Herb Sourdough Crackers Recipe: How to Use Discarded Starter!

I’ll admit it. The process involved with maintaining a healthy sourdough starter and baking hobby can get a little wasteful. All that feeding and dumping, feeding and dumping… But it doesn’t have to be a waste! There are a number of ways you can put that discarded sourdough starter to good use.  Most often, we feed ours to the compost or chickens, but another great way to use discarded starter is in other baking recipes – like these delectable, crispy, savory sourdough crackers!

Come learn how to make healthy, whole wheat sourdough crackers with your discarded sourdough starter*. You won’t regret it! These are perfect for holidays, parties, or simply as a healthier cracker snack option for your family. We love to pack ours full of fresh herbs from the garden, but dried herbs can be used instead too. The beautiful thing is, you can use any combination of herbs that are available to you. Have fun making them your own!

Speaking of making them your own, I have to add a disclaimer here: this recipe is loosely based off the popular King Arthur version – but with our personal twists! For example, they call for butter. We opt to make these vegan and use coconut oil instead, which also provides for an extra crispy texture! We also love to use fresh herbs, and a variety of them, rather than dried. The flours used are also different. I hope you love our take on this classic! Also note that we now have a gluten-free version of this treasured cracker recipe.

*If you need help getting a sourdough starter culture going, check out our simple instructions to make your own – using only three ingredients! Or, if you aren’t up for making a starter from scratch, feel free to pick up a dry (but alive!) organic sourdough starter the Homestead and Chill shop. All it needs a little water, flour, and few days to get active again.

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup unbleached white wheat flour. We used our unbleached bread flour.
• 1 cup unfed, active sourdough starter. Meaning, take the starter at the time you would usually discard it – several hours after feeding, not just-fed. We store our starter in the fridge during the week, and choose not to make this recipe with the very first cold discard. Instead we feed it, let it get active and happy, then use the discard from the next feeding session.
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) coconut oil. Butter or olive oil also work as good substitutes in this sourdough cracker recipe.
• ¼ cup fresh chopped herbs, or 2 tablespoons dried. We most often use a combination of fresh rosemary, sage, oregano, and thyme from the garden – as shown below.
• Olive oil, for brushing
• Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling on top
• Optional: garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

1) Mix dough

In a large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, white flour, sourdough starter, fresh chopped or dried herbs, salt, and coconut oil. The coconut oil should be slightly softened and easy to work with. If it is hard, you may need to lightly heat it until it just barely starts to melt. If you have only one type of flour available, you can just use whole wheat or white on their own. We personally love the balance of both! Sometimes we like to add 1/8 tsp of our homemade garlic powder to this step too.

Thoroughly mix the dough until it is uniform. I usually start mixing with a fork or spoon, but then finish mixing with my hands. It should not be sticky, especially with the coconut oil.

2) Split, Squish & Cool

Divide the large dough ball into two roughly equal smaller balls. Using your hands, form each ball into a flattened rectangle. We have been vegetarian for a loooong time, but this step definitely reminds me of forming hamburger patties, if that helps… Mine generally end up a little larger than my flattened hand, and maybe about half an inch thick. Repeat for the second ball.

Place each squished dough rectangle on a plate, and cover/wrap with parchment paper. King Arthur calls for plastic wrap, but this is a slightly more sustainable option (the parchment paper we use is compostable). Better yet, wrap the dough in a reusable beeswax wrap! The goal is to not allow the dough to dry out. I cut a piece just larger than the dough and tuck it in around the edges.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes, up to a couple hours. You could even let the dough sit overnight if needed, but be sure it is well-wrapped or even tucked inside an airtight container to prevent it from drying out. The longer it sits in the fridge, the more it will ferment (and become easier to digest!) yet it will also become increasingly cold and firm – and more challenging to roll out thin. Therefore, if the dough is refrigerated for more than a couple of hours, I suggest allowing it to warm up at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes before rolling out.

3) Roll Out

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Once they’ve had their time to chill, remove the cracker dough from the fridge. Cut a piece of parchment paper to about the size of a cookie sheet, or use a silicone baking sheet liner. Lightly dust the parchment paper/liner with flour. Carefully unwrap one chunk of flattened dough, place it in the center of the floured parchment paper, and lightly flour the top of the dough. I like to do this on a large cutting board, which makes it easy to transfer onto a cookie sheet.

Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is nice and thin. The goal is about 1/16th of an inch thick – or as thin as you can make it. The edges will be a little ragged. That is okay. Just work it back and forth and side to side to get it spread as evenly as possible while still maintaining a relatively rectangular shape.

4) Oil, Slice, & Poke

Once the dough is rolled out, lightly brush the surface with olive oil. Don’t drench it! Just enough for a light coating. Then sprinkle some coarse salt over it as well.

Next, cut the dough into rows of square crackers. Anything from 1 to 2 inches is good! The use of a rolling pizza cutter works well for this. We love to use a pastry/pasta cutter to get fun wavy edges.

Finally, poke the top of each cracker with a fork a couple of times.

Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for the second piece of dough.

5) Bake

Slide the parchment paper with cut and poked cracker dough onto a baking sheet. Each batch will need its own cookie sheet. We bake two trays at one time, but if you only have one cookie sheet to work with, have them take turns.

Bake on 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes, until the crackers turn light golden brown. Rotate the cookie sheets halfway through.

When they are done baking, immediately transfer the finished sourdough crackers on to a cooling rack.

6) Enjoy!

The moment we’ve all been waiting for! You’ve probably already sampled a few by now… I always snack on those irregular outer pieces right away. They’re too irresistible, and “not pretty” enough to make it to the plate anyways, right?! Right. Of course.  

After fully cooling, store your sourdough crackers in an air-tight container to maintain maximum freshness and crunch. Ours get a tad stale by day 5 or so, but they usually don’t hang around that long!

These herb sourdough crackers are damn good on their own, as a healthier alternative to most other types of crackers or chips. You can enjoy them with cheese and olives, or dunked in hummus and other dips. We had them with soup just last night. So good! Sourdough crackers are our new go-to for holiday and party platters. They are a huge hit, and people are always impressed to learn they’re homemade!

Now get to baking, so you can see for yourself how tasty these are!

If you haven’t yet checked out our tried-and-true simple sourdough bread recipe, be sure to! You may also love our cast iron whole wheat sourdough pizza crust recipe or these baked sourdough tortilla corn chips as well. They’re pretty drool-worthy! Looking for other ways to use discarded starter? See our list of the 15 Best Sourdough Discard Recipes here.

I hope you love these sourdough crackers just as much as we do. Let me know if you have any questions, and please spread the love by sharing this article with friends. Come back and let us know if you make ’em!