Sourdough. Like the pet you never named, well, most people don’t name their sourdough starter anyway. Maybe I (Dave) should name mine. 🙂
There is a bit of a process involved with sourdough. If you are properly maintaining yours, there will be starter that you discard pretty regularly. You have a choice here. You can throw it away (don’t feel bad, everyone does it) or you can try to come up with sourdough things to do with it. In this case, I suggest taking some of the starter you were going to throw away and turn it into biscuits instead.
This recipe uses a LOT of unfed starter because it’s the only moisture in the whole recipe. If you keep your starter at a size that makes sense for the jars I recommended you should have plenty to do this. Just remember to feed it again with the right amount after you’ve used so much for a recipe.
These biscuits are large and in charge. It took trying a few recipes before finding one that I love. They are fluffy and oh so delicious. We’ve enjoyed them as a side dish at breakfast time or as a snack with honey drizzled on top, and even as bread in tasty lunchtime sandwiches. When it comes to tasty biscuits, is there really any wrong ways to eat them?
Sourdough Biscuits Recipe
(Makes 6 biscuits)
Ingredients:
- 120g all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt*
- 1 stick unsalted butter, cold
- 227g sourdough starter, unfed
* Note: I like them with the originally specified 3/4 teaspoon of salt. They aren’t bland at 1/2 teaspoon and they suit my wife better, so I went with the reduced amount for the recipe. If you prefer saltier biscuits bumping it back to 3/4 teaspoon will do the trick.
Directions:
- Move an oven rack to the top 1/3rd of the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Cut the cold butter into small pieces and add it to the bowl with the dry ingredients.
- Work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly.
- Pour the sourdough starter onto a working surface with parchment or a large silicone mat.
- Spread the dry ingredients over the starter and fold it until everything is incorporated. This can take a little while since you aren’t adding much liquid because the only moisture is in the starter itself.
- Shape the dough into a puck that is roughly 1″ thick and cut as many biscuits out of it as you can.
- Place the cut biscuits shoulder to shoulder onto a backing sheet lined with a silicone mat.
- Recombine left over dough until 1″ thick again, and cut more biscuits out. Repeat until you are out of dough. The last biscuit will usually be smaller than the others, but should still be roughly 1″ thick.
- Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes on the rack you placed in the top 1/3rd of the oven. They should be golden brown on top.
- Serve warm or store in a zip top bag in the refrigerator or freezer.
Source: King Arthur Flour
