sourdough discard Archives - Amy Bakes Bread

I had big dreams this year of planting a large beautiful garden and watching it grow all summer long. This did not happen. My big beautiful garden did not grow very well this summer (thank you bunnies, weird weather and a somewhat last-minute long-distance road trip that kept me from tending to the garden much throughout the summer). I was hoping for big, beautiful zucchini to sautee as a side to any meal, turn into our favorite zucchini boats or make many loaves of this amazing zucchini bread. This zucchini bread is light, tender, fluffy and uses up some of the sourdough discard that I always seem to have lurking in the back of my fridge. Lucky for me, my local farmers market and grocery store carry lots of zucchini this time of year.

Jump Ahead to The Best Zucchini Bread Recipe

Sourdough Discard in Zucchini Bread

If you have zucchini coming out your ears and sourdough discard taking over your fridge, this recipe is for you! I love using sourdough discard in recipes, not only for the little tang it gives but also because I’m not a fan of wasting food. This recipe uses ½ cup of sourdough discard directly from your fridge (you can also use bubbly sourdough starter) and it enhances the flavor of this delicious zucchini bread. If you don’t have sourdough starter, don’t worry. You can still make an awesome loaf of zucchini bread: Omit the sourdough starter. Add 2 cups of flour instead of 1 2/3 cups and 1/4 cup of milk to the batter. That’s it. I made both recipes side by side (pictured above) and both were delicious. You don’t need sourdough starter to make this delicious loaf, but if you have it on hand, it is the perfect way to use up some of your sourdough discard.

Wringing Out the Zucchini

Did you know that 1 cup of chopped zucchini is made up of 90% water? Because of this high water content, it’s important to wring out the zucchini a bit before adding it to the recipe. The pictures below show the easy way I do this. Take a box grater, shred the zucchini and then use a paper towel to wring the zucchini. I give it about three squeezes over my sink and call it good. This little extra step will help your zucchini bread to turn out perfectly moist and delicious.

Baking Temperature and Time

One of the tricks I’ve learned over the years I’ve been baking is to bake quickbreads, like zucchini bread, at a high temperature for the first 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to finish the longer bake time. The high heat helps activate the baking powder giving a nice lift and rounded dome shape to your loaf of zucchini bread. This zucchini bread takes about an hour to bake. I like to stick a knife or toothpick in the center to see if it’s completely baked all the way through. Depending on the temperature of your oven it may need more or less time.

Quick Mix. Long Bake. Delicious Zucchini Bread

Whatever way you slice it, this zucchini bread is delicious. It is tender, moist and perfect to gift this time of year. It is my kids’ favorite way to eat zucchini. They do eat other preparations of zucchini, though maybe not as willingly. If I only had to make one zucchini bread recipe for the rest of my life, this would be the one. It is that good! I hope you enjoy it too.

The Best Zucchini Bread with Sourdough Discard

Amy

Light, fluffy, tender and absolutely delicious, this zucchini bread recipe is perfect for using up garden zucchini and sourdough discard.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Course Bread, Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 1 loaf of zucchini bread

Ingredients

1 lb zucchini
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup sourdough discard
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
5 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt (sour cream can be substituted in a pinch)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and line an 8.5 by 4.5 loaf pan (you can also use a 9 by 5 loaf pan) with parchment paper.
Wash 1 lb of zucchini and chop off the ends. Use a box grater (affiliate link) to shred the zucchini. Grab a sheet or two of paper towel. Add the shredded zucchini to the middle of the paper towel and wrap the zucchini up to form a ball. Squeeze the paper-towel ball of zucchini over the sink 2-3 times to wring most of the water out of the zucchini. Continue this process until you have 1 ½ cups of shredded zucchini.
To a bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Stir together with a fork until fluffy and combined. Add the zucchini and stir until the zucchini is spread throughout the dry mixture and thoroughly combined.
In a liquid measuring cup, measure out ½ cup of sourdough starter. Add the eggs, vegetable oil and greek yogurt. Stir well to combine.
Add the liquids to the dry ingredients. Mix together with a fork or spoon until just combined (over-mixing will result in tough zucchini bread and nobody wants that).
Pour the zucchini bread batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees. This helps ensure a nicely domed loaf of bread.
After 10 minutes reduce the temperature to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Bake for 45-55 minutes. Insert a toothpick or sharp knife into the center of the bread to check if it is ready. If it comes out clean with no streaks of batter, it is ready! If it has streaks of wet batter, bake it a little longer and check again.
Allow the zucchini loaf to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the loaf pans. Move the loaf to a cooling rack and cool completely before digging in. Enjoy!

