You’ll never throw away sourdough starter again once you’ve tried these ultra thin and crispy olive oil crackers, seasoned with herbs de Provence and finished with flake sea salt.
These homemade sourdough crackers are the perfect snack all on their own, or, for an extra treat, spread with soft cheese and top with a dollop of homemade jam. They are surprisingly quick, easily prepared while you’re waiting for your bread to rise, though you can also refrigerate the cracker dough for up to 24 hours.
I’ve been making homemade sourdough bread, at least a loaf every other week, for almost a year now. My starter (aka Jane Dough) is a bit of a diva (she prefers King Arthur organic flour and tends to wilt in the heat/humidity of summer) but she’s brought me loads loaves of joy. There are few things as wonderful as homemade sourdough bread.
The one thing that has always bugged me about keeping a sourdough starter, however, is the sheer amount of waste. Every time you feed the darn thing you have to throw away 2/3 of it, and when you’re buying $10/bag organic flour, well, that’s a travesty.
So I set out to find a way to utilize some of that discarded starter.
There are lots of recipes out there, from waffles to pizza crust and beyond, that use sourdough discard. But it was sourdough crackers that grabbed my attention.
Sourdough crackers require only a few ingredients, the bulk being made up of discarded sourdough starter (the stuff you’d normally toss every time you feed it). That starter is mixed with a bit more flour (I used a combo of all-purpose, whole wheat, and a touch of rye), olive oil, salt and dried herbs. That’s it. It really couldn’t be more simple.
In terms of flavor, they taste a lot like a homemade wheat thin, if wheat thins were made with olive oil and seasoned with Herbs de Provence (fancy wheat thins).
Now, I fully learned my lesson when I painstakingly cut out hundreds of tiny cheese crackers using a cookie cutter. They’re cute, but the time it takes to cut them all out really isn’t practical for a snack you eat by the handful.
With these crackers, I rolled them out into paper-thin sheets using my pasta roller attachment. Brilliant, right?! Indeed, you don’t need to exert yourself one bit to roll these out, and the attachment gets the dough much thinner and more even than doing it by hand (that said, you can certainly roll it out by hand too—I recommend doing so between sheets of parchment or waxed paper so you can get it super thin).
Spritz the whole sheet lightly with water (or brush on a very thin layer) and sprinkle the flake sea salt (the water will help it stick to the surface better than oil). I have a very fine mist spray bottle I always keep on hand, clean and empty, mostly for food styling but also for uses such as this.
Then you bake! You could cut them into squares or whatever if you wanted first, but I found baking them in whole sheets to be the most efficient.
After baking, break up the golden brown, crispy sheets into beautifully rustic pieces. I think this method produces much more beautiful crackers than cutting them ahead of time.
When I bake a single loaf of sourdough I end up with about 200 grams of sourdough starter overall (including the starter discarded at the very beginning before I feed it, as well as after the final feeding before the bulk ferment begins). Instead of throwing the discard away at each step in the process, plop it in a container and set it aside, then mix it all together and bake up a batch of these crackers.
If you bake two loaves at once you’ll probably have more starter leftover, in which case you can easily scale this recipe as needed to use up all your discard.
This recipe works with sourdough discard from any step in the process, as long as it is at 100% hydration (fed with equal parts water and flour). Doesn’t matter if your starter uses all whole wheat or a mix of flours, whether it’s been dormant, sitting in the fridge for weeks, or freshly fed and vigorous.
If you don’t have a sourdough starter and you’re looking to begin your sourdough journey (beware, it will consume you!) here are some resources to get you (and your starter) started:
- How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter from Splendid Table/America’s Test Kitchen. I strayed a bit from this process, ultimately developing my starter from entirely all-purpose flour, as whenever I tried to use whole wheat the whole thing went south. But the process is still the same no matter what flour you use.
- 7 Easy Steps To Making An Incredible Sourdough Starter From Scratch from The Perfect Loaf (I also really like his Beginner Sourdough Bread recipe, it’s the process I’ve been using since last fall, and Jane seems to like it much better than the Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast method.)
