How to Make Sourdough Crackers. (BBQ! Garlic Herb! Plain!)
Sourdough crackers are easily our family’s new favorite thing.
And if you’re like the rest of the world and have made a sourdough starter while in quarantine, I’m here to tell you what to do with the leftovers!
Because I can’t help when it comes to baking bread. But I CAN help with other sourdough recipes that use the leftover starter. Promise I’m good for something.
That’s why I’m bringing you this bonus recipe today.
Okay so disclaimer – I essentially know nothing about sourdough. I started my starter 19 days ago. Started my starter! Ha!
It didn’t even really start doing much until day 14ish. But it did smell good and sourdoughy by day five (or even earlier), so I started using the part you discard for other recipes. If you want to make your own sourdough starter (which is literally just flour + water), you can see how to do it here.
Every day (sometimes twice a day) when you feed the sourdough starter, you discard half. It seems so wasteful but pretty much has to be done, so I started googling what I could do with the discard.
Crackers were the first thing I made (I’ve since done waffles, pancakes and pizza dough!) and we got hooked on them FAST.
The flavor is so good.
The texture is so crisp! You can season them however you’d like. You can eat them with ALL THE DIPS.
And since so many people are trying to start a sourdough starter right now, I figured I’d share the favorite cracker flavor we’ve made so far: BBQ!
You can find the plain and garlic herb variations below. These are so ridiculously easy you won’t believe it.
The BBQ flavor? This was all Eddie’s idea. I made a few plain cracker versions (see the pic below!) and a garlic herb one too. After about four days of that he was like… um, can you make a BBQ one? Like BBQ potato chips?
I was sold on the idea.
Especially because the first time he tasted these crackers, he said he thought they tasted like pringles! That warms my ever loving 90s heart.
P.S. I cannot tell you why some of the crackers are super bubbly while others are not. But I don’t poke my dough with a fork. Maybe it’s the strength of the starter? I absolutely love the crisp texture and little bubbles.
I used the mix of seasonings that I’ve used for years to create a BBQ-ish flavor: smoked paprika, brown sugar, garlic powder, salt and pepper. We LOVE this seasoning. It’s also delicious on grilled chicken or shrimp!
All this cracker dough requires is a little wait time – like 30 minutes. Mix together the ingredients, then wrap up the dough and throw it in the fridge.
Next, roll it out and season it. The bake!
Then break it into delicious, crunchy crackers and try not to eat them all.
Oh and if you need a dip… you should probably make pimento cheese. Sorry! But not.
Sourdough Crackers
Sourdough Crackers
Ingredients
- 1 cup leftover sourdough starter (248 grams)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (113 grams)
- ¼ cup olive oil or melted butter plus more for brushing
- ½ teaspoon salt
- flaked sea salt, for topping
BBQ spice
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
Garlic Herb
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dried herbs like basil, oregano, italian seasoning, etc
Instructions
To make the BBQ crackers or Plain crackers:
- In a large bowl, stir together the starter, flour, oli/butter and salt. Mix until a dough forms, bringing it together with your hands. Knead it a few times until smooth and then wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet (or 2) with parchment paper.
- At this point I separate the cracker dough into two sections - it’s easier to work with this way. Take one piece and place it on a floured workspace. Roll it as thin as you can - the thinner the better, without tearing - like ⅛ inch or thinner. Gently transfer the dough to the parchment paper (or you can actually roll it out on the parchment and transfer the parchment to the sheet!). Brush the top of the dough with olive oil or melted butter. Sprinkle the BBQ seasoning mixture all over the top. If you’re making plain crackers, sprinkle with flaked sea salt.
- Bake the crackers for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for 10 minutes more, or until golden and crisp.
- Let the crackers cool completely before breaking them into pieces. I store these in a resealable bag for a few days. Though the rarely last because we eat them all!
To make the Garlic Herb crackers:
- Follow the exact directions above, but stir the garlic powder and herbs into the dough with the flour. Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with flaked salt.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Once you start, you can’t stop!
