Frugal Baking

One of the distressing parts of acquiring my sourdough starter was realizing how much food I could potentially waste with it.  The sourdough has to be fed at least once a week (more often if it's not kept in the refrigerator), and the excess discarded.  If the starter is "ripe," this is no problem - I can just make bread.  However, particularly if I've gone an entire week or more between feedings, the discard isn't really suitable for that, so I've been searching the Internet for recipes that are specifically designed to use up sourdough discard.  (The alternative is to throw it out, which just seems terribly wasteful.)  So far my favorite experiments have been King Arthur Flour's caramelized onion sourdough biscuits, and this recipe that I cobbled together from a couple of others:

Cranberry Orange Sourdough Biscuits

2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. orange zest (dried works fine)
1/2 c. cold butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. orange extract
1 tsp. heavy cream
2/3 c. reduced sugar dried cranberries
1 c. sourdough discard

Grease a cookie sheet and preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Using a stand mixer, combine the dry ingredients.  Cut the butter into small chunks and add to the bowl; mix until it's thoroughly cut in.  Add the zest, vanilla, orange extract, and cream; when blended, add the cranberries.  Finally, mix in the sourdough discard to form a soft dough.

Roll out about 1/4" thick on a floured surface and use a 2" round cookie/biscuit cutter.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes about 16.

As the owner of several orange trees, I have all the orange zest I can use.  My next question: with the extra time I'll have in retirement, should I experiment with making my own orange extract?

“I needed a more interesting life.
I could start by learning something.
I could start with the starter.”
― Robin Sloan, Sourdough