Sourdough Discard Whole Wheat Bread

I feel a little silly posting a bread recipe given the state of the world but we do need to eat and learning hands-on skills like bread baking will hold us in good stead in disruptive times. And of course, homemade bread tastes better than anything you’ll find on the grocery store shelf. You’ll likely save money as well.

This bread recipe contains a generous amount of sourdough discard—the stuff you remove from your jar of sourdough starter before you feed it. Some recipes instruct you to toss it. Not here!

We really need a better name for this wonderful ingredient. This older starter, while not as lively as an active starter, can go into all kinds of delicious—and relatively flat—baked goods: pancakes, waffles, pizza dough, pretzels, this bread and more. (Go here for a pile of discard recipes.)

A bit of discard also serves as an insurance policy should (gasp) anything happen to your sourdough starter. Feed the discard a few times to revive it and rename it Lazarus. (Go here for instructions to start a starter. Go here for discard FAQs.)

This recipe calls for a good amount of discard straight from the refrigerator, heated up with hot water so you don’t cool down the active dry yeast in the dough. The small amount of baking soda helps neutralize the sour flavor of very sour discard.

I hate to tell people to buy more stuff but measuring ingredients with a scale renders more accurate results—and speeds up the task. You’ll also wash fewer dishes.

The full recipe is behind the paywall.