Should we take a break from baking bread for a bit? How about just one entry… Trust me, it will be worth it when you try one of my top 3 leftover sourdough starter recipes below. Plus, it’s still considered baking if we’re using a starter in a roundabout way, right? This post presents a few ways to utilize our excess sourdough starter discarded at each feeding (refreshment).
Since I feed my sourdough starter twice daily, I usually have an excess of starter in the morning and evening. Many see this excess as “waste,” but it can be used for many things besides going into your compost bin. After all, this waste can be seen as food for our starter so it can continue living.
The following recipes are tried and true here in my kitchen. I’ve made the waffles and pancakes so many weekends the process has become ritualistic: mix the batter the night before to ferment overnight, wake and finish mixing, and then get cooking.
My previously outlined schedule for creating a sourdough starter and my guide on maintaining a sourdough starter will work well with any of the following recipes, ensuring you have enough starter each day to meet the requirements. Note that you might have to adjust the hydration of the recipes below to suit your sourdough starter. If you maintain a stiffer starter (60-75% hydration), you might have to add more liquid until the consistency of the batter is typical for what you’re making.
My Best Sourdough Waffles
Lengthy fermentation time makes my best sourdough waffles impossibly light, crunchy, and slightly tangy. In addition to the wonderful flavor, because the flour is fermented for several hours, the entire batter becomes aerated, resulting in a waffle that will surprise you on your first bite. They have just the right ratio of sweet to savory, with a slight but noticeable tang at the end.
I made these recently on a snowy day here in Albuquerque, which fits perfectly with warm waffles. Arya, our German shepherd, wanted to go outside to do some hiking and investigating in the snow. It’s funny to watch shepherds outside when it snows: they run around eating the snow, digging here and there, and generally creating a little storm of their own.
As adults (maybe it’s just me?), we’re hesitant to get dirty and make a mess; sometimes, it’s great to see kids or your pets throw all that aside and care only about the moment. Thankfully, a batch of sourdough starter waffle batter was fermented and ready to hit the iron.
If you have sourdough starter discard ready, try these waffles, you’ll love them!
Sourdough Starter Pancakes
Pancakes are one of my favorite breakfast indulgences. I have memories as a child waking up to the upstairs kitchen (yes, strangely, our kitchen was upstairs, and all the bedrooms were downstairs—that’s the 50s for you) smelling like batter and butter. Fresh fruit to the top was always a staple, as was good maple syrup. I’m not a diehard maple syrup, but really, anything less than 100% maple syrup is kind of a letdown for these beautiful sourdough pancakes.
These can be made quickly and easily on a whim; you need very little pre-planning to make these happen (isn’t that usually the case on late Sunday mornings?). I’ve used this core recipe a dozen different ways based on the season: pureed pumpkin mixed in during November, fresh blueberries tossed into the batter during the summer, and ricotta added in at, well, any time of the year. If you’ve made pancakes before, you know just how versatile they can be.
I like to use a smoking hot griddle to cook pancakes; it makes a huge difference in the quality of your pancakes. If you don’t have one, you can pick up a cast iron griddle for relatively cheap, and it’ll last a lifetime.
Baker’s Banana Bread
Banana bread is something I had at least once a month growing up. A family of four always seems to have excess bananas on hand, you know, those in the kitchen that are so black and mushy no one ever touches them. Well, these are the bananas you want to use for this banana bread!
This banana bread could easily become zucchini bread by swapping out the bananas (or you can keep them) with grated and pressed zucchini (after you grate the zucchini into fine little strands, press them between two paper towels to extract some of the moisture out).
What I love most about this banana bread is that the ingredients are flexible and include items I always have on hand—a baker’s banana bread, if you will.
What’s Next?
So there you have it, my top 3 leftover sourdough starter recipes. If you get into a good rhythm, and with little extra planning, you can make a superb breakfast each weekend (or weekday if you go late).
Breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day, and with the recipes above, it’s just that much better. While not technically a breakfast food, banana bread is perfect in the morning with a cappuccino or pour-over.
For more, see my roundup of sourdough starter discard recipes.
716 Comments
Hi Maurizio, Love your site!! Made the pancakes this morning. Delicious!!! Giant improvement over my old, worn out, very customized recipe based on Ruth Allman’s Alaska Sourdough Pancake Recipe. I changed 2 items in your recipe: I have 2 starters, both 100% hydration. One is KA all purpose flour, the other is 50/50 KA AP and KA white whole wheat. Both weigh 240 gm for 1 cup, therefore 1 1/2 cups would be 360 gm. My generic all purpose flour (nothing fancy) weighs 192 gm for 1 1/5 cups. Pancakes are pretty forgiving; however, the purist in me wants to know if there is a better way to make this change? Any advice is appreciated.
