There's probably going to be a lot of experimentation with sourdough recipes over the next little while. I've got a nice whole wheat starter that's happily chugging away. For a while I was just sort of rolling it over into each new batch of bread. Just toss in the starter and leave out the yeast and let it do its thing. Pinch off a bit of the dough and mix it with water to become the starter for next time. And that method does work just fine. The problem is that sometimes it gets hungry before I want to make bread again. Or sometimes I want to make a bread that really does want fresh yeast without that sourdough tang. That's fine, but I can't just ignore the starter in the meantime.

I suppose I could just feed it without baking anything, but the jar isn't really big enough for that. And even if I did move it into a larger container, that'll only buy me another week or two before I'm out of space again and facing the same problem. This is where discards come in. You toss out enough starter to give you room to feed it (and room for it to expand afterward). Except I hate just tossing all that starter into the compost. Especially when I've been grinding most of the flour by hand. So I've been experimenting with various non-bread sourdough recipes. Some of these are specifically discard recipes, which is great, because you can just toss a bunch of unfed starter in and then feed the remainder to keep it nice and healthy and active. Others are recipes that require fed starter. This is a little trickier in that you'll still need space to feed the starter and let it expand afterward, same as you would do with bread. But it's still a nice option for using up a bit of starter in a way that doesn't involve bread.

These sourdough waffles are interesting. They mostly follow the pattern for a standard yeasted overnight waffle, but a few of the ingredients are left out of the batter until the next morning. The eggs, butter, salt, and baking soda are left out until just before the waffles are cooked. I assume this is due to the batter being fermented at room temperature rather than in the fridge like other yeasted waffles I've seen. My guess is that the warmer fermentation is to compensate for the fact that you're using discard rather than fed and fully activated starter. The warmer temperature will give the yeast a bit of a boost and let it get going even though the starter is a bit sluggish going in.

I was surprised to find so much buttermilk in a sourdough recipe. The starter is already acidic, so adding a large quantity of another acidic ingredient was surprising. The rationale for using buttermilk is that you don't have to worry about it going off while sitting out overnight since it's already got active bacteria cultures in it. It'll get more sour overnight, but it won't go "off".

These waffles didn't come out quite as light and crispy as the (non-sourdough) overnight yeasted waffles I tried out a couple weeks ago, but they were still pleasingly light and crisp. I did find them quite sour though. TF said they weren't overly sour, but I think I would've preferred them a bit less so. I'd be inclined to swap out the buttermilk for milk next time and let it ferment in the fridge instead of on the counter. They're still tasty waffles and I'll definitely try them again in the future. It'll be interesting to see how the cooler, less fermented batter fares in the flavour department.

Sourdough Waffles

Adapted from King Arthur

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 c. milk
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 225g unfed sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Directions

1. Add butter to milk and heat gently until butter is melted and milk is warm. Set aside.
2. Whisk sugar into flour.
3. Whisk eggs into warm milk mixture.
4. Whisk starter and milk mixture into flour mixture.
5. Cover and set in the fridge to ferment for 12-24 hours.
6. Preheat your waffle iron.
7. In the morning, sprinkle the salt and baking soda over the surface of the batter and whisk it in.
8. Pour some batter into the waffle iron, close, and cook until golden and crispy.
9. Remove waffle from iron and repeat with remaining batter.
10. Serve with maple syrup, icing sugar, whipped cream, fresh fruit, nut butter, and/or jam.