46 Comments on “How to Make Sourdough Crackers. (BBQ! Garlic Herb! Plain!)”
Ah I love this! I also started my starter in March! (Actually I think it really may have been 19 days ago, but I can’t be sure because this all seems like one very long quarantine day…) I’ve only made bread twice, the first time was pretty successful and I felt so invincible. Hahaha, until I made my second loaf, which stuck to my lined proofing bowl, and which I then had to literally throw into the oven when my toddler decided to sprint at me with the very hot oven door open. That one was…rough.
But yes, I hate throwing away all that discard when it’s so hard to get flour! I had pizza dough and pancakes, but hadn’t thought to do crackers! Doing it today!!
Maker scallion pancakes with the discard, you’ll want to make them everyday! Also sourdough banana cake, bialys and cinnamon rolls!
These look delish, thank you for sharing! I love your gift guides, any chance you have some Mother’s Day gift ideas while we’re in quarantine?
Thanks!
thanks haley!! xo i may be able to come up with something!
Hey Jess! These look delicious, but I’ve been working with my starter in weight, not volume. Any chance you can weigh your starter the next time you make these crackers for reference? That would be super helpful! (Also looking forward to your other recipes!) Thanks!!!
if you click over to the King Arthur Flour website, they have grams listed! I always work in grams too – they also have a super handy guide of the cups to grams conversion for SO MANY different ingredients on their website. It’s always up in safari on my phone!
thanks stacey!! xo
sure!! i would go with the 113 grams of flour + 248 grams start that king arthur recommends. i’ve been working with my starter in grams too, just to make sure it rises. when i bake bread i’ll definitely be doing grams too! the crackers are a little more forgiving since we don’t need them to rise! :)
Ooh – I’ve been making the KAF version, but I love the idea of your spice blend. Question though – the recipe you linked (which is the one I’ve been using) says 248 grams of starter for 1 cup, but you said to use 113 grams. Is that a typo, or have you been using a lot less?
Thanks!
ah sorry jen!! it is 113 g of flour and 248 g starter – i do not measure by grams for the cracker recipe, but i added it because someone asked. you are right! i changed it up there. :)
Thanks to both of you! I’ll be having to discard/use and feed my starter this afternoon, so I’ll be giving this a shot! I’ll report back with how the 113 grams works! :)
you’re welcome!! also, if you can’t get to 113 grams (i didn’t make a lot of start so i didn’t have that amount at first), i just cut everything in half and it works great – just makes one sheet of crackers!
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I haven’t gotten on the sourdough train but the barbecue seasoning looks amazing.
you gotta try! xo
I will definitely have to try BBQ next! I have done everything bagel seasoning and ranch so far. I have a cinnamon and sugar cracker dough in the fridge waiting to be baked later this afternoon. One trick I found, is my pasta roller works great for getting the crackers rolled out super thin.
Just made this! I used my kitchen scale and weighed the ingredients-I halved the recipe because that’s all the starter I had. It was SO easy to make and that seasoning is awesome, it really does taste like a bbq chip.
I definitely want to get on the sourdough starter train now! Can you even make this with the early days of the starter when nothing observable is happening?
My best friend just delivered some starter to me this evening! Can I just measure out some of that since I don’t have any to “discard” since this is a mature starter?
yes!! are you still planning on feeding the starter? the other option is to take a little bit out of the starter and feed it tonight then use that tomorrow morning to make the crackers :)
yes, I was going to keep feeding it and do so in the morning. Bread looks too intimidating right now. Lol. Thanks so much for the quick reply, Jess!!! 😀
HI :) your weights for AP Flour and Starter are swapped! I’m making these now — thanks for sharing! I know they’ll be great :D
ahhh thanks tiffany i fixed it!! enjoy! let me know how they are :)
Tried this morning, but the dough is really flackery and dry. What could I add? Water?
hi christina – did you measure in cups or grams? i would add a little more olive oil or melted butter and just bring it together with your hands!
I’m interested in trying this recipe. I’ve been using a much simpler one where you use 200g of starter, 2tbsp butter or oil, & some seasoning. Since it is thin you just dump it out and spread it into a rectangle (about the size of a baking sheet). After 10 minutes of baking at 325 you score the “dough” into squares to look more like crackers and then keep baking until they are done. The crackers do come out pretty hard though, but I don’t mind that, although it would be nice to have something not quite as hard, which it seems like yours are. I imagine that the reason for the bubbles is that you are using a more active starter and since you are adding more flour and oil to it the yeast will happily be eating that up. I actually like to put aside 200g of starter and just let it sit on my counter for an extra day, so that it isn’t as active. The BBQ seasoning looks great and I’ll have to give that a try.