Glad to hear that, Suzanne! I weighed out my starter for these recipes and I do imagine there might be some variance, but it actually should be pretty close. I’m surprised you’re seeing such a large difference there between those two types of starters. My end recommendation would be to just go with what you have, like you said, pancakes are incredibly forgiving and either of those should work just fine!
I am in the middle of making the waffle recipe and I noticed in the morning you say to sift the salt and baking soda on top of the batter. But no where on the ingredients does it say baking soda. So I don’t know how much!!
Yes, baking soda is listed in the ingredient list for the waffles! It calls for 3g (1/2 teaspoon) baking soda.
BEST pancakes I’ve ever made! I used buttermilk and brown sugar, so I left out the baking powder since I’d increased the acidity, and they turned out wonderfully! Fluffy, tender, and packed full of flavor, thank you for the great recipe!
Glad to hear that, Lauren! I make those (or waffles) about every weekend — totally a ritual. Enjoy!
I only feed my starter once a day in the morning. Do you think I could mix this up in the morning, let it sit in the fridge, and take it out before bed? If I do, should I reduce the amount of starter to increase fermentation time?
Thank you for all the information on your website! My starter is about a month old, and I started baking bread a few days ago. Thanks to you, all my loaves have been delicious!
Yes you could do that, and I would reduce the amount of starter used. If you’re using baking soda or powder I’d hold that back and mix that in right before making them (so it’s still active)!
Hi Maurizio, thank you for this wealth of information. IS it possible to substitute whole milk for 1% mixed with cream? Thanks
That should work just fine!
Just finished this waffle recipe! AMAZING! Halved it, used whey instead of buttermilk, doubled the eggs (so 2 eggs for half the recipe). It’s ridiculous how good it is. Is it sad that my best results so far are using the discard!? 😜
Hah! Not sad at all, using the discard is almost just as good as baking itself 🙂
I was super excited to try this banana bread recipe with my discard today! I followed the directions to a T but, while super tasty, my bread came out really dense. Any suggestions?
Be sure your baking soda is not expired! You could also try using 100% white flour and see how the result turns out, it should be a bit more open.
I used a very similar recipe to yours to make sourdough waffles for dinner tonight. They were very tasty (in spite of my waffle iron really needing replacement), but there are only 2 of us and far more waffle batter than we can eat. We’ve agreed to have chicken & waffles tomorrow night & then I will make some to store in the freezer – but I’m fairly certain there will still be more batter than we would ever consume in frozen waffles. So my question is this: Can you make bread or something else using waffle batter? Have you tried anything like this? I may just have to experiment, but I thought I’d ask around and see what I can learn first.
I haven’t tried that! What I do instead is use all the batter and then freeze the pancakes or waffles. Then when I want one sometime later, I just reheat in the toaster and they’re like fresh made — but any time!
For the overnight method for the pancakes, will day 3 starter discard work or do I need to wait longer? Also is it okay to leave it on the counter overnight even with the milk?
Same question! Also, for the overnight pancakes, when would you add the yogurt?
I ended up leaving it out overnight, I think the sugar added makes it okay! I added the yogurt in the next morning and they turned out SO GOOD!!
I usually keep anything that can spoil in the fridge! Theoretically it should be fine, really, but just to be safe 🙂
For the banana bread, can the discard come straight from the fridge and baked from there? Or does it need to sit to come to room temp?
Hi, Mauricio. I have the waffle batter on my table ready to go! Fingers crossed. My question is about maintaining my starter. I have 1/2 cup remaining in the fridge and will use it to make bread over the weekend. Is the act of making the overnight sponge, and removing a portion of it to reserve in the fridge, the same as “feeding” it? If I want to also use some in other recipes (for example, bagels), do I just use a portion of what was removed from the sponge to do so? Is this considered “fed” starter? And is “fed” the same as “active”? Sorry for so many questions, just trying to understand how to manage the starter for use. Thanks!
Fed starter is when you add flour and water to the reserved portion of the starter after taking out what you are discarding or using.
As @disqus_QeGs5eI6sI:disqus said below, “fed” refers to the point after which you’ve already discarded or used some to bake with or make a levain.
Straight from fridge!
The banana bread was truly outstanding. Soft and moist on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside. There are more ingredients in your recipe than other banana bread recipes; that may be part of the reason why it was SO good. Thank you!
I must try it then!
A little extra work, but worth it — thanks for the feedback Caroline!
