sourdough cracker toffee may be the best treat i have ever made for my friends.

i’ve seen grown adults reaching for a quickly emptying tub, eyeing the crumbles at the bottom, only to eventually tip them eagerly into their mouths to get that one last bite.

these moments of feeding people and witnessing their response bring me an almost embarrassing amount of joy. it’s my not-so-secret love language.

in chinese culture, feeding people is a common way to show care when the words aren’t quite there. it’s a universal, unspoken i love you, often followed by enthusiastic consumption. i love you too.

i’ve been baking these a lot lately for my bay area friends.

at first timidly, always asking for permission to swing by, until one friend remarked, “erica, you don’t have to ask. the answer will always be yes“.

so i practice.

i practice showing care without restraint. i practice not feeling self conscious. i practice the small act of vulnerability that is showing up unexpectedly with treats, and trusting there will be someone on the other end to devour them happily.

i love you. i love you too.

notes

popular variations of this recipe include matzah toffee, which uses matzah crackers as the base, and christmas crack, which uses saltine crackers. i’ve adapted this recipe from once upon a chef.

poking holes into the rolled out dough pre-bake is a crucial step! this will make sure your crackers will stay flat and not puff up, creating an even base for the other layers. i’ve made this mistake so you won’t have to.

i’ve specifically used a 50/50 proportion of all purpose and wheat flour for these crackers.

• different flours have different absorption properties. the texture of your dough might change if you make large adjustments. for example, when adding the same amount of water, all purpose flour will feel stickier than wheat.
• that being said, adjusting for hydration, i think rye and buckwheat could be interesting additions.

as always, i develop my recipes with my 80% hydration starter. please adjust the starter and flour amounts to match yours.

the last time i lived close to wilderness, i was 11. i had a patch of wood in my backyard. a small, trickling creek ran through it. wild turkeys, the size of vacuum cleaners, would often visit.

life whisked me away to more and more urban areas until life found me in the berkeley hills this winter. here, i once again remembered what it was to notice.

how to greet the bickering crows. how to spectate the scurrying squirrels. how to pay attention, in wonder.

at least once a week, too, i would walk down the street to ascend a steep, winding dirt trail above claremont canyon. what started as a simple hike became a stumbling prayer of gratitude.

i learned to recognize the wild rosemary bushes near the top. i began to visit often. when the bushes looked healthy and weren’t flowering, i would pick a few sprigs, taking home a piece of the mountain with me.

when the world gifts something as magical as fresh, wild rosemary, what else is there to do but to share something with the world in return? how do we show gratitude for gifts such as these?

this recipe is my offering. perhaps you, too, will pause when your hands run over the sprigs of rosemary, and when you smell it filling up the crevices of your home.

this ritual has become my small, delicious meditation on all the magic that grows from the earth. i hope it becomes yours too.

notes

i wasn’t planning on re-visiting sourdough crackers. i’ve already written two recipes.

yet i knew there were a few issues i needed to resolve: dryness, thickness, toughness of bite, blandness. this updated recipe addresses all these shortcomings with a wetter, more flavorful dough.

these sourdough rosemary crackers roll out into thin sheets more easily, and bake up more crisply. i am generous with the rosemary. they are pretty, they are aromatic, and they are delicious.

ingredients matter.

• i strongly encourage you to use fresh rosemary over dried, and flaky salt to top.
• i haven’t tried adding other herbs or spices, but i encourage experimentation!
• one exception: if you plan on adding seeds, nuts, or other chunkier toppings, i’d recommend adding it at the end, while rolling out the dough rather than mixing it in. revisit my everything cracker recipe for more details on this process.

lastly but not leastly, i have a stiff starter at 80% hydration. please do adjust the amount of flour if yours differs.

long, lazy summer days call for simple, produce-centric meals.

i love spending weekends gobbling up as many colors as i can. heirloom tomatoes topped with flaky sea salt. watermelon with handfuls of fresh mint. cucumbers with avocado and dill.

what are your favorite farmers market finds? summer squash is one of mine.

every june, zucchini and its friends burst onto the farm stand and backyard garden scene in abundance. i love cooking them with eggs, putting them in dumpling filling, and baking them into quick breads. i have delicious memories of my grandma cooking them up with noodles for a breakfast noodle soup.

lately, i’ve renewed my love for zucchini in the form of fritters.

crispy and light on the outside, full of oniony and garlicy goodness on the inside. i like to serve them hot, sometimes with a dollop of cold yogurt. for extra fancy summertime vibes, i garnish with some freshly picked herbs.

best of all, they’re super simple and super fast. this verison is also completely vegan thanks to sourdough discard.

notes

the final batter is fairly thick. to reduce the wateriness of the zucchini, i include two additional steps.

