I adapted this recipe a little from one on The Fresh Loaf. It’s an ideal way of using up discard because it calls for mature starter, so if it’s feeding day and you aren’t baking bread, do give it a go. It’s as simple as can be but the results are great.
Note that this recipe is for a small batch of crackers. If you want a larger batch, just feed up your starter and let it mature for a couple of days before using.
Ingredients
100g mature 100% hydration starter
50g all-purpose (plain) flour
20g olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
extra oil, freshly ground black pepper and sea salt for topping (or other spices, herbs, seeds…)
Directions
Mix dough ingredients and let rest overnight at room temperature.
Preheat oven to 175°C.
Roll the dough out on a sheet of parchment into a very thin sheet, making it as uniform as possible. If it’s sticky, roll it between two sheets of parchment then remove the top sheet.
Use a pizza cutter our pastry wheel to cut the dough sheet into pieces as desired. They will shrink and separate as they bake.
Transfer parchment to a baking sheet. Brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with pepper and salt (or whatever you fancy).
Bake for about 20 minutes. The time will vary depending on thickness. If the ones at the edges are browning faster, remove them and let the rest bake another minute or two. I have to turn the fan on for the last 5 minutes when I make crackers, or it just doesn’t dry them enough, so try it if yours don’t seem to be crisping up sufficiently. They should be golden.
Cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container
pizzarossa 
Looks beautiful
Thanks 🙂
they look very good
Thanks! 🙂
what are hydration starter?
Hi Noel,
The hydration of the sourdough (a.k.a. wild yeast) starter refers to the flour:water ratio that you keep it at. Mine is at 100% hydration, which means it always gets fed the same weights of flour and water. If you’re keen on getting a sourdough starter going, there are some excellent sites and some great discussion threads on Daring Kitchen – it was a Daring Bakers challenge a while back 🙂
Great idea to use a sourdough starter. It would add some nice flavour. Thank you for joining this challenge.
The flavour was great 🙂 Thanks for a great challenge and getting me to try something new 🙂
I keep telling myself I need to use sourdough more often, I let my starter go after our daring baker challenge. I think I need to try again
Oh, you should! It’s great stuff, and so satisfying doing everything from scratch 🙂
I tried once some sourdough crackers but they were to crispy , to hard… but your crackers look so good !
I think the trick is to let the dough mature overnight and not have it too stiff. This dough was very soft and quite sticky and the crackers are light and crisp but not hard at all. You should give it another go 🙂
love the sound of the sourdough- great use of leftover starter!
It feels good not to throw it away! 🙂
I’m a sucker for good crackers, Greek cheese, honey and grapes. All in the one mouthful! But have never tried making crackers myself. I’ve never even made sourdough before but do love the stuff. I really should look into this!!
Ooooh, that sounds so good! Cheese and honey is a wonderful combination.
Sourdough is so satisfying. If you want to have a go at it, a couple of excellent sites I can heartily recommend are Wild Yeast (http://www.wildyeastblog.com/) and The Fresh Loaf (http://www.thefreshloaf.com).
Thank you! I will definitely check out those links.
I have been loving watching your sourdough adventures! I am madly in love with my starter, too! Your crackers look fantastic! AND, I have been meaning to tell you, you should join us for Sourdough Surprises! Shelley from C Mom Cook and I started it – every month we bake some fun non-bread thing with our starters! We would love to have you join us! http://www.sourdoughsurprises.blogspot.com
Oooh, Jenni! I would *love* to join you! Very excited 😀