Recipe Book: Alicia's Sourdough "Apocacrisp" Crackers

Like most of my corner of the internet, I tried my hand at sourdough in the first months of quarantine. I am an excellent cook but for years have been terrified of baking, and had been keeping alive a starter given to me for a baking class. I kept that poor thing alive for YEARS like some kind of hipster tamagochi, barely feeding it once a month and discarding the extra.

We've had weekly cheese nights since March in my house, so I make these often. These crackers are a) super simple and b) even tastier with ripe or even old sour starter, so if you're also a guilty keeper-aliver, just pour off the liquid hootch and any discolored parts—you want clean and runny starter. If you want to just cut your losses, you can use up all your starter, but you might regret it once you taste them. If you're a sourdough pro and already build up/use your sourdough starter regularly, here's another easy discard recipe for your rotation.

Recipe:

• 340g (or about 1 and 1/3 cups) sourdough starter, ripe (if you need to feed it to get it up to 340g, do so and then leave it on the counter until it's bubbled up and back down)

• 60g (a little less than 1/2 cup) olive oil

• 1 tbsp sea salt, plus chunky salt for sprinkling if desired

• 1-2 tbsp other seasonings to taste, mixed in and sprinkled on top (I've used thyme, rosemary, TJ's "everything but the bagel" seasoning, garlic powder, and fancy sea salts)

Directions:

Mix everything up; spread very thinly on a parchment-paper lined sheet pan.

Bake at 325 for 45-60 mins.

Remove and let cool to crisp, break into large chunks. Keeps in an airtight container 1-2 weeks.

Notes:

You may need to break off the brown parts and keep toasting the inside bits until it's done. Every batch ends up a bit different based on how thin the starter is; less oil might make the batter harder to spread.

P.S. I'm trying to avoid going deep in the weeds with advice but I'm a total sourdough nerd and bread baking convert now so feel free to drop questions or your own advice/successes in the comments!