• first, adding salt in the beginning will draw water out of the zucchini.
• second, squeezing the water out will prevent the batter from becoming too runny. if your final batter still seems too watery or loose, just stir in a bit more flour.

as always, please adjust the recipe to suit your starter’s hydration. as a reminder, i have a stiff starter at 80% hydration.

although you could bake these fritters, i strongly recommend frying them. in my experiments, they tasted way better, and the crispiness can’t be beat.

but you probably already knew i was gonna say that 😉

this is the very first guest post on this blog! charlotte, the author, and i share a long, beautiful friendship over our love and appreciation for food (among many, many other things). we first met in 6th grade in surburban minnesota! her culinary creativity constantly inspires my own. i’ve made this recipe of hers a few times now, devouring most of the batch immediately after making them. without further ado, i’ll let charlotte take it from here. i hope you love these shao bing as much as we do!

– erica

taiwanese shao bing, as told and adapted by charlotte

while versions of this sesame flatbread abound throughout the chinese speaking world, most of my memories of shao bing 燒餅 are from summers spent in taiwan. there, shao bing are often served with a kind of fried cruller— you tiao 油條—sandwiched in between its flaky layers, then dunked in a steaming bowl of freshly pressed soy milk.

when i was younger, we would go to the neighborhood breakfast shop with my Ah Gong and Ah Ma, still shaking off the jet lag of a long international flight, sweating in the heat and humidity of the morning. we’d cram around one of the plastic tables ringed by round metal stools and order from the Lao Ban, watching him sling ladles of rice milk and flip rows of egg crepes at the front of the shop. everywhere the smell of frying dough, steaming xiao long bao, motorcycles, sun-on-asphalt. these little breakfast shops, once ubiquitous in taipei, have mostly given way to western-style cafes and bakeries.

but a few remain, and my family and i make a point to go every year. unable to travel to see family in taiwan this year, we’ve resorted to sighing longingly over old photos of past breakfasts, and occasionally attempting to recreate our favorites.

shao bing is one of my mother’s favorite breakfasts, and my sister and i endeavored to recreate them for mother’s day. i very loosely adapted this recipe from edwina at cooking in chinglish, incorporating sourdough discard rather than using instant yeast.

to serve

eat immediately after baking, for breakfast. we like them split open on the side with a scallion-flecked omelette nestled into the layers, or filled with heaps of fresh alfalfa sprouts and tomatoes and a dash of salt. honestly, they’re also pretty great plain.

serve with some freshly made peanut rice milk for a taste of a classic taiwanese breakfast.

bonus recipe: peanut rice milk

1/4 cup uncooked short grain white rice
1/2 cup peanuts, toasted
3 cups water
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

soak white rice 6-8 hours or overnight, then blend with peanuts and water until smooth. heat in a pan, stirring, until the milk begins to bubble and thicken. add sugar, and cook to desired consistency. tastes just as good iced as warm!

makes 2 servings

although my korean food journey began with bowls of stone pot bibimbap in restaurants, i owe the bulk of my learning and appreciation to my korean friends. i have many happy memories of cooking for each other, swapping recipes from our childhoods and stories of our mothers.

those who are fans of my sourdough discard okonomiyaki know i’m a lover of savory pancakes. i’ve adapted this kimchi pancake recipe from maangchi, a true cooking legend. instead of flour and water, sourdough starter discard acts as the primary binder.

the tangy, funky, sourdough discard pairs beautifully with the tangy, funky kimchi. with only 8 ingredients and a 3 minute cook time, these pancakes are super easy, quick, and fun to make.

bonus: they’re vegan! just be sure to grab a vegan kimchi like sinto gourmet or chi kitchen. most store bought brands have seafood of some sort. you can also make it yourself if you’re feeling bold.