Thank you! Just made banana bread MUFFINS without nuts. I baked them for 23 minutes at 350 degrees. It made 17 muffins & I filled the muffin cups pretty full (maybe 3/4) since they don’t rise too much.
Great idea and I keep meaning to try this! Next time, it’s on.
I would like to make the banana bread using a rye starter discard. It’s thicker than my regular sourdough starter. Should I just add more water to it?
Yes, I’d add more liquid to the batter as necessary.
Maurizio – Your banana bread is amazing! Never had it with lemon zest and it’s like the “secret ingredient”! In fact, all of your recipes are amazing. I’ve been baking sourdough for about 1-1/2 years, and I’ve made many fab recipes from your site. Thank you so much for all your efforts in keeping up this site – really improved my baking.
Regarding the banana bread – do you think you could post the weight of mashed bananas? I was surprised not to see it, considering the usual precision with which you post everything else. The size of the bananas I have access to lately have varied quite significantly in size, and so I’d like to have something to aim for with the banana bread (the bottom 1/3 or so of my loaf was underdone, even though I baked for something like 70 mins – but I used three huge bananas, so I’m sure I had too much moisture there; I also almost-veganized the recipe but for the honey, so those subs could have impacted as well). I’d like to try it again!
Thanks so much for the feedback, Val!
Yes, I’ll work on that. The reason I didn’t is because it’s so variable and I’ve found that any weight is really fine in the end (as long as it’s not drastically over).
These pancakes are the absolute BOMB!
Glad to hear that, Evan!
Ugh I tried the waffles with homemade buttermilk (milk+ apple vinegar) and I probably did it all wrong because my overnight batter is more on the runny side rather than pancake batter. If they don´t work out tomorrow I´ll try again next week BUT I did the pancakes a few days ago and they were heavenly so thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge Maurizio. While I´m at it, sourdough newbie here. Today I baked my first sourdough bread using your weekday schedule and I was expecting an absolute catastrophe, they looked ugly but they tasted great (way more sour than I was expecting) so I´ll keep trying and hopefully improving. Thanks for all the info! I will support you as soon as I figure out how Paypal works but thanks for the great quarantine distraction and new skill
Mayra — if the batter is too thin, add more flour in the morning until it’s to the consistency you’re looking for. Glad to hear the pancakes worked out well fo you! Keep at it, all of these things do take some practice, but right now is the perfect time 🙂 Have fun!
Forgot to reply sooner lol but I ended up adding a little bit of flour before letting it rest overnight and it worked great! I had a lot of waffles left so I delivered some to my best friend and some discard that she used for crepes 😀 I love feeling like my new hobby is at least enjoyed by more people than me (and my cravings) <3
If I am feeding once a day, I’ll have discard once a day. Can you save your discard or should you use it in a recipe
that day? Thanks!!
I save it up in the fridge for at most one week, then use all the discard on the weekend for one of these (or more) items 🙂
Discard also makes great gifts for friends and family who want to try making sourdough.
Going to be pulling the banana bread out of the oven shortly. Thank you for the amount of effort and attention you put into this site. I hope you and your loved ones are well! I’ve taken this time at home to start baking for others in our community – being careful not to touch anything that comes out of the oven, of course. It’s been so well received. A loaf of sourdough can really lift people’s spirits.
My wife and I often just discard the starter straight into a hot cast iron skillet over medium heat with plenty of good olive oil, being careful not to deflate the mature starter. Let it sit for 3-5 minutes, top with sesame seeds and diced chives, drizzle some more olive oil and flip. After 3-5 more minutes, we remove it, spread on some smashed avocado, cut it in half, and top each half with and an over-easy egg. Choose your favorite hot sauce if you like. The pancake is super crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Best savory pancake yet. We haven’t tried yours yet, though 😉
Thanks Ted and you’re welcome! You’re right, a little gift like this means a huge deal these days, especially knowing the effort it takes to share a consumable. And, well, bread is awesome 🙂
I don’t think it could be easier than that, great idea! I also like the idea of maybe pouring that in a ring mold on the skillet… crumpets anyone? I’ll have to give that a try.
Thanks for the comments and wishing you good health!
I love this idea, I’m going to have to try that. I feel awful throwing away so much of my discard – especially since flour is so hard to get right now.
May I ask will u combine the Retard sourdough starter From morning and afternoon for these recipe?
I’m not sure I understand your question!