- If you’re a see-then-do kind of baker, Baker Bettie’s Sourdough Club on Instagram is a great resource. Start here to begin your starter, then follow her highlights as she continues through the entire process of developing, feeding, and finally baking with her starter, lovingly called Millie.
- Laura has put together a great post on sourdough bread baking tools and resources (also follow her on instagram for lots of sourdough content including regular appearance by Breadly Cooper, her stellar starter).
- If you’d rather buy a starter and get to baking in days rather than weeks, King Arthur sells a fresh sourdough culture in a jar. Just feed it a few times and you’re ready to bake!
I love the mix of dried herbs and lavender flowers in Herbs de Provence. That said, you could just add some dried rosemary and/or thyme, or mix it up with just about any herb or spice blend you’d like.
I finished my crackers with a sprinkle of flake sea salt, but you could also top it with sesame or poppy or any other kind of seed (um, hello everything bagel seasoning? Heck yes). I have to say, I love these kinds of recipes where the main flavoring element is so incredibly versatile, you could really take it in just about any direction your tastebuds desire.
Sourdough Crackers with Olive Oil & Herbs
Ingredients
- 1 cup / 200 g mature sourdough starter (100% hydration)
- ½ cup / 60 g all-purpose flour
- ½ cup / 60 g whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons / 12 g rye flour*
- 3 tablespoons / 32 g extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon dried herbs de Provence
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- maldon flake salt, for topping
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine sourdough starter with flours, olive oil, herbs and salt. Mix to combine, kneading until the dough comes together in a smooth ball.
- Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
- Position oven racks in the upper 1/3 and lower 1/3 of oven; preheat to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.
- Cut dough in half; put one half back in the fridge while you roll out the other. Cut dough again into 4 smaller pieces.
- Roll out each piece into an oblong rectangle. You can do this with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, or using a pasta roller for super thin crackers. I like to roll my dough out to the #6 thickness setting (out of 8). If you are rolling by hand, just roll it as thin as you possibly can.
- Lay out two oblongs of dough side by side (not overlapping) on each baking sheet.
- Spritz or brush lightly with water; sprinkle with flake salt.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown and crispy, rotating the pans top to bottom and back to front part way through baking.
- Let cool, then transfer crackers to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Crackers will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.
Video
Notes
- While I used a mix of AP, whole wheat, and rye flours, you can use any blend you like so long as the total flour weight stays the same. For example, if you leave out the rye flour just add an additional 12g of whole wheat instead.
These are fabulous! I subbed dried rosemary this time, and only had AP flour (dang Covid) but there will be other variations, because no starter will get tossed ever again!
I had no problem rolling them out on a silpat, and picking them up and moving them to parchment paper. My oven may run cool, or I may not have rolled them as thin – they took about 20 minutes for me. Nice and snappy. And gone!
I’m trying this recipe out right now. I have a very stupid question. The recipe calls to wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Do you wrap just the ball of dough or put the ball in a bowl and wrap the bowl tightly? I’m not sure if the ball is supposed to rise in the fridge. In any case, I’m wrapping the ball of dough itself without the bowl. We’ll see what happens…! 😅
You got it, wrap the ball of dough with plastic wrap. This prevents it from drying out and developing a skin.
I’m a little confused here. What does 1/2 cup( 6 og.) flour mean? Is it 6 ounces ? But by weight that is way more than 1/2 cup. I have been weighing rather than measuring so this amount threw me off. Am I measuring 1/2 cups of two types of flour then weighing 12g of another? I guess I have enough starter to try both ways and see what comes out better.
1/2 cup of flour weights 60 grams. ;)
Hi! I followed your recipe for sourdough discard crackers but the dough is so sticky that I can’t roll it out. I’ve tried flouring my surface and roller, I’ve tried spraying them with oil, and the problem seems to be the dough. Any advice on how to salvage it? Or what I should do differently next time? (It’s been refrigerated for a few hours already–should I maybe try freezing it?)
Just add more flour to the dough until it’s workable. Could be your starter is just much higher hydration or something. More flour should help!
Oh my goodness. These were amazing and so dang easy to make, I even left the dough in the fridge almost 48 hours! Small emergency at home and figured the dough is made what can it hurt. This will be a go to especially for special family gatherings!