notes

the texture of this batter should resemble pancake batter. if it feels runny, add in all purpose flour until it reaches a firmer consistency.

this batter makes enough for two 8″ pancakes. feel free to modify the size of your pancakes! smaller ones will be easier to flip.

lastly, please adjust the recipe to suit your starter’s hydration. i have a stiff starter at 80% hydration. for help, my sourdough hydration math post and calculator explains how to calculate adjustments.

as a quick example, if your starter is 100%, the batter may come out too runny! to adjust, decrease sourdough discard amount to 130 g, and add an additional 20 g of all purpose flour.

years ago on one of my buzzfeed tasty binges, i saw a method of pan frying potstickers i had never seen before. using a cornstarch slurry, the mystery hand effortless created a lacy, crispy, delicious looking “skirt”.

as i recipe tested my dumplings last weekend, a light bulb went off in my head. what if i replaced the cornstarch slurry with watered down sourdough discard?

a few rounds of trial and error later, lo and behold — the crispiest, most delicious addition to a potsticker was born.

for the skeptics out there, do not sleep on this!! it’s absurdly good.

dumpling series

this is the last part of my three part series on sourdough discard dumplings!

• in the first part, i explain my formula and method for making dumpling wrappers using sourdough discard.
• in the second part, i focus on shandong style dumpling wrapping technique (with a vegan filling recipe!), and how i like to pay fry them.
• this part describes my formula and method for adding a pretty, extra crispy skirt on your pan fried dumplings with a sourdough discard slurry.

read them all together to re-create my sourdough dumplings, or mix and match with different techniques or store-bought items.

notes

please adjust the hydration of the slurry based on your sourdough starter.

you can use this crispy skirt recipe and technique with any sort of homemade dumpling. it should even work with store-bought potstickers!

dumpling series

this is the second part of my three part series on sourdough discard dumplings!

• in the first part, i explain my formula and method for making dumpling wrappers using sourdough discard.
• in this part, i focus on shandong style dumpling wrapping technique (with a vegan filling recipe!), and how i like to pay fry them.
• the third part describes my formula and method for adding a pretty, extra crispy skirt on your pan fried dumplings with a sourdough discard slurry.

read them all together to re-create my sourdough dumplings, or mix and match with different techniques or store-bought items.

notes

this guide assumes you are beginning with a set of dumpling wrappers.

after wrapping your dumplings, you can freeze them for 3 months. i put dumplings on a well floured sheet pan and pop them into the freezer until firm before transferring them into a re-usable ziploc like container for longer term freezer storage.

easy vegan filling

shandong style wrapping method

to begin, hold a single wrapper flat in your open-facing left hand.

next, put a spoonful of filling inside the center of the wrapper. this photo shows a generous amount, but i would start off with less filling until you get a hang of it. you may need to pack your filling slightly.

after filling, pinch opposite sides together at the middle with your other hand so it looks kind of like a cannoli.

to close, we start at the left end of the dumpling.

start by tucking the filling in on the left side by poking it lightly inward. then, fold the dough at the tip inward slightly and firmly pinch shut.

continue firmly pinching upwards until you meet the center pinch. the dough can overlap at times but you don’t need to be precise with it.

when shut securely, repeat with the other side! give it an extra squeeze for closure.

when complete, set aside on a well floured surface, and repeat with the rest of your dumplings. freeze or cook them immediately.

pan frying potstickers

to cook, i usually pan fry or boil them. serious eats wrote up a great guide that approximates what my family does for both fresh and frozen homemade dumplings.

on medium to medium-high heat, heat up a thin layer of oil in a non-stick skillet. place as many dumplings as you can fit in sizzling skillet. fry until lightly golden, about 1 minute.

then, pour a thin layer of water, covering the bottom of the skillet. cover the lid immediately and cook for 5 minutes. remove cover and cook until bottoms are golden brown and water is completely evaporated.

dumpling series

this is the first part of my three part series on sourdough discard dumplings!