So it will be death by waffles then – but oh my, what a way to go!! This was my first attempt at making waffles – I’m not much for sweets in the morning, but these waffles are just irresistable, and I mean that literally!! I’ve made them twice this week!! I love the tart sourdough flavor and how you can eat them sweet or savory. The fluffy, airy, crispy texture!! I changed the recipe by using 2 cups greek yogurt in place of the buttermilk, this created a super thick batter, so I used about 2 cups water the first time to thin it out to resemble pancake batter as the recipe stated. In the morning I also added fresh fermented kefir to thin again. The second time I made them, I used kefir instead of water, let them sit on the counter most of the day, popped it in the fridge overnight, let it temp in the morning and finished the recipe. HEAVEN!! The kefir added more tartness and a velvety texture to the batter – when you fold in the eggwhites, magic happens. Thank goodness I have plenty of takers to gobble them as fast as I can make them, otherwise there would be no self-control!!
I certainly eat more of these than planned when I make them, glad to hear you’re in the same boat! I love your modifications, I used to keep kefir grains here and wish I still did because that would be wonderful. Thanks for sharing all that, Suzanne!
Just made the banana bread but used some canned pumpkin instead of banana. Added some cinnamon and ginger and used ½ stick of butter, ½ a/p flour and ½ local whole wheat. It’s really good! Tender and light.
Oh…and some grated orange peel!
Yikes that sounds incredible — pumpkin, I would have never thought to do that. What a great idea!
Uhhh we have plenty of that. Will need to try when we run out of bananas!!!!
Hi Kim, that’s sounds delicious! How much canned pumpkin did you use? Thanks
Sorry-I thought I had replied to your question. I used what I guessed the amount of bananas to be.
Kim, how much pumpkin did you use please? And, otherwise, did you follow the recipe exactly, other than your ingreds. listed here?
I used what I guessed the amount of bananas to be–about half to ⅔ of the can and all other ingredients the same except for adding some grated orange peel.
Hey Maurizio – LOVE your banana bread recipe! Never had it with the lemon zest, it’s like the “secret ingredient” that just takes it over the top. I had an issue with the bottom of my loaf coming out dense and under-baked, after baking it for about 70 mins (it wasn’t done at 55, or even 65 mins). I used 3 very large bananas, so
I just removed the most wonderful smelling walnut banana bread from the oven. I haven’t tasted it yet but it will be fantastic. I used your recipe for the sourdough waffles this morning and they were delicious. The day before I tried the sourdough pancakes but my black iron pan was too hot. I burnt the first few but then oiled the pan and turned it down and they were good also,a little dark but I won’t give up. Next on my list is the weekday sourdough bread. If this comes out as well as the previous three I will be extatic !
Glad these are all working so well for you, Tom! Getting that temperature just right for the pancakes always takes some trial and error in the morning… Best after a cup of coffee and then we can focus 🙂 Thanks for the feedback and enjoy!
Just made these pancakes this morning (as I forgot to start my waffle batter last night) and they were fantastic! Perfectly fluffy with enough structure to stay fluffy once they left the pan like … some sourdough pancakes I have tried deflate almost immediately. This will be my go to recipe for those times i forget to do my overnight fermentation!
Awesome, Jeralyn! Thanks so much for the feedback, happy to hear you liked them. A weekend ritual over here!
Good morning. Just a newbie with the perfect loaf website. I am glad my son pointed me to it. I have a question: I made my first attempt to use the leftover started to make pancake batter. Since the recipe is for a fairly large crowd, can I keep the batter in the fridge and use more of it the next day?
Hey there and welcome! Yes that should work just fine — the only reservation is that the baking soda would have been activated — but I prefer to use up all the batter in one go and then freeze the un-eaten waffles. They heat up perfectly!
I made the banana bread using a mix of whole wheat flour, oat flour, and finger millet (ragi). It was delicious- definitely a bit more sturdy than when I just use AP flour. Everyone in the family loved it–I may never go back to using white flour again!
I usually make it with 100% whole wheat flour — yes it’s a little more dense but so, so flavorful! Thanks for sharing that and happy baking.
Hi Maurizio! Wondering if leaving the banana bread mixture fermenting overnight would work. Let me know! Looking for more breakdown of the flour
Yup, that will work just do like the waffles and pancakes: only combine the liquid, flour, and honey (leave everything else that might spoil in the fridge overnight).
I’ve made all three of these recipes now and all were delicious! I made the banana bread yesterday, a double batch, and added chocolate chips along with the walnuts (because chocolate!)
So good! Perfect with afternoon tea (or morning coffee).
I need to try this with chocolate ASAP. Great idea! Thanks for that, Roslyn. Happy baking 🙂
Haaaaaaaaaaa! Chocolate!!!!