Notes

To make an absolutely amazing loaf of zucchini bread without the sourdough discard, omit the sourdough discard. Increase the all purpose flour to 2 cups. Add ¼ of milk to the liquid ingredients before mixing with the batter.

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When I was a kid, my dad would make breakfast with us every Saturday morning. It was usually Bisquick pancakes but every so often we would deviate from the pancakes to enjoy some Bisquick waffles. I always loved the waffles because we had the perfect waffle irons. Crispy hearts or a Mickey Mouse waffle iron…the kind where the syrup would puddle and soak in the Mickey ears and they tasted oh so delicious. At that time, I didn’t so much care about the flavor of my waffles…just the fact that I could drown them in syrup and enjoy them on Saturday morning.

Our Favorite “scratch-Made” Waffles

Since I’ve had my own family, I care a little bit more about the recipes and I love the challenge of making recipes as “homemade” and “from scratch” as possible. We’ve had our fair share of waffles over the years and this recipe is one that I keep coming back to. It uses up a whole cup of sourdough discard, can be whipped up the night before and kept in the fridge until ready to make and they taste divine. Crispy, crunchy but so soft and flavorful. These sourdough discard waffles are begging to be made ASAP.

You can Easily substitute Whole Wheat Flour in these Waffles

Another thing I love about them is how easily you can substitute whole wheat flour for the all purpose flour in the recipe. If I’m being completely honest, I kind of love the flavor of the soft red wheat from our local mill in these waffles better than the plain all purpose flour. The subtle nuttiness of the whole wheat flour combines so well with the sourdough starter and pushes these already perfect waffles over the top. Check out my post all about different types of flours and why soft wheat would be a good option here.

This recipe can be made the night before for easy preparation and more flavor

Make the batter the night before (except for a few ingredients), set out your waffle irons and viola: easy breakfast!

If you want a stronger yeast/sourdough flavor and an easy start to your morning, the waffle batter can be made the night before, combining all the ingredients except for the baking soda, powder, salt and vanilla (stir those in right before you make the waffles). You can also thin the batter with a little extra milk or buttermilk if you think it needs it.

I love whipping up some heavy whipping cream, slicing some berries and warming up some syrup to make these waffles a decadent breakfast treat. We also often double the recipe and make the extras to freeze for quick breakfasts throughout the school year. You can toast the waffles to reheat them if you want them crispy or just warm them up a bit in the microwave, if you prefer them less crispy. However you eat them, I think these waffles are the best I’ve ever made…and I’ve made a lot of waffles. I enjoy them best crisp and hot off the waffle press. I hope you love them as much as we do.

Sourdough Discard Waffles

Yield: 12-14 waffles

Time: 10 minute mix, 30 minute cook, 12 hour overnight in fridge (optional)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour (about 5 ounces), whole wheat flour works well here too
¼ cup cornstarch
1 cup sourdough discard
¾ cup milk
½ cup buttermilk
⅔ cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons sugar
2 eggs

Overnight Option: After adding these ingredients, refrigerate the batter and add the following ingredients in the morning. If making the same day, add the following ingredients right away:

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Using a whisk, mix together the flour and cornstarch in a bowl. Add sourdough discard, milk, buttermilk, vegetable oil, sugar and eggs. Whisk together until fully combined. At this point you can refrigerate the batter overnight for about 12-24 hours or you can continue with the recipe and make the waffles right away. Refrigerating the batter at this point will give the waffles more flavor but both options are delicious.
Pull the batter out of the fridge, if refrigerated, and continue adding ingredients: baking soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Stir until fully incorporated.
Heat waffle irons and put about ⅓ – ½ cup of waffle batter onto hot iron. Bake according to the directions on your waffle iron. Ours usually take 2-3 minutes per waffle.
Serve immediately with hot syrup, berries or even powdered sugar and whipped cream. The possibilities are endless! These waffles are crispy, light and delicious eaten warm. They can be re-toasted in the toaster to bring back a little bit of the crispiness if you want to freeze the extras for a later time. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes: Whole wheat flour works really well in this recipe. I use a soft red wheat with a low protein content. This recipe also works well with “make your own” buttermilk. To one cup of milk add 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice OR 1 Tablespoon white vinegar. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before using in the recipe.