• in this part, i explain my formula and method for making dumpling wrappers using sourdough discard.
• in the second part, i focus on shandong style dumpling wrapping technique (with a vegan filling recipe!), and how i like to pay fry them.
• the third part describes my formula and method for adding a pretty, extra crispy skirt on your pan fried dumplings with a sourdough discard slurry.

read them all together to re-create my sourdough dumplings, or mix and match with different techniques or store-bought items.

my story

i learned how to make dumplings from generations of women in my family passing down this one tradition.

from a young age my mother made it clear to me that the way we made dumplings was not like other chinese families. first, she said, we made our own wrappers. this skill, she urged, was not one to be overlooked.

thus, my childhood kitchen table became my training ground. me struggling to roll out dumpling wrappers while my palms hurt, mom generously wrapping plump morsels, dad manning the boiling station, brother too young to contribute beyond eating (eventually stepping up into assistant wrapper).

there are many different ways to make “chinese” dumplings. each region has its preferences for wrapping, pleating, filling, and cooking methods.

shandong 山东 style dumplings are known for thicker, chewier dumpling wrappers. they are fat with filling, and don’t care to impress with braided pleating. oftentimes my mother squeezes them shut in a dual cupping pinching motion i have yet to master.

though incorporating sourdough discard into the dumpling dough is far from traditional, it does create a flavor that’s very compatible with the black vinegar sauce and fillings i usually use (cabbage or carrots).

more importantly, i wanted to develop this recipe to bring together two of my most important worlds. i wanted to share this piece of my story with all of you, and share it in an incredibly delicious way.

notes

although the formula is new, this is the process my family has always followed for homemade dumpling wrappers. the rolling method is tricky and will take practice to get used to. i can’t promise that it’s foolproof, but i can promise to try my best in communicating what the women in my family have taught me.

as always, please adjust the water and flour amounts based on the hydration of your starter.

if you have leftover dough, you can use it to make a scallion pancake.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

confession: i have never baked a chocolate chip cookie i truly loved.

before i begin my saga, i would like to set the record straight and say i have eaten many chocolate chip cookies that i have loved. i line up dutifully each year at the minnesota state fair to get the family sized bucket of sweet martha’s, and pop them in my mouth like they’re cookie popcorn. i can eat an entire larger-than-my-fist-sized levain bakery cookie (or two) in one sitting thank you very much.

but baking them, you’d think they’d be straightforward, but man, something goes wrong every time.

i have traumatic memories of scooping out chocolate chip cookie dough in neat little rows fully expecting them to emerge as beautifully golden discs with crisp edges and soft centers, only to take out a tray of little mishapen piles that barely spread.

the problem is always this: they always turn out just ok. mediocre. some even good, but none great. definitely not the addictive little bundles i knew flour, sugar, butter, and chocolate had the potential to be.

i thought i was cursed until i made the cookie.

when i first saw alison roman’s salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread (or why would i make another chocolate chip cookie ever again) recipe, i felt skeptical.

who was this woman with all the “the’s”: “the stew”, “the pasta”, “the cookies.” it was a bold move, i thought, to claim them all for her own. assertive. aggressive, even. how could one person take ownership of all of these staple nouns?

but a curse was a curse, and i felt a glimmer of hope since she promised they weren’t meant to spread much anyway.

as i type this now, after happily eaten #thestew, munching on #thecookies for dessert, plotting when i can acquire shallots to make #thepasta, i confess i’m a convert. she has made a pretty special cookie.

this sourdough adaptation of her viral recipe is my homage to alison roman. they’re buttery like your favorite shortbread, not too sweet, studded in chocolate, and best of all, shockingly easy to make with a flavor complexity that goes way beyond the effort you need to put in.

we all need a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe in our lives. i’ve finally found mine.

*a side note: i recently found out alison roman said some things about other female entrepreneurs this past week that i personally find problematic. like cherry bombe, i feel disappointed. i hope we can take these comments to talk, learn, and grow as a community of women supporting each other.

**updated side note: alison roman issued a very public, very vulnerable apology which i find very brave. i don’t believe in cancel culture. i want to live in a world where we can hold multiple, conflicting emotions at once: one where we can simultaneously hurt, forgive, admire — and much much more.

notes

i added buckwheat because i was feeling fancy. if you want to stick with the nothing fancy vibes, you can stick to all purpose flour.

i like to use cold starter discard, straight out of the tub i keep in my fridge. another note on my starter: i have a stiff starter at 80% hydration. please adjust the amount of flour and starter in the dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

you can store the dough in the fridge for a week, or in the freezer for up to a month. i usually make one of the logs immediately, and then freeze the other log for whenever the need for emergency cookies strikes.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the dough build, and do not include the levain build.

