Sourdough discard flower crackers.
I don’t know about you, but i hate throwing away half my starter each time i feed it.
Looking for ways to use it, i added some into these crackers.
They are crispy and bubbly and have the perfect snap.
Great for using with dips.
I used a selection of edible flowers from the garden to decorate the sourdough discard flower crackers and some rosemary and basil.
Edible flowers are so fun to use in cooking, for other recipes with them check out my pasta here
Edible flowers
I have separated the edible flowers that work well into two groups, the ones that have flavour, and the ones that don’t have any real flavour but work well for adding colour.
There are so many varieties of edible flowers, so i have missed some off this list. These are a selection that i feel work well. The same rule as with the herbs, remove all the stalks, and use the petals and not the centre parts of the flower. The centre parts of some flowers are quite hard, especially borage to remove the soft petals and just use those.
However you can keep some small thin flowers whole if you carefully remove the back so they are flat, like pansy or viola.
Ensure that any edible flowers that you use are organic and not sprayed with any chemicals. If you don’t have a garden or anywhere to forage for them then you can buy them.
Here in England there are several places to order edible flowers from, my favourite is Maddocks farm organics. Jan who owns the farm has a great list of edible flowers with photos to help you identify them here.
Edible flowers with flavour
- Mustard flowers – these have a slight spicy flavour
- Rocket flowers – these have a great spicy flavour
- Alliums like chive flowers have an onion like flavour
- Nasturtium – these have a spicy flavour
- Borrage- these flowers have a subtle cucumber like taste
- calendulas – mild spicy flavour with a nutmeg like taste
- Herb flowers – like rosemary, chive, thyme have a flavour that faintly resemble the herb its self so they work well.
- primula – these have a sweet taste and work well in baking but they are colourful so would mix well with more savoury tasting flowers for pasta
- Tagetes- these have a orange like taste
- Primroses – sweet flavour (these can be left whole if you cut the back off)
- Sunflower – these have a slight nutty flavour
- Dianthus – these flowers have a sweet taste and may work better in desserts, but it is quite subtle so they are a great addition for colour.
- Broad bean flowers- these have flavour but the white and black colour might not show up very well in the dough.
- Chicory- these flowers have a bitter taste, and come in a few different colours
- snap dragon – bitter flower
- lilac – this can have a slight bitter flavour when eaten whole
- wild rocket flowers, these have a bright yellow colour.
- violets – sweet violet flavour
- rose petals
- lavender
- day lily
- cucumber flowers
- courgette flowers
- elderflower
- wild garlic
- three corner leek flowers
Edible flowers for colour that don’t have a lot of flavour
These flowers are perfect for pasta but have little flavour, and are great for introducing colour.
- Cornflower petals (pluck the petals off)
- Cosmos – these are mild in flavour a little like lettuce
- Violas
- Forget me not’s (these can be left whole if you carefully remove the flower from the stem part)
- Primula
- wild primroses
- Phlox
- Pansy’s
- tulips
For further reading on edible flowers here is a great page to see more about them.
Sourdough discard flower crackers
This recipes is very simple, but is made easier with a pasta machine.
The dough its self only has a few simple ingredients, flour, sourdough starter, water, olive oil and salt.
My starter was un-fed straight from the fridge. I had taken it out to feed it for a loaf, so it was the perfect opportunity.
To decorate i added some flavoured lemon flaked salt.
Update I made a second batch and added some Parmesan and black pepper which was also delicious. For that add about 25g finely grated Parmesan and 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper to the dough and a drop more water to compensate, then add some more grated Parmesan on top.
sourdough discard crackers
Equipment
- Pasta machine
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup sourdough starter unfed from the fridge
- 4 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- flaked salt, pepper, basil, rosemary and flowers
Instructions
to make the dough
- Add the starter, water and oil in a bowl and mix together to combine.
- Add the flour and salt and mix in and bring together into a soft dough, if you need a drop more water you can add a little more. (different brands of flour absorb differently and some starters have more water than others so it cant be exactly precise, the dough needs to be firm but pliable.)
- knead dough for a few minutes until it is smooth and roll into a ball and cover it and leave it to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Take the dough and flatten it, you can cut it in half and roll two pieces or roll one large piece
- using the pasta machine on the widest setting start rolling the dough, after the first roll, fold in half and roll through again. then turn the setting down and roll through the dough. keep rolling and lowering the setting each time. roll the dough until it is very thin. add flowers and basil to one half of the length of dough and fold over the other half to cover it. turn the pasta machine back up a few notches and roll the dough through again. roll it through again until it is as thin as possible.
- preheat the oven to 180c / 350f
- line two baking trays with baking paper. cut the dough into four long crackers, or to fit the size of the baking tray. brush each one with oil, then scatter over more herbs, flowers and some flaked salt and some freshly ground pepper
- bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and crispy
These are lovely – I’m wondering how long they keep?
thank you, they are best eaten on the day, but they are ok for a few days if kept covered, you can crisp them back up a little in the oven for 5 minutes x