I followed your recipe exactly and the crackers definitely are more cracker like than the ones that I make. For me, the BBQ seasoning started to burn at the 18-20 minute mark and I felt like the crackers could have been baked a bit longer (it could also be my old oven that doesn’t bake great!). I wonder how the crackers would turn out if you put the seasoning in the dough instead of on top of it? My kitchen smelled fantastic while I was baking them. I’m going to experiment with another batch where I use 1/2 of the flour and oil and see how those do :).
I wish you wrote all your recipes in metric, too. I really want to make many of them, but I only measure in metric!
PLEASE include all measurements in metric!
Great recipe for use of some starter. Tried them today delicious!! Used everything bagel seasoning. Thank you.
You weren’t kidding! These are so addictive. Thanks for sharing!
Made the crackers and they are so good! I tagged you and posted to my Instagram (@want.and.knead) Decided to change it up a bit and add dark cocoa powder, espresso powder, sugar and a bit of vanilla to the dough. Rolled it out thin and sprinkled in some Demerara sugar and semisweet chocolate chips… OMG!!! Incredible. Now I know what I am doing with the vat of discard I keep in the fridge! Thank you❤️
Ooops! Not Demerara sugar… Turbinado!
I made this and it’s delicious! Did a half batch of bbq and half garlic, might do Parmesan next time or everything bagel? So many options.
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I made these crackers with fresh thyme. After 2-3 days they started rating rancid. What do you think I did wrong and how can I avoid this?
I love the idea of experimenting with the flavor of these crackers. You can really take it in any direction that appeals to you. I have made one jalapeno batch with jalapeno powder, a touch of garlic, and sea salt. I made a second batch garlic and Italian herb. Both fantastic. I add the seasoning to the dough and a bit sprinkled on top before baking as well. Tomorrow I’m gonna try the sweet variation that Susan posted a few weeks ago. My other favorite recipe to use my sourdough discard is King Arthur’s Sourdough English Muffins.
I have made these crackers a half dozen times now and we can’t get enough!! So addictive!
This last time I added some ranch spice into the dough and then topped them with garlic, parsley and basil. And one with Parmesan cheese..all were delicious!!
Thank you for this great recipe
On our second batch of these in a week. So incredibly delicious. Longtime follower of this blog and this recipe doesn’t disappoint!
Crackers turned out great. Not sold on the barbeque flavor. Maybe a bit more sugar.
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I only had whole wheat flour today and made the recipe just fine. Don’t despair if you’re out of AP.
Thank you for this fabulous recipe :) My previous discard recipes (pancakes and crumpets) were ok but not a patch on these crackers. I included the flavours, half garlic (I use fresh) and herbs, half paprika etc in the mix rather than put them on top. I separated the mix once the basics were together to flavour each half and gave them a bit of a knead in my mixer, just a few minutes. I didn’t brush the tops with oil or butter, I forgot! Each half filled two of my biggest pans, your advice to roll them as thin as possible was really helpful. They cooked a bit quicker, in about 12 minutes but I know all ovens differ. I cut them, once rolled direct on to the parchment, to make them neat, not needed at all I know but they look like I bought them! I will make them just like this again and look forward to having them with cheese & houmous. The smells…oh my word!
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It’s hard to believe you made such amazing crackers having such little experience (going by your 19 day comment) with sourdough! I’ve been using the same recipe for ages (basic dough, crackers are great because there are a million ways to flavor them) and I tried yours and will never go back! Your dough even supports the addition of several different cheeses and goes well with every mix of things I’ve added. Great job and thanks for sharing. I can only assume your adventures in SD bread will be awesome! Happy baking!
Thank you so much for this, it has made me a superstar with friends and family. This was the fifth recipe I tried for crackers and the only one I will keep and make consistently. I love that you can improvise on it as well. Thank you so very much cheers to you and all you do! Kimberly
These turned out great! Thanks for the recipe. :)