*you can also sub with another fun flour like rye or spelt.

my earliest meaningful memory of pizza is of waiting in line with my mother at papa murphy’s take and bake, bogo coupon in hand, ordering two supreme pizzas. then, there was the costco food stand. our family of 4 would pile into the car, do our shopping, walk out with the largest supreme pizza available, and eat the leftovers over the next few days.

if there’s one thing my mother believed in, it was value. getting anything short of whatever gave you the most amount of toppings was unthinkable. and thus, i was raised on a string of supreme pizzas.

then, the singular experience at 17 that redefined pizza for me: a classic margherita from punch pizza.

for one, it was a topping-less pizza. i remember it coming out, the bare cheese staring back at me, bits of tomato sauce peeking through, naked, like it forgot to put its clothes on.

second, we each got our own individual pizza, as if one entire pizza was an acceptable serving size my parents conveniently forgot to mention to me, a young susceptible mind and a very hungry almost adult.

but most importantly, it was nothing like i had tasted before. the thin base, the wood fired flavor, the satisfying chew of the crust. it was hard for me to believe that we lived in a world where the pizza i knew and loved could coexist with this new pizza i didn’t know and quickly became infatuated with.

i’ve had way more pizza memories than i’d like to admit over this past decade of pizza discovery and re-discovery. pizza seems to hold the constant of re-inventing itself for me just as i keep re-inventing myself.

my newest favorite way to eat pizza is to make a big batch of dough, invite a small group of friends over, and make a couple of pizzas together while we catch up. it’s as collaborative as it is creative, as easy as it is fast, as humble as it is impressive.

i hope these will soon become your favorite pizza memories too.

notes

i have a stiff starter that’s 80% hydration. please adjust amount of water in final dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

we might not get to gather in groups again for a while, but luckily this dough keeps well for a few days in the fridge. in fact, this dough needs a long cold proof. you’ll find it becomes easier to work with and the flavors become more complex the longer it’s been in the fridge. it bakes up quick enough to make for a reasonably achievable weekday work from home lunch.

pizza like this does its best baking at very high temps. unfortunately most home ovens don’t go as high as commercial ones. just crank it to as high as it will go, and make sure your oven is clean. i may or may not have set off my smoke detector at least 5 times over the course of 3 bakes.

this recipe makes enough dough for 3 – 12″ skillet-sized pizzas or 4 – 9″ skill-sized pizzas. scale up or down as needed. i can pretty easily eat an entire one of these.

this recipe is just for the crust. some toppings inspiration:

• du’s: mozz, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, spinach. to prevent burnt ends, put the caramelized onions on post bake or hide beneath spinach. drizzle with honey & chili flakes right before serving.
• margherita: tomato sauce & mozz. put basil on right before serving.
• tie dye: ricotta & mozz, tomato sauce & pesto
• shakshuka: tomato sauce, egg, mozz, feta. top with pepper and arugula post bake

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

the wonderfully talented caroline schiff reminded me recently that that frying up sourdough discard on its own makes for a pretty damn tasty pancake. this, of course, had me dreaming of all the savory pancakes i’ve loved in my life and how to recreate them.

okonomiyaki, a japanese savory pancake made predominantly out of cabbage, is one of my favorites. it’s customizable, crisp, chewy, dangerously easy, disproportionately delicious, and very, very, pretty. i think of it as a relatively healthy conduit to eat a bunch of sauces i always want excuses to eat.

cabbage also happens to be one of the heartiest vegetables and lasts forever (at least in quarantine time), so of course i have an unreasonable amount now stocked up in my apt during this pandemic. wishing i could hop on a plane get myself to japan this spring, but this pancake will have to do.

notes

the toppings i’ve listed are mere suggestions. feel to top with whatever you have on hand, and whatever you find delicious. ketchup or kimchi works just as well as sriracha or chili crisp.

maybe cabbage and carrots aren’t your thing. that’s ok. feel free to throw in other vegetables or scallions in you have on hand that have similar texture to substitute (daikon, broccoli stems, etc.) for a non-traditional, but likely still delicious savory pancake.

