Carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap in recent years, but they’re actually an important part of your daily diet, especially if they are healthy carbs from things like whole wheat (as opposed to white bread.) My sourdough discard waffle recipe provides healthy carbs and fiber, is delicious, and is a great way to use your sourdough discard so it doesn’t go to waste.
In an SHTF scenario, where the grocery store is not an option, bread and pancakes and waffles can give you energy, which we’ll all need, because surviving in an off-grid world is going to take a lot more physical labor than most of us are used to. We’d have to grow most or all of our food, which requires a fair amount of work planting, weeding, composting, harvesting, building new garden beds, etc. We’d have to do our own carpentry, dig ditches, build fences, etc. All of that takes energy – which you can get from healthy carbs.
Waffles and carbs in general are also excellent comfort food, and can aid in getting a good night’s sleep. The American Heart Association says that carbs are a part of a healthy diet.
As part of your prepping, it would be a good idea to store up flour, transferring the flour to mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. Buying wheat berries to grind into flour – they last for many years if stored in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers – is a good way to make sure you’ll have flour for years to come.
What Is Sourdough Starter Discard?
When you make sourdough starter, or revive sourdough starter that’s gone dormant, you have to ‘feed’ it with flour and water every 24 hours. (Some people do 12). You have to feed it proportionally – say, 100 grams of starter will need 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water added to it. Then you’d have 300 grams and the next day, you’d have to add 300 grams of water and 300 grams of flour, and that’s just crazy-town.
You will end up with way too much starter, very fast, if you don’t following the discard directions when you make your sourdough starter from scratch. Thererefore, you’re going to need to scoop out a good portion of that starter daily. However, there’s no reason to waste it, especially when you’re trying to be frugal, or the zombies in the front yard mean that a trip to the grocery store is not happening today. Also, Bob at Bob’s Family Grocers is now a zombie, so there’s that.
So when you discard your starter, you’re going to take the extra, and store it in a jar in the fridge or use it right away.
How do you still have a fridge now that 90 percent of the US are now mindless shuffling ghouls? Solar panels. Or you live in a MAG (mutual assistance group) and you’ve rigged up a way to have electricity for your little town/subdivision/fortress.
OR, you can use the sourdough starter right away if you’re completely off grid. There are tons of recipes, including sourdough starter biscuits, sourdough starter pancakes, and so many more ways you can use up your extra sourdough discard!
Enough Talk, Here’s The Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of sourdough starter discard
- 2 cups of whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup of milk or buttermilk
- Six tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- Your favorite topping – maple syrup, fruit, whipped cream, etc.
Equipment
- Bowl
- Measuring cup
- Whisk
- Waffle Iron
- Measuring spoons
Heat up your waffle iron.
Mix up the dry ingredients first, in a bowl – Flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Make a well in the middle, Pour in the melted butter. Crack 2 eggs into the mixture. Pour in the milk and the sourdough discard.
Whisk or stir ingredients until blended. You want it to be the consistency of thick pancake batter.
This also makes excellent pancakes. I just happen to have a passionate love affair with waffles because of their wonderful nooks and crannies.
Pour the waffle mixture into the waffle maker, following the directions from your particular waffle maker for how long to cook them – my waffle maker takes about eight to ten minutes, but different machines may take more or less time.
Take out your waffles and enjoy hot with your favorite topping. And, you can freeze your waffles and store them for later! Again, in this particular fantasy scenario, you and your plucky group of post-apocalyptic survivors have rigged up a way to have power and refrigerators, and every day you get to enjoy delicious sourdough starter waffles.