Do you have a sourdough starter that you are feeding everyday or every week? I do! Every time I feed my starter, I try to find recipes that include the sourdough discard so I am not wasting all that flour. So far, I have made rosemary sourdough crackers, peanut butter sourdough cookies, sourdough pancakes, double chocolate sourdough waffles and most recently almond sourdough biscotti. You can probably find a lot of sourdough recipes on crackers, cookies and pancakes, but biscotti, not so much. Plus the biscotti recipes I found typically use a 50% hydration sourdough starter, which means I have to convert my 100% hydration sourdough starter first to a 50% starter before I can make my biscotti. So in the end, I decided to make my own biscotti recipe using my 100% sourdough starter. It involved studying numerous basic biscotti recipes and calculating flour to water ratios to incorporate my sourdough starter discard. I was worried about how it will turn out but, it is so good that if there’s a biscotti contest, it will easily win top 3 (and nobody would even be able to guess that it’s made with sourdough starter discard!).
Can you use any type of sourdough starter?
Absolutely, as long as it’s a 100% hydration sourdough starter. 100% hydration just means it’s 1 to 1 ratio of flour to water. Your 100% hydration starter can be made with any type of flour. My sourdough starter is made with rye, all purpose flour and water. When I feed it, usually once a week (I take it out of the fridge and leave it to rest in room temperature for 2 hours before I feed it), I use 50g organic rye flour and 50g all purpose flour with 100g room temperature filtered water. The amount of starter that I actually keep for feeding is around 25g, which means I discard around 200g matured starter each time.
After the biscotti are completely cooled, I like to store them in a sealed glass container. They can be kept up to a month! If they turn soft, there’s an amazing trick. Simply turn the oven to 250°F, pop in the biscotti for 15 min and turn off the oven, leaving the biscotti in the oven to cool down slowly. They will taste just the same if not better with a more concentrated flavor.
Can you add other dried fruits and nuts?
You can add any kind of fruits and nuts that you like. I recommend a maximum of 2 cups of fruits and nuts mix. When you have too much fruits and nut, it will be hard to keep the dough together, especially when you slice the dough for your second bake.
Almond Sourdough Starter Discard Biscotti
Level: (easy to hard)
Yield: 22-24 biscotti
Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour (you can substitute with all purpose flour instead)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon orange zest (one whole orange, or one whole lemon)
1 tablespoon honey (you can substitute with sugar instead)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F degrees
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl
In a separate bowl, cream together all wet ingredients except for the sourdough starter discard
Stir in the sourdough starter discard in the wet mixture
Combine all the dry and wet mixtures until blended. Do not overwork the dough otherwise gluten will develop and make the biscotti chewy
Divide the dough into 2
Roll each dough into 10″ long and 4″ wide rectangle (roughly 1 1/2″ thick)
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 30-35 min until lightly golden
Let cool for 10 minutes and then cut into 1″ thick wedges
Turn the wedges on the side for second bake
Reduce the oven heat to 325°F degrees and bake the wedges for another 15-18 min until golden brown on the edges
Let cool completely before storing them in an airtight container
Baking it for the third time really sealed the flavors and make them very crispy. If you like crunchy snacks like these biscotti, you will like my crunchy vanilla almond granola. Or if you are using your sourdough to make some pizza dough, here’s a fun twist to using your pizza dough.
More baking posts for you!
Double Chocolate Sourdough Starter Waffles
Strawberry Chocolate Buns With Sourdough
Cherry Oat Bars
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Leave a comment or share it with others that will enjoy it as well.
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If your biscotti are too soft then it is likely that the cookies were not baked for long enough second time around. If your biscotti slices are around 1/2cm/1/4 inch thick then they should only need around 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 180c/350F to dry out sufficiently.
You can always use this discard by directly mixing it into a dough for baking. Your discard, as long as it's in good shape, will leaven any bread dough just as well. The discard is just like a levain you would make for a recipe. The only difference is it's the same makeup as your starter.
Room-temperature starter should be fed every 12 hours (twice a day) using the standard maintenance feeding procedure: discard all but 113g, and feed that 113g starter with 113g each water and flour.
You can store mature sourdough discard in the refrigerator indefinitely. As long as there is no mold, it is good to use. It may develop a grayish liquid on top called “hooch” which can be poured off before use or stirred in. If you stir it in, the flavor will become more sour.
How to Store Biscotti: Maximize Crunch & Prevent Soft Biscotti. To store biscotti, keep it in an airtight container at room temperature. Lining the container with a paper towel will help soak up any excess moisture that finds its way in.
Re-crisping: If the biscotti loses its crispness over time, you can re- crisp them by placing it in a preheated oven (about 300°F or 150°C) for a few minutes.
How Do You Know if Sourdough Discard Is Bad? Sourdough discard will potentially smell acidic and even like acetone if it's a few days old. While it will smell different to a fed, active starter, it won't smell unpleasant.
If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.
Yes, there are actually several health benefits to using sourdough discard in your cooking and baking. Sourdough discard is rich in probiotics, which can help promote a healthy gut microbiome and improve digestion.
stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.
As part of the feeding process, most bakers discard some of their sourdough starter before adding fresh flour and water to the jar. This is done to refresh the acidity levels (think sweet vs. sour smell) and to manage its overall growth in size. This technique is crucial for successful sourdough bread.
Store it for future baking: You can store sourdough discard in an airtight container in the refrigerator for future baking with sourdough discard recipes. When you're ready to use it, let the discard come to room temperature before using it to bake. I will keep sourdough discard in the fridge for about one week.
Blackley's sourdough starter, created from 4,500 year-old yeast, is considered the oldest sourdough starter, per Oldest. Other starters like the Saint Honoratus Wheat also are quite old. A bakery called Chrissi's Farmhouse Bakery uses it and said, “This noble starter dates back 900 years.
If you smell it, you will smell that it is alcohol, a common byproduct of the yeast when it has consumed all of the available food. How to Recover a Neglected Starter: If your starter is covered with a layer of gray liquid (a.k.a. “hooch”) pour off that liquid, then scrape off the gray layer on top.
Sourdough discard should be stored in the refrigerator. Every time I discard some of my starter, I'll add it to a sourdough crock I have sitting in my fridge. I like the look of the crock, but you can use any Tupperware with a lid to store discard.
If the biscotto feels soft, like a piece of cake, give it another 5 minutes in the oven. If it feels firm but still gives a bit when you poke it, take it out for rather soft-textured but still crunchy biscotti.
I make Biscotti all the time and for a softer version just cook them less time.. I bake the log for 15 minutes at 375 F then remove from oven let cool. then slice put back in oven for just five minutes standing up... Remove and you are done!
A: Overbaking the logs of dough during the first baking can make the slices crumble as you are cutting them. Also, even if the logs of dough are perfectly baked, they will crumble if they are sliced while still warm, so be patient. The logs crumble when you use a dull knife, too.
Introduction: My name is Kareem Mueller DO, I am a vivacious, super, thoughtful, excited, handsome, beautiful, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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How do you store the biscotti fresh?
How do you store the biscotti fresh?
Almond Sourdough Starter Discard Biscotti
