If you've fed your starter with equal parts flour and water by weight, it's easy to substitute the part of the starter that would be thrown out before feeding for part of the ingredients in any recipe that calls for yeast. Just use the weight recipe amounts rather than the volume amounts. If you are "throwing out" (stirring into a recipe) four ounces of unfed starter, subtract two ounces of liquid and two ounces of flour from the recipe amounts to be added. You may need to cut back on the yeast a little, too. I do this with yeast recipes routinely, since I couldn't possibly discard my much-loved starter. Also, we filter our water with a Brita carafe and that eliminates the chlorine.
Great tip - I often use the "discard" in bread, just as you say. Also use it in any recipe calling for flour/liquid, where the liquid can be water; I sometimes use it in cake, pancakes, muffins... PJH
April 6, 2012 at 6:58am