix together the sourdough starter, flour, salt and olive oil to make a smooth (not sticky), cohesive dough.
2. 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.
3. preheat the oven to 375°F.
4. working with one piece of dough at a time, very lightly flour a piece of parchment, your rolling pin, and the top of the dough.
5. place the dough onto a silicone baking mat on top of an upside down half sheet pan and roll it about 1/16" thick, to sort of fill out the sheet
6. remove the dough and silicone mat and flip over the half sheet pan, placing  the dough on the silicone baking mat onto the pan to bake. Lightly brush with extra virgin olive oil.
7. cut the dough into whatever shape you want; a pizza wheel or a ravioli cutter works well for this but a knife will work, too.
8. prick (dock) the dough thoroughly with a fork to keep it from puffing up as it bakes.
9. sprinkle the crackers with salt and seeds as you like, and lightly press them into the dough.
10. bake the crackers for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're starting to brown around the edges. while they're baking, prepare the second dough/silicone mat/half sheet pan for baking.
11. when fully browned, remove the crackers from the oven, place the pan on a rack to cool and slide the second pan of crackers into the oven and bake the same way.
12. you won't need to worry about storing these crackers, you will eat them as fast as you can make them!
    
    
    

*note: pumpkin seeds, cumin and flaky salt on sourdough crackers are SUPER good with cheddar cheese!

introducing whole grains to improve "no-knead" bread

update 03/05/2012: flour and water measurements adjusted slightly -- recipe writing is, indeed, a process.

I've been continually baking homemade bread for a few weeks now, ever since I finally tried Jim Lahey's "no-knead" bread. along the way, I've made some slight changes to the technique. I've scaled down the basic recipe to use a little more than 2 cups of flour/batch (which makes a loaf both my roommate and I like), and I've also been maintaining a lively sourdough that I use that to raise the bread. it's easy to substitute for yeast -- use about 1/4 - 1/3 cup recently-fed, vigorous loose starter (I keep mine about the thickness of pancake batter just because it's easier to deal with) to substitute for the 1/4 teaspoon yeast called for in the recipe, and adjust the amounts of flour and water down a bit to accommodate. I do add the tiniest dash of yeast to ensure the dough will rise in a reasonable amount of time (which for me is 8 - 16 hours); I could just as easily leave that out and allow a full 16 - 30 hours for a slow rise (part of that in the refrigerator, to develop flavor and keep from exhausting the yeast), but I prefer to keep my bread proofing on the countertop. I've scaled the flour and water adjustments below to work with a mixture of King Arthur Bread Flour and King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour to get some whole grain into my daily bread, and the flavor and texture are excellent. please do remember that flour is different everywhere and dough acts different almost every time you bake it -- you're looking for the same dough characteristics at the beginning (sort of wet and shaggy) before the bulk rise, and will add more flour after that when you actually CAN do a little bit of kneading if you want , although you really only need to do a couple of folds. when I fold, I use a roll-up fold, scroll down a bit after you click the link to see it. when I'm in the mood to knead, after the fold I just give it a bit of a knead, just a few times. you don't want to knock all the bubbles out. proceed with the recipe technique as in my own variation on the classic "no-knead" recipe, but use the following ingredients to add flavor, some whole grain and interest to your loaf:

• 1/4 - 1/3 cup sourdough starter** (and I often, OFTEN augment this with the tiniest dash of Red Star active dry yeast -- maybe 10 grains?). if you don't have sourdough or just don't feel like feeding it, use 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast.
• 1-1/4 cup King Arthur bread flour
• 1 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour (*a note on this flour: it uses a different variety of wheat and is ground finer than regular whole wheat flour, but still uses the whole grain. it produces a creamy, ivory-colored flour with a wonderful whole-grain flavor that's more refined than regular whole wheat flour -- I love it! and the crusts of the finished loaves come out the most gorgeous burnished, shiny brown color, with an off-white/ivory crumb)
• 1 cup filtered water
• 1 teaspoon mild rice vinegar (*optional, depending on the sourness of your starter; if not desired, add another tablespoon filtered water if needed)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

the dough will seem a bit wetter than regular no-knead at first -- that's because it takes the white whole wheat flour a bit longer to absorb water. mix it together well with a wooden spoon, cover with plastic wrap and bulk-ferment overnight (8-16 hours -- it's flexible), then check the texture and you should find it's just right. if anything, it may need a sprinkle of flour to knead.

the finished loaves are tasty and lovely! I'd love to hear what you think.

**I'll post on creating and maintaining a happy sourdough starter with a minimum (or no) waste very soon -- this latest one is the simplest, liveliest and the most effective sourdough I've ever used.