Good day fellow Foodies! Today I will share one of my favourite uses of sourdough starter discard.

Oatmeal Raisin Sourdough Cookies

Scroll to the bottom for recipe

For those not familiar with the process of sourdough, it is a bread that uses a living yeast.

Without going into too much detail, this living yeast is created by mixing flour and water and leaving it in a warm place with a cheese cloth cover.

The cheese cloth allows natural yeast from the air to get into the flour water mixture. Yes, there is yeast all around us and we don't even know it!

Every day you pour some of the mixture in the garbage and add more flour and water.

These steps are repeated until your mixture begins first to bubble, and then the magic happens when your mixture doubles in size all on its own 😀 This is the wonderful moment when it becomes Sourdough Starter!

What is discard?

Sourdough starter needs to be fed with flour and water to stay alive. It's a living yeast remember.

Frequency of feeding depends on how often you bake bread and if you store your starter in the fridge or on your counter.

I feed my starter every day as I bake every day.

Before I feed it I pour some starter out of my container to make way for more flour and water. Most people would throw it in the compost or garbage...however you can absolutely use this discard to make any recipe that uses flour!

Here is my recipe for oatmeal raisin sourdough cookies!

You will need:

Sourdough starter, brown sugar, unsalted butter, eggs, vanilla, flour, salt, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and raisins.

Today I'm using my mixer's baby brother:

Beat unsalted butter until it's pale and fluffy (about 2-4 minutes).

Add sugar and beat for another 2-4 minutes.

Next comes the egg...beat for 1 minute.

Hey hey! My son actually wanted to be in a photo with me 💗 Eggs are wonderful things!

Here comes the star of the show ✨

Add sourdough starter and pure vanilla extract. Beat until incorporated.

Pure vanilla extract will really elevate your baking, trust me, People will notice the difference.

Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl

Combine wet and dry ingredients

Lastly add the raisins...

Voila! I love the consistency of sourdough cookie dough, it makes an ultra moist cookie.

This recipe Will make 45 large cookies!

I wear gloves because it's a very sticky dough.

Bake for 9-12 minutes 😊

They are a very pale colour on top, rest assured they are not undercooked, nice and golden on the bottoms!

Oatmeal Raisin Sourdough Cookies

Makes 45 large cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups brown sugar
• 1 Cup unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 Cups sourdough starter
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Cups flour
• 3 1/2 Cups instant oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 Cups raisins

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Beat unsalted butter for 2-4 minutes
• Add brown sugar and beat for another 2-4 minutes
• Add 1 large egg and Beat for 1 minute
• Add starter and pure vanilla extract, beat until incorporated
• In a separate bowl mix flour, salt, oats, baking soda,
• Add dry ingredients to wet and beat until half incorporated
• Add raisins and finish beating
• Bake large cookies for 9-12 minutes

I hope you try this recipe! Do any of you have a favorite way to use sourdough starter discard? I'd love to hear it.