I just made my first batch and they were easy to make and taste great. I am addicted to them already.
I love this recipe, weeks go by too fast and my “Munster” (sourdough starter nicknamed by my husband) needs feeding, this recipe is awesome easy to roll and very tasty, Thanks
Hi new to sourdough , not sure what when you use the discarded starter? Do I use it like I would for bread… feed it and after 5 hours on counter and 18-24 in fridge then put it in pancake recipe?
Thanks
Nina
For this recipe you can use starter at any stage in the process, no matter if it is freshly fed or has been in the fridge for a week.
Made these today for the first time and it definitely won’t be the last! I made a double batch and because they’re so addictive, I know they won’t last long with our family of six. Thanks for the awesome use of sourdough discard, L!
Made these for the first time. next time i will use my ravioli gadget. very happy with the end result. will try some other spices next time.
Hi, I have just started making my sourdough starter yesterday morning and I already have a huge jar of discards. Are they too “young” to be used for the crackers?
Nope, baby starter is just fine! The flavor won’t be quite as strong but the crackers will be plenty tasty!
HOLY HANNAH, these were amazing. I super-charged them with dried rosemary and thyme and the whole house is now celebrating. Thank you!
Excellent recipe. Artisanal style crackers are very expensive to buy and these are just as good if not better, and are a fraction of the cost.
I have made other sourdough cracker recipes but something was not quite right. This recipe is exactly what I’ve been looking for – delicious and light, easy to make.
Hi! How long is the shelf life of these crackers?
Store in an airtight bag or container and they’ll easily keep for a few weeks (though I’ve never had a batch last that long, lol).
Thanks for sharing this recipe! It’s super easy makes crunchy, tasty crackers. I’ve been looking for ways to use up my sourdough starter discard. This is a perfect way!
I love this recipe! I make these all the time now. The favourite seems to be the smoked paprika, powdered garlic, onion, chili, with an extra sprinkling of chili flakes and sea salt on top. Also a winner is grated parmesan ( I just use cupboard stored) and powdered garlic, onion, sea salt. Any combination of seasonings that you like, will work. I’ve oven dried tomatoes and bell peppers. Finely chopped and added to powdered garlic, onion, parmesan combo for a pizza taste. Just experiment! You were throwing the discard out anyway! What do you have to lose!
Worst case, you eat them with dip.
I roll out as thin as I can with a rolling pin between parchment paper then cut out (imprint) triangles with my bench scraper while still on the parchment paper. Then when they come out of the oven and cool, they easily snap into their shapes.
My friends get the pretty triangles and I keep the odd shapes from around the edges. It all tastes the same deliciousness, plus they think I’m a fancy baker!
Also one of my friends puts what he hasn’t eaten in the freezer and keeps them for another time. I haven’t tried this yet I find they store well (about 2 weeks) in a sealed container in the pantry.
what a brilliant tip about marking them. I break massive chunks off and they go in seconds!
Next time I will up my game and add chilli and anything else that takes my fancy
Adrienne
These crackers are wonderful! So light and had a great flavor. I will never discard starter again.
These are SOOO good! I used rosemary and thyme, and sprinkled with the sea salt. I love them plain; without feeling like I need any dips. Easy to rollout, too. Definitely will make again. GREAT way to use up starter!
These are excellent. Love the flavor and the texture. I’ve tried other recipes for crackers using discarded starter and this is the best one so far. The baked crackers are thin and crunchy. I brushed half of the rolled dough with olive oil, and spritzed the other half with water. Some of the crackers that were spritzed with water got airy pockets in them, like mini pitas. The dough is easy to work with and forgiving. Mine was in the fridge for several days before I made the crackers. I subbed a Za’Atar mix for the salt flakes to sprinkle on top of the rolled dough.
What a great recipe! Thank you so much, I’ve been looking for a good cracker recipe, AND I can use my sourdough starter ‘discard’. Using the pasta machine makes it soooo easy.
Finally, the taste is awesome, crumbles in the mouth, these will definitely become a regular in our kitchen!
Just made my first batch! And, YUMMY!
Crispy, lovely bubbles… the pasta roller is genius!
Thank you!
