What to do with leftover, immature starter

mertme36

Hi everyone!

For the past three weeks, I've been trying to make sourdough starter. It's finally working, and it seems like it'll be ready for baking in the next day or 2. 

However, because I have been experimenting it with it for 3 weeks, I have a lot of immature, "discarded" sourdough starter. I don't want to throw it away because that seems like such a waste, and I figure I can make something else with it, so I've been adding it to a container and storing it in the fridge.

Can I still make a loaf of bread with the discarded, immature sourdough starter?

Are there any other recipes or things I could do with it? I've heard of pancakes and pizza dough; does anyone have any recipes they suggest for those? Or any other things I could make with it? Could I use it for cupcakes or muffins or anything?

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farinam's picture
farinam 2014 August 10

Hello mertme38,

If what you have is active then it is possible that you could use it but in the scheme of things, the amount that you are 'wasting' is really pretty small.  If you try to make something and it fails then there is the potential to waste even more.

However.

One possibility is crumpets.  The version that I give at the end of the comments is particularly good.

http://sourdough.com/blog/nothing-bit-crumpet

If you made the batter even higher hydration it could serve for pancakes and I seem to recall that there is a recipe and commentary on pancakes somewhere on this site.

If you wanted to try a bread then the Pane francesa that SourDom gives on his beginners blog is a good place to start and pizza dough is little more than a bread recipe with olive oil added and there are recipes for that here also.

Good luck with your projects and hope to hear of your successes shortly.

Farinam

mertme36 2014 August 11

When I went to check on my starters this morning, they looked like they doubled in size, so I decided to make pancakes with them. They tasted pretty good! Considering I'm not very experienced at cooking and baking, I'd consider it a huge success :)

108 breads's picture
108 breads 2014 August 13

I have a sourdough baking book that includes a recipe for 100 percent sourdough starter pancakes. I think there's honey or sugar recommended in the recipe as well.

I tend do use up most of my starter and build it back up for the next set of breads so I do not throw any away. Sometimes, I use more starter in a particular dough if I have built up more than usual. I also hate throwing away any and I have not done so for more than a year.

rsrj317 2014 August 16

Does this baking book have a title for sale or is it family orienated. I have been looking for recipies from the era of my grandmother, who was 86 when she passed away a few years ago and I failed to get the original starter recipe from her.I lost my starter in a move last year in my move. I used it for her sourdough pancakes, yum 

Thank you 

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