This week’s bake looked a little bit different than my past ones…
While my inquiry has been more geared towards comparing the two starters, caring for them in order to do these comparisons and keep up with the weekly baking has left me with a lot of discarded sourdough starter. I really hate tossing perfectly good ingredients out, so I though it was about time for me to figure out something tasty and fun to do with it!

A quick online search, and a hankering for chocolate, brought me to this fabulous brownie recipe. Using the discard in the place of where some of the flour and liquid would be added, this recipe immediately struck me as doable and delicious – I had to give it a try.

Recipe

Following Izy Hossack’s recipe exactly, I made only slight changes based on the ingredients I had available in my kitchen, which I’ve written in my version below.

  • 120g aquafaba
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
  • 200g sugar
  • 100g vegan butter
  • 150g semi-sweet chocolate
  • 200g AP sourdough discard
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 50g unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 70g flour
  • 30g cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the aquafaba and cream of tartar on high speed until it makes a think, pale foam.
Add in sugar, a few tbsp at a time.
Whisk on high for 5 more minutes, until most of the sugar is dissolved.

Over low heat, warm the vegan butter and chocolate until it’s mostly melted.
Remove from heat and stir until it become a smooth, creamy mixture.
Stir in the sourdough discard and vanilla.

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare an 8×8 baking pan.
Add about 1/4 of the aquafaba mixture into the melted chocolate. Stir until combined.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl of the aquafaba. Add in the rest of the ingredients and very gently fold to combine.
Once everything is combined, pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 mins.

Thoughts

I was honestly pretty unsure how a sourdough brownie would turnout – the thought of a tangy brownie just was not computing in my mind, which was part of the fun of trying this recipe out.
During the mixing process, the sourdough aroma was STRONG – it was giving off a pretty intense sour milk/buttermilk smell, which weirdly worked really nicely with the smell of the warm, melty chocolate.

First impression of the final product: two thumbs up from myself and my husband. The milky, tangy taste was there from the starter, but was more of a side note to the strong flavours of the brownie itself. The balance was great, the texture was fudgy in the middle and slightly crunchy on the top and edges, and the sweetness wasn’t too overpowering (I reduced the sugar).

This was a really fun recipe to make, and a nice change from the usual sourdough recipe process. The starter was added simply for flavour and to reduce waste, as opposed to being a leavening agent, so there were no technical worries, as there usually are when I  try out sourdough recipes.

I also just used my all-purpose starter for this recipe so far, instead of doing two batches as I normally do to compare – I really didn’t need two full trays of brownies in the house all at once! I took note of the flavours of this bake and will compare when I make this recipe next with the whole-wheat starter.

-Megan B.