Hello! Is it possible to make the waffles without letting the batter ferment overnight?
Sure, you could certainly do that since the recipe still calls for baking soda for leavening 🙂
Do you think that I could use leftover whey (whey from making paneer or farmer’s cheese) in place of buttermilk in waffles or whole milk in pancakes? Just curious.
I’ve never tried this but it might work. You might have a less flavorful/tender result… It’s worth an experiment!
Hi, I was wondering if you really have to discard part of the starter at each feed or if you can just add up flour and water? Of course then the ratio of mature starter and fresh flourwater isn’t the same. Do you think it’s a problem? Then, when I want to bake I can use part of the starter to put directly in my dough, what do you think?
Some bakers add for several days before using a portion of their starter, but at some point you do have to discard (or you’d end up with a massive starter!). You can use your mature starter directly in a dough instead of making a levain, yes!
Hi! Made these today for the first time. Figuring out the right temperature of the griddle. Once it got too hot the pancakes browned before the inside had cooked through. But the ones that were done at the right temperature were amazing. Best pancakes I have ever made, super fluffy. Thank you! I have a question: this recipe makes more batter than my two small kids and I can eat (crazy husband doesn’t eat breakfast). Would you save the batter and cook more tomorrow OR cook the pancakes now and reheat them later for eating? Leaning towards saving the batter for fresher tasting pancakes, but unsure if this is a bad idea. Next time I’ll just half the recipe.
Finding the right temp for the griddle is always a process upfront… Once you dial it in, keep that production line going! As they say, no time to eat for the cook until all the batter is used 🙂
I would do as I always do: make them all in one go and then reheat them in the toaster (yes the toaster) the next day. I make a double batch and freeze the extras, then I take one out of the freezer, place it in the toaster, and it comes out like I had just made them. Convenient!
Thank you! I ended up saving half the batter for cooking the next day. As you might suspect they were not as good as the first batch. BUT…they were not bad. A little more sour and not as fluffy, but we still enjoyed them quite a bit. It’s good to know the cooked pancakes freeze well. Next time I will follow your advice and cook the whole batch and freeze them. I’m always happy to have ready to go breakfast options I can just pop in the toaster.
Hey Maurizio! We made savory pancakes yesterday for dinner… They were SO good. We made them quite big, as in dinner-plate sized, so they were more Dosa style, which we ate with sauteed carrot, onion, cabbage and sweet potatoes, with some atchar. I made an overnight version, except I mixed the batter in the morning, and then just before dinner added in the baking soda and powder (omitting the vanilla). They were also vegan! I added in flaxseed eggs in the batter in the morning’s mix, and used soya yoghurt, soya milk and olive oil. Worked really well!
That sounds wonderful, Lindsay! I’m going to have to give this a try, I haven’t done savory pancakes. I’ve heard from a few others who have done something similar but I like your additions! Thanks for suggesting this 🙂
I just made the sourdough waffles for my husband (his birthday is today), to complete the trifecta of the three recipes on this page. I can now attest all three recipes are fantastic! And holy moly, the waffle I made today are delicious! I used a mix of 30% whole wheat flour with the rest all purpose flour. I also didn’t have buttermilk, so I substituted with whole milk and white vinegar.
We had them with butter and syrup, but I could easily see these translating savory, topped with some fried ham/bacon and a runny egg. Note to the masses: when it says whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, don’t do this by hand unless you want to spend 30+ minutes rapidly whisking with your whisk! In the future, I’d definitely use my stand mixer or a hand mixer, if you have one. But the work was worth it! I’ll make these again, for sure. And for now, we have a couple extra in the freezer!
Thanks for another great recipe, Maurizio!
Glad to hear this, Laura! Happy you like all three, also — they’re used so heavily here, and I like to change the additions/toppings as the seasons change. Savory waffles would be wonderful.
I do actually whisk the egg whites by hand! I use a large whisk and go to town. Takes me only a few minutes 🙂 But! A machine would do it even faster.
Enjoy and thanks for the comments!
Amazing waffles! After 40 years of marriage, my husband decided he wanted a waffle maker. With a few months of experimenting, he was sure he had the perfect waffle recipe.
So I was a little hesitant to try this out, but oh my! these were great. They were so light and airy inside and so crispy . The mild sourdough flavor was a hit— no need for butter or syrup, just a few blueberries, maybe.
Guess this set the new standard for our waffles. Thanks for the recipe.
Wow, that’s huge praise — thank you! Yes, I love that slight sour tang that comes through, it’s a nice flavor enhancer. Happy you liked them and thanks for the comments!