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5 from 1 vote

Gingerbread Crackers (Sourdough Discard)

Sweet, spicy, and crunchy like a gingerbread version of your favorite graham crackers. Fun for cutting into shapes or gingerbread houses!
Prep Time20 minutes
Course: Snack
Servings: 6 servings
Author: Jenny Prior

Equipment

  • Food Scale
  • Mixing Bowl
  • Spoon
  • Saucepan or Small Pot
  • Rolling Pin
  • Rolling Pizza Cutter or Large Knife
  • Flat Baking Sheet
  • Parchment Paper
  • Cookie cutters, optional

Ingredients

  • 100 g Sourdough Discard
  • 15 g Brown Sugar
  • 30 g Molasses not blackstrap
  • 35 g Unsalted Butter, melted
  • 120 g Flour All-Purpose, Whole Wheat, or a blend
  • 1/2 tsp Ginger ground
  • 1/4 tsp Cinnamon, ground
  • 1/8 tsp Cloves, ground
  • 1/8 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

  • Measure out sourdough discard in a mixing bowl. If using only 100g, go to step 3.
  • Divide total amount of sourdough discard used (if more than 100g) by 100. For example, if using 200g sourdough discard, 200 divided by 100 equals 2. Multiply the other ingredients by the number to increase the recipe in proportion to the amount of sourdough discard used.
  • Melt butter. Let cool before adding.
  • Add molasses and brown sugar to the bowl with sourdough discard. Mix ingredients together.
  • While the butter is cooling, mix the dry ingredients, the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt, together in a separate mixing bowl.
  • Add the cooled butter to the wet ingredients and stir together. (If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.) Then, add the dry mixture.
  • Mix all the ingredients together until a dough forms.
  • The dough can be covered and left to ferment or it can be rolled out and baked right away. Both versions taste great! If you are letting the dough rest and ferment, proceed to step 7 after 1-2 hours (or overnight). I recommend shaping first and covering to ferment.
  • Cut a large piece of parchment paper (about the size of a cookie sheet). Place about a softball size portion of dough on the parchment paper. Roll out evenly until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick.
  • Use a rolling pizza cutter or knife to cut the rough edges off dough so it becomes a large square or rectangle. Scraps can be put aside and rolled into another batch. Cut the large piece of dough into 1-inch strips. Turn the dough and cut the strips into small 2-3 inch long rectangles. (Or cut into other unique shapes, see notes below)
  • Use a fork to poke the rectangles twice.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Bake crackers for 18-24 minutes until they are beginning to harden around edges and tops are matte and not glossy. Don’t overbake, these can go from perfectly baked in just a few minutes.
  • Allow to cool on cookie sheet.
  • Repeat steps 8-12 if there is any remaining dough.

Video

Notes

Ingredient notes: 
  • All-purpose flour will give you a fluffier and crisper cracker. Adding more whole wheat flour will add more flavor, more substance, and may be slightly softer, less crisp.
  • Blackstrap molasses has an inferior flavor and quality. It is more salty and more meant for animal feed. Yikes. So look for regular molasses for great flavor. 
*The dough becomes more stretchy and doesn't hold special shapes as well after fermentation. So if you'd like to ferment your dough for better digestibility AND have special shapes, right after the dough is mixed, roll it on the parchment, cut special shapes then cover with plastic wrap until ready to bake.
*Making unique shapes of sourdough discard gingerbread crackers
After you roll out your dough as described above, use cookie cutters to cut unique shapes all over the rolled out dough. This is perfect for making a gingerbread house or gingerbread men crackers!
Once the rolled out dough is filled with shapes and there's no more room, carefully peel away the dough around the edges to leave the shapes on the parchment. Put excess dough back with the rest of your unshaped dough.
Poke the crackers with a  fork at least twice or get fancy with a skewer to create designs on the crackers. A dot border would look really cute.
Slide the parchment paper of crackers onto a flat baking sheet. Cover them with plastic wrap if you are fermenting them.
Adjust baking time to 16-18 minutes.
Repeat this process until you run out of dough.
See more notes in the body of the recipe blog!