other additions: for the non-vegetarians, kenji says you also fry it in some pork belly or bacon, and top with dried bonito flakes. for an eggier pancake, add an additional egg and 50 g additional veggies.

i’ve made these the size of a regular pancake or the traditionally larger size, either works. remember that the larger the pancake, the harder it will be to flip!

growing up, my mother made dumplings from scratch at least once a month. she always purposely made extra dumpling dough, and with the remains, we’d make scallion pancakes, often without the scallions.

a thing to know about my mom: whenever my mom makes anything, she always guesstimates. “eyeballing”, she would say, is the chinese way.

unfortunately, i don’t have my mother’s eyeballs. maybe it’s that i’ve absorbed a more western (?) philosophy, finding mostly comfort and curiousity in the precision of baking. thus, most of my adult life has been a journey to furiously scribble down measurements whenever i can and whenever my mom will let me pull out my tools to take weights or temperatures or to ask more questions than necessary.

the first recipe i managed to write down correctly was one for scallion pancakes. i was 17 and in college and really craving something other than our student center’s tofu teriyaki when i emailed home for some ratios. after some trial and error and tweaking, i finally got a version that had the same texture as my mothers.

this recipe is a sourdough discard adaptation of that original recipe.

notes

i have a stiff starter that’s 80% hydration. please adjust amount of water in final dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

these are pretty traditional scallion pancakes. for a fluffy version characteristic of northern china, check out my leavened, fluffy sourdough discard scallion pancake recipe.

if you read the introductory paragraph, you’ll realize that you can use this dough formula to make dumpling wrappers as well! i’d recommend letting the dough rest for an extra hour or two before cutting and rolling out.

this recipe makes one single-serving pancake. feel free to double and triple as you please.

the shaping technique described in this recipe optimizes for distinct layers. you can also use the roll & snail technique found in my other scallion pancake recipe for a more traditional swirl aesthetic.

bonus non-gluten side salad recipe

i sometimes like to serve this with a traditional cucumber salad. the slight tang from the sourdough with the sourness of the black vinegar is a winning combo in my book. the sauce that sits at the bottom ends up being a great dipping sauce.

slice up one cucumber, mince 2-3 cloves of garlic, throw in a couple good glugs of black vinegar, a sprinkle of salt, and a spoonful of extra crunchy peanut butter (optional). shake or toss or mix until all ingredients combined. drizzle with sesame oil to top, and serve immediately.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

focaccia is like sourdough’s super chill, completely unfussy sister that pulls everything off without even trying. you know the type — the ones that throw their hair up in a bun without having to check their reflection, throw on a jacket that’s just laying about, and still manages to bounce out the door looking effortlessly cool.

some days i want making bread to feel like this too, and on those days i make focaccia. throw everything together, go to sleep, and in the morning, poof, without having to really even think, out comes this miraculously delicious, beautiful thing.

think it’s too good to be true? let’s make it even better. this sourdough focaccia recipe is leavened with sourdough starter discard.

you’re welcome 🙂

notes

i have a stiff starter that’s 80% hydration. please adjust amount of water in final dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

you might realize you like a different thickness of focaccia than the one described here. a 10×10 inch brownie-ish or cake pan for this quantity of dough will give you a focaccia that just fills the crevices. for a thicker focaccia, use a smaller pan or scale up your dough. i use a pan where the dough doesn’t quite reach the edges and get a thinner focaccia i personally really enjoy. tldr; use what you got!

if you find your focaccia is sticking to the pan or worry it might, a few readers have recommended using parchment paper in addition to oil.

though this recipe tastes great on its own, it is also very adaptable to include whatever toppings you wish and enjoy on focaccia. a few suggestions:

• roasted garlic: roast 1-2 heads of garlic. dimple in the garlic before adding salt and additional olive oil.
• zataar: after dimpling and after drizzling olive oil and salt, sprinkle a handful of zataar. drizzle another bit of olive oil on top.
• veggies: slice a couple handfuls of raw grape or cherry tomatoes in half, and some red onion and peppers into slivers. dimple in the veggies before adding salt and additional olive oil.
• grapes: dimple in a couple handfuls of grapes before adding salt and additional olive oil.
• rosemary: top with a few sprigs of rosemary at the end.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

