Sourdough for Beginners, Part Two

Catch up on Sourdough for Beginners, Part One here.

Day 4- Using the Starter in Sourdough Crepes

This is the beginning of the rest of your starter’s life. Have you named it yet?? You need to. It’s a contributing member of your family now.

Meet Brunehilde! She has been a member of our family for years… let’s just say it was a while before making your own sourdough bread rose to popularity during the recent pandemic. Brunie has traveled with me a lot, so she has wild yeast contributions from San Francisco, Las Vegas, Muskogee, and more. Yes, different regions have different types of wild yeast in the environment, so they definitely do impart different flavor profiles.

She is a workhorse and sometimes a temperamental diva, but Brunie always does everything I ever have need of, whether it be a Poilâne style whole-wheat country miche loaf, a San Francisco style boule, crepes, brownies, or anything you can think of.

Using Your Sourdough Starter

If you’ve maintained your starter as directed up to this point, then you’ll have approximately 400 grams of a wonderfully bubbly microbiome in your jar. So now, as you can imagine, all your sourdough dreams are possible from this point on.

Here’s the drill: You’ve got to take some to make room, then give back by re-feeding. Sometimes you’ll have more than you need. Some days you might not have nearly enough. Everything will be fine!

We will do a few different posts to try and encounter a couple different scenarios. So, for Day 2, let’s go easy on you. Two questions for you. Have you ever heard the term “Sourdough Discard?” Also, do you enjoy crepes?

Sourdough Discard

The basic meaning of “sourdough discard” is that you’ve got your starter, and you need to take some out before you can feed it. But you don’t want to waste that sourdough, do you? It’s not going to be super active because it hasn’t been fed yet, but it’s still wonderful and beneficial to not waste. Go ahead and bust out your favorite crepe fillings or toppings, print up this recipe to put on the refrigerator, and let’s get cooking! Sourdough crepes are a wonderful use for your discard. The discard imparts just enough flavor to your recipe without altering the texture. I hope you enjoy these as much as my family and I do.

One Last Thing for Today

I hate to do this to you while you’re enjoying your delicious meal, but you actually have a homework assignment for tomorrow! It’s really simple, I promise.

After you took 1 cup of discard from your starter jar it probably left you a little bit more than 100g waiting to be fed. Tonight, I want you to add 100g of water and 100g of flour. Leave it out on your counter to get happy overnight. Make sure you’ve got a little time to do the next recipe in the morning.

See you tomorrow for Sourdough for Beginners, Part 3!

If you need any refreshers in this sourdough journey, be sure to revisit any of these posts below.

Sourdough for Beginners, Part One ~ This has the basics and benefits of sourdough bread and how to begin.

Sourdough for Beginners, Part Three ~ This post has a ridiculously simple no-work peasant bread recipe

Sourdough for Beginners, Part Four ~ This features a divine pie dough, perfect for all your pastry needs.

Sourdough for Beginners, Part Five- the Final ~ This is part five, the final segment in our Sourdough for Beginners journey. It’s been fun. Be sure to check out the recipe index for additional sourdough recipes in the future.

Sourdough Crepes Recipe