This easy sourdough discard crackers recipe will spoil you and you won’t want to buy store-bought crackers again! It only takes a few ingredients, and you can add fresh herbs if you want to up the flavor even more. Make these homemade herb-flavored crackers any time you want to impress people, or just enjoy a salty snack yourself!
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Savory Pesto Sourdough Discard Crackers Recipe
Savory Pesto Sourdough Discard Crackers
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
- If the dough is really sticky, add a little extra flour to dry it out.
- Divide the dough in half and refrigerate the pieces for about half an hour, or longer if you need to.
- Use two pieces of parchment paper and sprinkle flour on them to lightly dust them.
- Roll the dough out on the parchment, keep it evenly thick, about 1/16" thick.
- Cut the rolled-out dough into squares or other shapes using a pizza cutter, and dock it with a fork to let gasses out as it's baking.
- (Optional) Brush lightly with olive or vegetable oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.
- Put the parchment on the cookie sheets and bake for about 20 minutes.
- Check the crackers after about 15 minutes to see if the edges are browning too quickly, and remove any crackers that look like they're done.
- Rotate the pans in the oven if you want to in order to help them bake evenly, and finish baking until they look golden brown. Be careful not to overbake them because they'll burn pretty quickly if you're not watching!
- Remove the finished crackers from the parchment and store in a sealed container or a plastic baggie for a few days, if they last that long!
Tips for making the cracker dough.
You can use different kinds of flour to give your crackers a different flavor. I used regular AP flour for a neutral flavor, but whole wheat flour or a combination of different grains can give you an interesting flavor. Don’t be afraid to try different things out!
Sourdough discard is just the unfed starter that you remove from your starter when you’re feeding it, and using it in recipes gives them a little tangy flavor. Click here to read about how to make the sourdough starter that I used for this recipe.
I used store-bought pesto (see it here on Amazon #ad) but you can make your own, or even use fresh herbs that aren’t in a pesto form. There are a lot of flavored pesto varieties that will give your crackers a different flavor, too, so try some of those out.
Mix all of the ingredients until they form a dough ball.
If the dough is too sticky to form a ball that doesn’t completely stick to the bowl, add a little more flour until it forms a ball that you can handle easily.
Divide the dough into two equal balls, and put the bowl in the fridge for half an hour, or longer if you need to. This is going to make it easier to handle, but if you’re in a time crunch the refrigeration part isn’t 100% necessary.
Tips for rolling out the crackers.
When you roll the dough out, put them in a piece of parchment with a lightly floured surface, and flour the rolling pin so that the dough won’t stick. If it gets too sticky while you’re rolling it out, sprinkle some flour on the dough surface and the rolling pin.
Roll it out to about 1/16″ thick, trying to keep it in a relatively rectangular shape. You’re going to have rough edges but that’s okay, you just want to make sure that the dough is evenly thick all the way through. If there are parts that are thicker than others, they’re going to bake unevenly, and they might not be crispy when they’re done.
When you’re done with the rolling, do another check for thickness! You can just eyeball it, or take a knife and cut a little slit in the center to see how thick it is there, since that’s usually where the thickest part will end up.
Cut the dough into squares using a pizza cutter.
Dock the dough with a fork so that the crackers won’t puff up when you bake them.
If you want to brush the crackers with oil and sprinkle coarse salt on them, do that now. Since these have pesto in them, it’s not necessary to do this, but it will add a little extra salt to it if you want the extra flavor.
If you do want to add salt, you can get some specialized salt that has a flavor, or something like this Himalayan pink salt. It isn’t processed the same way that regular salt is, so it tastes a little different if you eat it straight (which is how it would be on the top of the crackers.) It comes in a coarse version that would work well on crackers.
Tips for baking the crackers.
When the cracker baking time is almost up, check to see how they’re doing. It’s likely that the edge pieces will bake faster than the inside ones, so you can remove the ones that are done and keep baking the rest.
Put the crackers that are finished into a container and put the cookie sheet back in the oven to finish the rest.
When the crackers are done, they’ll be browned across the pan, but maybe not exactly the same color. Use your judgment, just don’t overbake them because they’ll burn really easily at this point. Take the crackers out before that happens!
Serving and storing the crackers.
The crackers can be served right away, or stored for later. You can serve them on their own or with cheese or dips. Since these are a savory variety, choose a mild cheese so that you don’t have too many competing flavors.
If you don’t want to serve them right after they’re baked, store them in a sealed container or a ziplock baggie until you need them. These are delicious right out of the oven, but you can serve them a few days after they’re made if you store them well, and they’ll still be good!