*you can sub einkorn flour with whole wheat, or all purpose flour

🧧 happy lunar new year!!! 🧧

this past friday marked the beginning of the two week holiday period known as spring festival 春节, a huge celebration in mainland china to usher in the new year. festivities often include extravagant amounts of delicious food, a lot of quality family time, and even more echos of wishing each other health, happiness, and prosperity.

as a kid, my family used to gather with a few other chinese families in the greater twin cities area for a celebratory potluck dinner, where each family would bring their specialty dish, taking pride in their regional cuisine. raised in northern china where the food is more wheat based (rather than rice), my mom was known for her dumplings and flatbreads.

the apple don’t fall far from the tree i guess.

this recipe is a way to share a piece of my mother’s cooking and pride in our region. i adapted her yeasted scallion pancake 发面葱油饼 (fa mian cong you bing) recipe to use sourdough discard, and fell in love with the result. soft & fluffy on the inside with a perfectly umami laden & crispy exterior, this is a perfect way to get every last bit of leavening power from your sourdough starter discard.

notes

i went through a lot of trial and error with this recipe.

• some variations that were successful: i’ve used discard both at room temp and straight out of the fridge. the water temperature listed in the recipe below is for discard straight out of the fridge. for room temp you can use water 90-95°F.
• some that were less successful: this dough at a lower hydration doesn’t achieve the lightness we want, and the dough at a higher hydration becomes hard to roll out. i’d recommend sticking to 54-56%
• i didn’t test an overnight refrigerated proof at all, but that could be interesting to experiment with.

importantly, i use discard from a stiff levain. please tweak flour and water proportions to accommodate for your levain’s hydration. as an example calculation:

• my starter is 80% hydration with a 5:4:1 ratio of flour to water to starter. this means that 50g of starter is composed of about 28g flour and 22g water (or if you’re real nerdy like me, 50g = x + 0.8x, solve for x)
• if your starter is 100% hydration (1:1:1 ratio), that means that 50g of starter is composed of 25g of flour and 25g of water. so to match the recipe, add 3g more flour and 3g less water. ta-da!

i also wrote a blog post about this math with a few helpful calculator tools!

lastly, if you enjoyed this, i’d so appreciate you taking a second to rate and leave a comment all the way at the bottom. i love hearing feedback and it brings me so much joy to know you’re making this recipe!

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

these crackers were born out of resourcefulness and convenience. after making my everything sourdough bread, i took the extra starter discard and made my basic cheesy cracker (like usual). then thinking nothing of it, i rolled the dough in the everything seasoning i had leftover.

little did i know that these crackers would become, by far, the most addicting thing i have ever baked. i have seen my friends demolish jars of these in one sitting. i have seen myself demolish jars of these in one sitting.

if you’re interested in witnessing the same progression of events, please proceed.

you’ve been warned.

notes

this recipe is shockingly simple for the flavor it delivers. there’s plenty of salt in the everything seasoning mix, which omits the need to add it directly to the crackers (i tried it once, and it was like the equivalent of eating double strength sea water).

to get an even distribution of everything seasoning, generously sprinkle the everything seasoning on the surface you plan to roll the dough on, and then directly roll the dough into the seasoning.

you can buy everything seasoning from the store or use the ratios i use for a DIY mix. the formula i’ve included will leave you with extra everything seasoning you can use for your next batch of crackers.

the proportions i’ve specified will make exactly one cookie sheet pan worth of crackers. this recipe can be easily doubled, tripled, etc. to satisfy any further cracker cravings.

the secret to the perfect cracker is rolling these thin enough to get a satisfying snap, but not so thin that it’s a chip. think wheat thin level thinness.

brooklyn in the summer is a magical place.

this granola recipe is my tribute to summer — tinted yellow from the ground turmeric, with coconut, sunflower seeds, golden raisins, and crystallized ginger as mix-ins. these flavors remind me of the things i love about warm weather and sunshine.

earlier this summer when i discovered you could make granola using sourdough discard (using it as one of the liquid binders), i went into an experimenting frenzy.

