These Sourdough Discard Waffles are fluffy with just a hint of sourdough taste to them. They are a little heartier than regular waffles and are the perfect recipe to use if you have extra sourdough discard.
I’ve Fallen in Love With Sourdough!
If you’ve been following along here this year, you know that I’ve fallen in love with all things sourdough.
Feeding my starter, mixing the dough, shaping the dough, baking the dough, and eating the bread… it’s all been so fun and cathartic. Best of all, it’s a really useful and inexpensive hobby to have. It costs pennies per loaf of bread (because it just takes flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter!) and you get to eat the delicious bread after you make it.
I have been so scared off by sourdough bread for years. It felt so time intensive and scientific and I just was sure I would fail at it miserably. But I found this account called Acts of Sourdough in December and I watched her step-by-step videos (I’m very much a visual learner!) and I was like, “I really think I can do this!”
So I ordered the starter from her and followed the directions. And, get this, my starter started bubbling and then it doubled in size and then it tripled in size! I was so excited that it was actually working and it wasn’t at all as hard as I’d envisioned!
I had set the goal to learn how to make sourdough bread as a yearly goal since I figured it would take me lots of tries to get a good loaf of bread. To my shock, my very first loaf turned out quite beautifully and tasted delicious!
What is Sourdough Discard?
One of the parts of sourdough that is also fun is that every time you feed your starter, you discard some of the starter. (You could choose not to discard it, but it will keep doubling in size and pretty soon you’ll have more starter than you know what to do with!)
I usually take out 25 grams of starter and feed it 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water, and then I put the rest of the starter into a container in the fridge to use as discard in recipes. (You can also do a 1:2:2 ratio. It will usually rise faster this way.) This discard can serve as a leavening agent in recipes and can also help your batter or dough ferment, making it healthier for you and easier for your body to digest.
We love Sourdough Discard Waffles!
One of the very first discard recipes I made was Sourdough Discard Waffles. I took a pancake recipe from Tastes of Lizzy T that had come highly recommended to me by a follower and I remade it into a waffle recipe.
I made the recipe multiple times to get it just right and the end results were so delicious!
Ingredients for Sourdough Waffles
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups sourdough discard
- 3 cups milk
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
NOTE: you could easily make a much smaller batch if you have less discard.
How to Make Sourdough Discard Waffles
1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Add the sourdough discard, milk, eggs, honey, and melted butter to the dry ingredients.
3. Stir together until mixed (batter will still be lumpy — that’s okay!)
4. Ladle batter onto a buttered waffle iron (or onto a griddle if you want to make pancakes).
5. Repeat step 4 until all the batter is used up (you should get between 10-12 waffles from this).
Yummy Toppings for Sourdough Waffles
These waffles taste great with just a little butter and syrup, but feel free to add extra toppings for special occasions (or just because!)
- Whipped cream
- Whipped honey butter
- Fresh berries
- Powdered sugar
- Cinnamon sugar or Cinnamon powder
- Your favorite jam or jelly
- Sprinkles
- Chocolate chips
- Melted peanut butter
Suggestions for Waffle Makers
I prefer Belgian waffle makers as they produce the fluffiest, crispiest waffles, but you only get one waffle at a time. (This is the Belgian waffle maker we have. It’s inexpensive and has held up well, though I actually like a thicker Belgian waffle maker and it makes waffles that are a little on the thinner side. This Belgian waffle maker looks like it makes waffles that are a little thicker.)
Alternatively, you can use a 4-slice waffle maker, which goes faster, but the waffles aren’t always as crisp.
For a fun twist on waffles, you can use the Dash mini waffle makers. We have two of these and our kids love making their own waffles in them.
If you don’t have a waffle maker and don’t want to buy one just yet, you can easily use this same recipe to make pancakes!
How to Get Started Making Sourdough (& what products you’ll need)
If you are wanting to get started with sourdough, I highly recommend Acts of Sourdough. She has great sourdough recipes on her site and lots and lots of videos showing you exactly how to do all things sourdough on Instagram. Also, like I mentioned above, she sells sourdough starter and it worked incredibly well for me so it’s a great option if you don’t have a friend or acquaintance who can share some of their starter with you!
To make sourdough starter, you’ll need:
- Starter — ask a friend who makes sourdough bread if you could have some of her starter! She’d probably be happy to share! (As mentioned above, I used the Acts of Sourdough starter)
- Jar with a cloth covering (or cheesecloth). This came in the sourdough-making kit I ordered.
- Food measuring scale
By the way, the only other thing I ordered besides sourdough starter was this sourdough making kit from Amazon. It’s not 100% necessary, but it was helpful and I think it’s why my loaves have turned out so well. I also already had a food scale and a Dutch oven (this is the one I have), which are the other two really helpful products to have when making sourdough!
Sourdough Discard Waffles
#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0 .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-full svg * { fill: #343434; }#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0 .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-33 svg * { fill: url(#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0-33); }#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0 .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-50 svg * { fill: url(#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0-50); }#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0 .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-66 svg * { fill: url(#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0-66); }linearGradient#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0-33 stop { stop-color: #343434; }linearGradient#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0-50 stop { stop-color: #343434; }linearGradient#wprm-recipe-user-rating-0-66 stop { stop-color: #343434; }
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups sourdough discard
- 3 cups milk
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
Instructions
-
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
-
Add the sourdough discard, milk, eggs, honey, and melted butter to the dry ingredients.
-
Stir together until mixed (batter will still be lumpy — that’s okay!)
-
Ladle batter onto a buttered waffle iron (or onto a griddle if you want to make pancakes).
-
Continue with step 4 until all the batter is used.