As many of you out there are starting to really dive into sourdough during these quarantine times, I thought it would be fitting to post a recipe for sourdough waffles! This recipe is based on a recipe that my coworker shared, and I like it because it uses a half cup of the straight sourdough starter discard. This recipe involves resting overnight, so plan ahead and you will be rewarded in the morning!
Chris has been feeding Sebastian (yes, we named our starter) a balanced diet of Dark Rye flour and water every day, so I started collecting the discard on Wednesday and Thursday to make the waffles today (we throw out about a quarter of a cup every day). Our starter is very healthy and has developed a very sour flavor due to the dark rye, which I think added a lot of depth of flavor to the waffles. I love that this discard was repurposed for good use instead of heading straight for the trash, and I want to keep investigating more delicious applications for this discard!
This recipe is a great start, and can be doubled to feed a crowd or to meal-prep some waffles to keep in your freezer and heat up in a toaster or oven throughout the week. Just collect your starter discard throughout the week and keep it in the fridge until ready to use. The resulting waffles have a nice sour flavor (depending on how sour your starter is), are not overly sweet, and would compliment both maple syrup, fruit toppings, or savory applications (avocado! Eggs! Fried chicken!). Feel free to swap out the whole wheat flour with all purpose flour as well – I prefer the flavor and added health benefits of the whole wheat version, but don’t let that stop you from making this!
Recipe down below along with photos!
PS: If you are looking for a way to use up leftover sourdough levain, check out my recipe for Sourdough Levain Flatbread. Happy sourdough-ing, everyone!
Whole Wheat Sourdough Waffles
Ingredients:
- ½ cup sourdough starter
- 1 cup whole wheat (or all purpose) flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk (or, ½ cup yogurt, ½ cup milk)
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
Method:
- Combine the starter, flour, sugar, and buttermilk into a medium sized bowl. Cover and let rest overnight.
- Dough will hydrate overnight and gain some volume, but not a lot of bubbles will form at this stage.
- Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly before adding the egg. Mix the butter and egg together and add to the rested overnight dough.
- Add the salt and the baking soda to the rested overnight dough, and stir to combine all ingredients thoroughly.
- The dough should begin to form visible bubbles as the baking soda reacts with the acid in the dough from both the sourdough starter and the buttermilk that was added. Science!
- Preheat waffle iron and grease lightly with melted butter. Spoon the waffle batter into the waffle iron and cook based on the typical cook-times associated with your waffle iron.
- Remove the waffles from waffle iron when fully cooked. Serve immediately or keep warm in an oven set at 250F while more waffles are being made.
- Enjoy!
Posted by 
Claire Aucella 
Hi Claire! Do you find that the hydration level of your starter makes a difference? I use a very stiff mother starter. I’m thinking I might need to adjust the amount of flour in the waffle recipe? Enjoying reading your blog!
LikeLike
Hi Sarah, great question! I use a 100% hydration starter, if that helps clarify. In this recipe, the starter is mostly there for flavor. There will be some lift during the overnight rest, but most of the leavening will come when the baking soda is added.
The mixture should be the consistency of a thick batter or a very loose dough, if that makes sense. I sometimes adjust my recipes to include more moisture because I live in a very dry area and my flour is always super dry, but I think the ratio of buttermilk to flour should work for you. Let me know if you make it and if there is anything you would change!
LikeLike