y’all, granola is one of my favorite things to make — i find store bought granola much too sweet, so i’m constantly whipping up new combinations. adding in a bit of sourdough discard helps me achieve a few more clumps than i would otherwise when i reduce the amount of sweetener used. note: if you like sweet granola, you’ll definitely want to increase the amount of honey or add more dried fruit.

notes:

• i like mixing the dry and wet ingredients together directly on the tray with a fork and my hands instead of ahead of time in a bowl. i find that i get the clusters and consistency i like with this method, but feel free to play around with what works best for you.
• if you’re adding dried fruit like we’re doing here (crystallized ginger and golden raisins), make sure to add those mix-ins after baking.
• wait at least 10 minutes before flipping the granola during the bake! flipping too early will break up any premature clusters

i make a large batch pretty frequently and love adding a few hearty spoonfuls to my morning greek yogurt for breakfast. it’s a low-sugar, nutrient-packed, flavorful addition that can accompany fruit (yum summer berries) and also standalone.

deb perelman is a true queen.

amongst the kitchen goddesses of the internet, smitten kitchen reigns supreme in my heart (read: stomach. they’re the same thing right?). when i came across her recipe for double chocolate banana bread last month, i knew i had to make it. and i knew it was going to be delicious.

sourdough discard and overripe bananas are two things in constant supply in my brooklyn apartment. i love whipping up a batch of banana bread or banana baked oatmeal over the weekend and bringing it to work for breakfast for the remainder of the week — it makes the entire kitchenette smell heavenly and i never fail to get compliments from coworkers as i’m warming it up 🙂

i’ve adapted the smitten kitchen recipe a bit to create a sourdough discard version. i’ve swapped out…

• some flour for a hearty portion of sourdough discard
• butter for coconut oil to make this lighter and dairy-free
• all the brown sugar for a tiny bit of honey

most internet recipes are far too sweet for my personal taste, so i’ve decreased the amount of sweetener substantially (1-2 tbsp honey). feel free to adjust the honey to the sweetness of your liking.

when i make this for breakfast, i add walnuts to the party for a healthy kick of omega-3’s, and significantly reduce the amount of chocolate chunks. this is completely optional. turn up the chocolate and omit the walnuts if that’s how the banana bread spirit moves you.

oh doug. he’s the neediest entity in my life. he’s all bubbly when it’s warm, all sad and frumpy if it’s too cold. he demands feeding once, if not twice a day. he likes to be taken out, and can’t be left alone too long.

doug is my sourdough starter, but if he sounds like a pet, you wouldn’t be too far off (fun fact: the name comes from ‘dough’, but with the ‘h’ dropped. other contenders included ‘dunior’ and ‘jane dough’).

i, like many sourdough bakers before me, accumulate a ton of sourdough discard from daily feedings — aka naturally fermented dough that can’t be used to bake sourdough bread anymore. throwing away massive quantities of flour seemed wasteful and unnatural to me, so i went in search of recipes i could make with it.

it just so happens that crackers are one of the easiest things to make with discard.

unfortunately for me, crackers have never been my favorite thing. to me, they are the thing you eat when you really actually want to eat chips instead, but also want to feel healthy.

so what’s a cracker-skeptical girl to do?

my version on a classic wheat cracker is reminiscent of a much better cracker, the cheez-it. it’s got a generous amount of parmesan for cheesiness, the tang from the starter, umami from the seeds, and a collection of other spices to add a kick at the end.

notes

for an updated discard cracker recipe, please refer to my rosemary crackers.

the rise time on this is not precise. i usually let it rest for at least 4 hours, but have forgotten about it for up to 8 hours without impact.

you can either choose to cut them before you bake bake into neat shapes, or break off pieces post-bake after they’ve cooled for a more rustic feel (or you’re like me and are just a bit lazier).

careful not to over-bake! the cheezits will either burn or turn out a lot harder than intended, which will make them difficult to bite into.

some fun variations

• for even cheesier cheezits, i’d recommend increasing the amount of shredded cheese to 1/2 cup. would recommend halving the amount of salt to balance out the saltiness of the cheese.
• for nuttier cheezits, sometimes i add 2 tbsp of seeds, a blend of flax and sesame seeds

store them in tupperware or glass jar or keep them in the freezer for almost ever. though to be honest, they’re so good, mine never last that long.