I’ve been making these for the past month with great success. I omit the herbs, and add garlic granules and parmesan cheese instead. I can’t keep up with family demand. Thank you for sharing.
I did make them but just used fine sea salt because I did’t have any Maldons Flake Salt. I will be ordering some now. Here I have been throwing much of my excess starter away but not anymore…..these are fantastic and so easy to make and the Herb de Provence makes it all that much better.
Instead of sourdough crackers, I got sourdough pillows. Do you suppose that’s because I scored them before baking?
Next time you could try docking them a bit with a fork, which should keep it from bubbling too much!
The crackers are so good. Thank you. Do you know the nutritional value and calories for one cracker? Thanks!
Sorry, I haven’t calculated nutritional information. You could try a calculator like myfitnesspal to get a general idea though.
I think it really was just thin-ness, that and it crisped up a little more as it cooled. This is in my standard sourdough cooking rotation now and I’m excited to get better at it!
Thanks so much for this recipe! Love not annoyingly cutting out all the individual crackers.
I use half whole wheat and half whole rye flour. Rolled it flat between paper as I don’t have a pasta roller – even if I cook until the edges are burned, the middle seems to stay soft. Do you know if I have to include the all-purpose to make them crisp, or if I’m doing something else wrong?
I’m also letting it sit with a wet towel on it instead of plastic wrap, maybe I’m making the dough too wet. Still very delicious and I make these all the time, just want to learn what I’m doing wrong!
It could be that you aren’t rolling them thin enough – if the middles were thicker and the edges thinner I could see how they could bake like this. Next time try rolling them thinner, focusing on the center of the dough (the edges will take care of themselves). And maybe skip the wet towel too? Let me know how it goes!
This is a genius recipe, a great way to use up excess sourdough starter and the crackers are really good. Thanks for sharing!
Love this recipe. I did all purpose flour and rye with no whole wheat. Used semi fresh (almost dry on a water starved plant) thyme for the herb. The pasta roller is genius. I never would have tried it without that. One more great use for sourdough!
I enjoyed this recipe hope to make again I used the everything bagel seasoning n rolled it in so easier o transfer to baking sheet
Great recipe but why do you discard sourdough starter in the first place? I decided early on that it was wasteful and stopped. I now keep only a small amount of starter, feed 50grams flour and water when I take it from the fridge and then 6 or 7 hours later use the levain method for bread. No problems ever with the bread or ever having too much starter.
I usually feed my starter 2-3 times before I bake, since I store it in the refrigerator for weeks at a time. I like to make sure it’s good and active beforehand. Even doing small feedings you do end up with a bit of discard, I just save it all in a separate container from each feeding and then I have enough at the end to make a batch of these. :) Honestly, these crackers are so good it’s worth feeding it more than usual just for this reason! :)
I was so excited to find this recipe as I’ve been throwing lots of sourdough starter away. I can’t for the life of me, however, figure out how you got the dough to work in the pasta roller. I love my pasta roller and make plenty of noodles, but the dough is so dry, it crumbles to bits. I added extra olive oil but there is no way. I rolled it out by hand and am now baking my first batch. I know they taste good because I’ve been eating the crumbs. Any tips about how to get the dough to work with the pasta roller?
Mine were very dry so I crumbled it up and sprinkled water on them before gathering it together. Worked beautifully and tastes great!
I absolutely love this recipe. I have been making them almost weekly and sharing them with others. I use rolling pin, and found that with this dough it is easy to roll very thin.
I have one problem and that is I tend to put too ugh salt on. I can’t seem to control the flaked salt and it sort of lands in clumps. What method do you use to get just enough? I love the flavor of the flake salt, but too much is pretty intense.
Thanks so much for the recipe!
I’m REALLY new to making sourdough bread, but I’m already disturbed about the amount of starter that gets composted or thrown away. These crackers sound amazing and I’d love to make them, but don’t understand the whole hydration concept. My levin recipe calls for a total of 100g flour, 90g water, and 20g starter. How do I calculate the hydration of this?
The math kind of confuses me as well, but it’s basically the % of water compared to flour. So yours is 90% hydration (100% would be 100g of water to 100g of flour). The 10% difference shouldn’t really affect this recipe in a noticeable way, I think you should be fine!
