Inspired by these recipes, and overloaded with excess sourdough starter, I decided to make an experimental batch of whole wheat sourdough crackers. I used the first recipe as my template, although I reduced the olive oil by half (a mistake, in retrospect) and added toppings.

My theory was that I would be able to simply substitute starter for an appropriate amount of flour and water. My starter was about a 4:3 ratio of flour to water, so I did some weighing and math (I am a nerd) to find the weight of starter that would contain 1 cup of water and then added the necessary amount of additional flour. This method worked great, and I imagine that after making this a few times, I'd be able to do it by feel, just taking some starter and adding four until the right consistency is reached.

I made two toppings, one of rosemary and black salt, and the other of coarsely ground mixed seeds. I first tried attaching them with just olive oil, but discovered that the egg wash recommended in the second recipe is really the way to make them stick. To cook, I rolled them out thinly and baked them on a pizza tray.

The results? Very tasty, with a sour, nutty flavor that went well with both toppings. I did not pierce the crackers before baking, so they were covered with large, satisfyingly crunchy bubbles.

While the sourdough substitution worked, the recipe could still use a little tweaking; between the bubbles, the crackers were a little too thick and not crunchy enough. I'll be making these again, and refining the recipe. I think next time, in addition to adding more olive oil and rolling more thinly, I will use a regular all-purpose flour starter as the base, and use whole wheat only for the additional flour, aiming for a less dense cracker. I'd also love to try a mix of other flours, like rye.