Sourdough waffles made using discard from your starter – no need for any additional leavening, and fluffy, crisp, and flavourful waffles.
Sourdough Waffles with Discard
Sourdough waffles are one of the very best things you can make with discard. Yes, we love some sourdough crackers, and muffins, and banana bread, but there’s nothing better than waking up to waffle batter that’s already mixed and ready to go.
There’s a slight sourdough flavour to these waffles, but nothing overwhelming. If anything it makes them more breakfast-y and less straight dessert like waffles often are.
Top with maple syrup, berries, jam, yogurt, whatever you like. Or go crazy and do ice cream and chocolate sauce. It’s really about whether you’re having breakfast or brunch, because everything goes at brunch, right?
So next time you feed your starter, use the discard to make waffles. You’ll be so happy you did.
What You’ll Need
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar
- Salt
- Milk
- Discard from your sourdough starter
- Oil or melted butter
- Toppings!
Making the Waffles
You’ll just need to mix the ingredients up all in one bowl, cover, and let it rise overnight at room temperature. If you usually can’t find room in the fridge for a big bowl, no worries here.
After the batter has rested (anywhere from 6-16 hours) you’re ready to bake the waffles. It should be about doubled in size and have plenty of bubbles on the top – the batter may have already passed its peak for height, but it won’t matter.
Then scoop the batter into a hot waffle iron and bake! Don’t worry if it deflates completely when you start taking batter out, the waffles will still bake up fluffy and delicious.
If you want to keep your finished waffles warm while you finish up, keep them on a cooling rack in the oven at about 200°F (90°C). Keeping them on a rack instead of a baking sheet will keep the outside more crisp.
Substitutions
This recipe is lightly adapted from my (Alex) sourdough spelt waffles, switched to all-purpose flour and other common pantry ingredients. So you can use spelt flour, of course, and coconut sugar, and oat milk. (If you want a vegan recipe, you can just hop over there.)
Otherwise, we don’t recommend a lot of substitutions here. We haven’t tried making them gluten free, of course, because it’s not a GF sourdough starter that we’re using the discard from.
If you want to make the waffles a little more wholesome, you could do up to half whole wheat flour in the mix. If you want to make overnight waffles but don’t have a starter, sub in a teaspoon of dry yeast in place of the starter discard.
Please note that this recipe doesn’t work to make sourdough pancakes. We’ve tried and they’re chewy and not nice. But we’re working on it, and we’ll keep you updated with a pancake recipe soon!
A Note on Waffle Irons
The number of waffles this recipe makes will depend fully on your waffle iron. For the waffles pictured, a small-ish Belgian iron was used. The waffles are about 10cm (4 in.) square each so you can get an idea of how many the recipe might make in your iron.
You know your iron best, so we don’t give instructions on baking the waffles beyond following the instructions for your waffle iron and baking until golden. This varies hugely – depending on if you’re making thin German waffles, or thick Belgian waffles, or those huge round ones like you see in waffle houses. Or whatever kind you have.
No matter what, though, your sourdough waffles will taste fantastic! If you want to feed a large number of people, the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.
More Sourdough Discard Recipes
Sourdough Morning Glory Muffins
Chocolate Chunk Sourdough Cookies
Sourdough Crackers
Sourdough Banana Bread
And here are all of our sourdough recipes – we’re adding to it all the time!
If you make this recipe, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.
Recipe
Sourdough Waffles
Description
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Waffle iron
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
- pastry brush
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups milk
- ¼ cup sourdough discard
- 2 tablespoons melted butter, or oil
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Stir in the milk, discard, and melted butter, mixing until no streaks of flour remain.
- Cover the bowl with a plate or lid and set it aside to rise overnight at room temperature. If your house is inordinately warm – above 20C (68F) or so, you may want to choose a cooler spot to prevent over-proofing.
- The following morning, your batter should have risen significantly and the top should be covered in small bubbles.
- Heat your waffle iron and grease with a bit of butter or oil before baking the waffles as instructed on your iron. They’re done when the outside is lightly golden and crisp.
- Place the baked waffles into a warm 200°F (90°C) oven on a wire rack to keep them warm – and crisp – while you finish the batch.
- Serve warm with any desired toppings. Leftovers freeze well and can be reheated in the toaster.
Liv says
Very excited to try this! I live in Texas and it’s soooo hot, do you think these would be okay rising in the refrigerator overnight? I could give them extra time, but is that too too cold? Thanks!
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Liv, what you can do is let them sit out at room temp for an hour or two and then refrigerate overnight – you should see a good rise doing that! It’s what I do during hot summer weather.