Sourdough Cheese Crackers

You will love these addicting Sourdough Cheese Crackers made with whole wheat flour, extra virgin olive oil and they’re deliciously vegan! Keep a jar in the pantry for a savory, crunchy snack!

Vegetarian | Vegan 

I stopped buying boxed cheesy crackers a long time ago. I mean, once you read the ingredients and realize how much saturated fats, sodium and preservatives there are, well, they are just not good for you.

That said…those things are pretty tasty. So, I had to find a way to make them that tasted yummy, but wouldn’t leave me feeling yuk.

In the meantime, I’ve been ridiculously into making sourdough bread. My son inspired this crazy new obsession and I can’t stop experimenting with it! Although the basis of making sourdough is so simple, flour + water, achieving a perfect loaf is complicated. There are endless variations, beliefs and approaches and I’ve been working my way through many of them hoping to figure it all out. Once I do, I’ll certainly share those recipes with you!

If you’re already a sourdough baker and know the agony of tossing out the discard every time you feed your starter, you are going to love, love, love this recipe! This will have you saving it up all week just to make these lovelies!

Instead of tossing your discard, keep it in the fridge. Every day, as you feed your starter, add the discard to your “discard jar” in the fridge. Once you’ve got about 250 grams or more, you can start baking these cheesy crackers!

If you don’t already have a starter and are interested in baking sourdough, there are so many resources available. I gifted Emilie Raffa’s book, “Artisan Sourdough Made Simple” to my son, and he has been baking some delicious bread from it. Emilie also has some great information on her site, The Clever Carrot, that can help you get a starter going today!

Sourdough Cheese Crackers

You will love these addicting Sourdough Cheese Crackers made with whole wheat flour, extra virgin olive oil and they’re deliciously vegan! Keep a jar in the pantry for a savory, crunchy snack!

Vegetarian | Vegan

Ingredients

• 115 grams whole wheat flour
• 5 grams sea salt plus extra for topping
• 250 grams unfed, discarded sourdough starter see Notes
• 45 grams extra virgin olive oil plus more for brushing the tops
• 20 grams nutritional yeast plus extra for topping

Instructions

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour and the sea salt. Add the sourdough starter, olive oil and nutritional yeast. Stir to bring the ingredients together to form a dough. I love using this Danish dough whisk.
• Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a rectangle. Wrap each rectangle in either parchment paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or even overnight.
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 
• Remove just one block of dough from the fridge. Place it on a lightly floured piece of parchment, cut to the size of your baking sheets. Flour your rolling pin and begin rolling the dough out, rotating the sheet of paper with every few rolls. Roll the dough out to about 1/16th of an inch. The edges will be a bit rough…that's fine. Those bits are perfect for testing and snacking. 
• Carefully move the parchment, with the rolled out dough, onto a baking sheet. Brush the top of the dough very lightly with some additional extra virgin olive oil, then lightly sprinkle a bit of coarse sea salt and nutritional yeast on top. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into about 1 1/2 inch crackers. You can do this freehand, or use a ruler to get them nice and square. Either poke a hole into each cracker's center with a wooden skewer or use a fork to prick the tops.
• Repeat the rolling, cutting and poking with the remaining block of dough.
• Bake the crackers for 10 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets and switch them from top to bottom to be sure they bake evenly. Bake them for an additional 10 minutes or more. You'll find that depending on how thick the dough has been rolled, you'll have to adjust baking time to get the perfect crunch. Keep in mind, the crackers will crisp up as they cool.  You want the crackers to get a bit golden brown, but be sure not to burn them.
• Allow the crackers to cool on a cooling rack and get completely crisp before snacking. Store them in a jar in the pantry for up to a week. 

Notes

To build up enough sourdough discard to make crackers like these, keep a jar in the fridge. Every day, as you feed your starter, place any discard in the jar. Once you have about 250 grams or more, you're ready to bake these up!

These measurements are in grams because weighing your ingredients is so much more precise and if you are already into baking sourdough, you are already familiar with that practice. 

Adapted from Sourdough Crackers, King Arthur Flour.

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