Thèse crackers are a hit! I am experimenting with sourdough and find using the discard an important element to healthy eco minded living. I added freshly grated parmesan cheese to the recipe and they were gobbled up. I don’t think I will ever buy crackers again! Thank you.
Amazing recipe. Thank you for sharing
Do you think these could be frozen? It’s just a wonderful dough to work with and I was so impressed that it does not stick to the pasta rollers. I used #5 on my older pasta machine which has 6 settings. Turned out great! Thanks.
Frozen before or after baking? Either should work in theory, though I haven’t tried myself so can’t say how crispy they’d stay after thawing. if you try it let me know how it turns out!
Hi Lindsay, just wondering if I can use sourdough discard which is a week old or do you use the remaining left over from your fresh starter? Thank you
Definitely! You can use any reasonably active starter (so if it’s been chilling for a month you may want to feed it once or twice first). Otherwise age doesn’t matter. ;)
I have just made my first batch and am delighted with the thin, crisp result. My earlier attempt at sourdough crackers with a different recipe had yielded tasty tiny sour dough pillow – not quite what I had hoped for. I will definitely be making this recipe again and experimenting with the flavours
Love these so much! I now make them weekly. I change up the seasonings, our favorite is chili lime. So Addicting!!
Thanks for the recipe.
Finally got around to making crackers with my rye sourdough discard, and this recipe worked perfectly! At first I thought the dough might be too dry but it came together and was simple to work with. Don’t have a pasta machine so simply rolled it out between parchment paper using rolling pin. Used Italian herb mix and subbed chili flavored olive oil. Love how tangy, spicy and crunchy the crackers are. Thanks again for this great recipe.
When you rolled it on parchment, did you bake it on that same paper? I’m making this today and would appreciate any tips. Thank you
Hey Gina! I bake it on the same parchment paper that I used for roll out. it makes the transfer to a baking pan easier!
I’ve only had my sourdough starter around 6 weeks now and have already made these 3 times. They are amazing!
I’ve had an unused pasta machine in my pantry for a long, long time and finally pulled it out to make these. Can only get to a 5 thickness with mine, which is perfect. There is some skill needed to prevent folds in the crackers as you roll it out and put on the pan but it’s easy to acquire the technique. I like mine just slightly golden.
They are great to bring to a party with Brie and fig jam.
Cook time definitely too long for the thickness recommended. We tried one at a 4 instead of 6 and baked for 15 mins. Definitely overdone. Trying a #6 now at 300°f.
There are lots of variables that could affect cook time, including your specific pasta maker (your #6 setting might be different than mine), oven, baking sheets, parchment vs silpat, etc. Since the crackers are very thin even a slight variance might result in them getting overdone.
What a great idea and so easy. Thank you taste so good!
These are fantastic! Like another comment or, I’m not sure why I didn’t think to use the pasta roller for my previous crackers either. Thank you for the tip and the delicious recipe! I’m already making my second batch. Big hit!! Thank you!
Cool! I need to try that.
I can’t tell you how MUCH we love this recipe !!! I saw it on Perfect Sourdough when someone credited you with this link and a picture of their crackers. I gave up long ago trying to make SD discard crackers because of the tedious rolling and cutting. Voila ! Why I never thought of this method I don’t know but it is amazing. I used my rye levain and fed it up to make enough to do a 1/2 batch just to try it out. Success. I have more rye starter growing now. I have to say the freshly fermented starter makes amazing crackers. My other experiment is my Apple Yeast Water starter is growing as I write and I will be making cinnamon-sugar spiced crackers for my granddaughter !! I plan to follow your original formula with the addition of a bit of sugar in the dough. I will then mist with water and dust with cinnamon sugar. Will let you know how they do tomorrow. Next will be adding cheese…you have created a cracker monster :) c
So glad you enjoyed these as much as we did!! Cracker monster, lol, love it! :)
I just loved it, I’m not only going to give it 5 stars. But, I’m going to share it with all my website’s followers on the social media. Thank you for giving me something useful to share it today!
Ohhh, thank you so much for sharing this recipe! It looks so delicious! Gonna make it tomorrow in the evening! :D